ElI5: What Einstein meant by “the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion”.

Question

ElI5: What Einstein meant by “the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion”.

In: 1101

Answer 1

In special relativity, time and therefore simultaneity is also relative. The order of events is observer dependant. An event that I would say happened in the past looks to be a future event in someone else’s reference frame.

Therefore future and past are subjective notions, not actual physical distinctions.