Also, if time does exist, doesn’t there have to be a definable beginning or end? Otherwise it’s just infinity which to me suggests the absense of time.
I partially read “The Discoverers” by Daniel Boorstin several years ago and he discussed how different societies conceptualized of time and how they kept time. And it has had me wondering ever since. Then I started exploring Zen Buddhism which emphasizes the present moment as the only tangible reality, along with the illusion of the ego, which only furthered my questioning.
EDIT – I am aware that the concept of time is based on the revolution of the Earth and it’s moon. However, that is just how humans conceive of time. That’s not proof of time itself.
EDIT 2 – The explanation of timespace and relativity is the best from an objective point of view. No matter how much I read or watch, it was always a bit hard to grasp but it makes sense in terms of change or entropy. The reality of time being flexible vs the human perception of time being linear and unchangeable gets closer to what I am asking.
EDIT 3 – “Exist” is a tricky word.
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A bit of a trick question, because you framed it using the words ‘real’ and ‘tangible’, which are not in a 5 year old’s lexicon.
My shot at a ***not***-quantum-physics answer:
“**Real tangible things**” are generally how humans refer to matter. Stuff. Something made out of atoms (or smaller particles).
Some things are real but not tangible.
Phenomena of various types, such as the laws of physics –
* such as time,
* such as matter pulling at other matter (gravity)
These ***are*** real – meaning they are not just in human perception. We can observe and measure them on instruments, and we’re pretty certain they remain that way even when humans are no longer around. If you abandon an island or a moon base, and come back 10 years later, you will find evidence that the laws of physics kept working while you were not there.
To our best knowledge these apply everywhere in the universe – but these phenomena, these rules of physics, are ***not tangible***. You can’t touch or pick up gravity (remembering this is not the quantum physics answer), or time, or the phenomena of day and night that results from a bunch of atoms and photons behaving according to the laws of physics.
Time and gravity are not matter, they are not ***stuff***. They are ***human words*** that describe ***how matter behaves***.
In the case of time, time is simply a way humans describe a medium in which matter can (but doesn’t have to) change. In fewer words but using a word we’d need to explain to a 5 year old, time is a dimension (where our ability to move is restricted to just one direction and to a set speed).
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