Note to those in the various fields of Physics: You must read the entire paper. The language and style may seem contradictive from a mathematical standpoint in the early paragraphs. The paper is designed for a general audience.

Time is perhaps the most enviable component in existence. It enjoys tremendous freedom, credibility and best of all, a wide range of definition. Within this generous range it wears many faces and nothing to date has pinned it down and thus made it reveal its one true face and definition. Within the concise confines of this paper we will sort through the many faces of time and isolate its single identity. Since time wears multiple faces and infiltrates so many facets of our existence we need a context in which its freedom is limited and we can observe it continually. Hopefully through constant observation we can prevent it from changing faces and once again confusing its definition. The context we will use is the widely accepted models of Special and General Relativity.

General wisdom states that the best place to begin a search or anything for that matter is at the beginning, so that is where we will begin or at least get as close as we can to the beginning. The big bang description of the early universe and its subsequent evolution was formulated primarily through the models of Relativity and although there is debate regarding some of the details, the general premise of its construction is widely accepted. When we visually conceptualize the evolution of the Big Bang model we see the initial state of the universe expanding and it continues to expand ever larger and larger. The component that fuels this expansion is energy and the component that is expanded is space. Due to the relationship of energy and mass, matter is produced within the expanding space and from the moment the smallest unit of matter is produced it is continually in motion. It is in motion simply because it was born in motion and in one very real sense, of motion. This activity is the concise definition of the universe. It is a single event which has contained within it multiple constituents.

It is critical to understand that the primary cornerstone of our intellectual models must always illuminate this simple fact: The universe is one single continuing event and this event continues to be powered by the energy that was present in the initial state in one form or another. At any point along this continuing event an observer can witness the results of the relationship between energy, matter and space and also the subsequent relationships that are produced from this primary relationship. The visual result of these relationships at this point of its evolution is the beautiful universe that we experience everyday.

There is a conspicuous absence in the basic component list of the universe and the component that seems to be missing is time. What role does time play in the construction of the universe? The simple and somewhat disturbing answer is; time does not play any role. It is not required in any way shape or form to facilitate the continuing event that is our universe. Energy alone powers this event. When we conceptualize the expansion and evolution of the universe we tend to say that the universe cooled to a certain temperature in x amount of time or the Strong and Weak Nuclear forces became evident at a certain time. However the correct terminology is that these things occurred not at a certain point in time but rather at a certain point along the event of the universe. Nothing can happen in time simply because time does not exist as a component of the universe. It is an impossibility to construct a physical system in which we need this exotic, nonexistent component called time to assist in any way in facilitating its operation. We tend to magically couple time with energy and make them co-movers of the universe or couple time with space and make them co-containers of the universe.

By applying Occum’s Razor we quickly eliminate the time component simply because it is not needed. Energy does not need any help with its duties and neither does space. We can conceptually eliminate the time component simply because it is not detectable in any way shape or form. It simply does not exist.

Here we have a conundrum; what is this multi-faceted thing we call time? For something that doesn’t exist, it’s done quite well for itself. It’s in every text book on the planet. It’s in every scientific model on the planet including our Relativity models. What exactly is this intruder?

The conception of a component of time is due to four things:

1. Humans have a continually updating memory system.

2. Humans have a conceptual space in which we can continually review this flowing memory system.

3. We are participants and not exterior observers of the universe.

4. We widely misinterpret how this nonexistent component is measured.

The first three are locked in a very close relationship. We can illustrate their contribution to our illusion of time with a model. We have all seen a lottery ball machine. Typically they are encased in glass and have several balls flying around due to multiple air jets. Like our universe there is no state of rest in the system and the balls are flying around at different and varying rates of motion. We are able to follow the motion of the balls because our continually updating memory system is in relative motion with the balls. If it wasn’t continually updating at least at the rate the balls are moving, the motion of the balls would not be fluid but rather sketchy, like a video playing on a computer screen with insufficient processing power. As an exterior observer of the lottery machine we can measure an interval of motion of one of the balls. The only way we can measure this interval of motion is with another interval of motion, a clock of some description. When we apply this measurement we easily understand a couple of things. First we understand that the energy produced by the air jets is all that is responsible for the motion of the balls, nothing else is involved. Secondly we understand that the interval of motion we have measured is simply a statement of how much faster or slower it is in relation to the rate of motion ticked off by our measuring device. All is motion. At this stage of our illustration we haven’t coupled time with the air energy moving the balls around, or the glass case which encases them. The only point we would have used the word time is when we applied the measurement with our clock.

Now let’s go inside the case and place ourselves on one of the balls just as we are on our ball, we call the earth. Time now starts popping up in all kinds of places. Our memory system that is in relative motion with the earth and most everything on it and around it, records a fluid observational history that we review in stepped pace. The reviewing space in our minds has spatial dimension, in fact it is three dimensional just like the real tangible universe we are observing. While observing the real world around us our memory system marches those observations through our conceptual reviewing space and we not only “see” the leading edge, which we are experiencing at the moment, we “see” a succession of leading edge moments. Because this history is imprinted within our reviewing space we tend to think it is imprinted in the real universe as well. We forget that we are participants in the single continuing event, which does not contain a component called time. Our bodies and the earth on which we reside are powered by a portion of the energy that was present at the initial state of the universe. When and only when, that energy is completely exhausted does the event stop. There is no component called time that ends before, with or after that cessation, simply because it does not exist. When we turn the energy of the lottery machine off the system ceases.

Time is a continuous measurement we make from the present “leading edge” moment to a memory moment. Time only exists in the reviewing space of our minds. Time is a system of measurement we as humans do not choose to use but are rather forced to use. It is impossible for a conscious human not to continually measure its existence. If you were to sit in a completely dark room and block all sensory input, you are still forced to measure. Each beat of your heart, each breath, and each passing thought does not escape the continually updating memory system in relative motion with them. It is no wonder we have insisted for so long that there is an actual component of the universe called time.

The methods we use to measure this nonexistent component add to the confusion as well. The conceptual models of Isaac Newton considered time as an absolute unchangeable component of the universe. Contained within this absolute time component were all past points in time and they were just as real as the present moment. Given this definition, a person could travel back to past points in a time component because the past points still existed. It didn’t matter and still doesn’t for most people, that devising transportation to the past points is problematic, the important thing was and is, the past points in a time component actually exist. The “place” where they exist is generally referred to as the fourth dimension. As we have discussed, the universe does not need and indeed does not contain this fourth dimension. There is no “place or dimension” in the universe in which the past is contained. It is impossible to travel to a place or dimension that doesn’t exist. Remember, the universe is a single continuing event that is always going in a “forward” direction. The activity of anything, including us, within this event no matter your local directional perspective, is a part of this overall “forward” motion event.

Where does the past exist? Answer: The human mind.

Time, the fourth dimension does not exist in the universe in any way shape or form. It is critical that be begin to understand that the universe operates in a very certain manner with very certain components. Furthermore, it operates in this manner whether the human mind is there to observe and record its operation or not. The conceptual information generated by the human mind CANNOT be forced into the operational machinery of the universe. The processing power of the human mind has increased to a point to where we can begin to be more mature. We can begin to differentiate our interpretations (models) of the universal system in which we participate from the actual system itself. We must be mature enough to know that we can “do” things in our conceptual models that we can’t do in the actual system. Furthermore, we can make the system within our conceptual models “do” things it can’t do in reality. When we don’t clearly understand this fact, confusion can arise when we make our observations and measurements to “prove” our conceptual models. The confusion is born from the fact that we are making the measurements and we can construct false conceptual models that can match our measurements because we make them.

Albert Einstein in his Relativity models still considered time as a component of the universe but reduced it to a subordinate component. Let’s briefly examine why.

As we have already discussed there is no state of rest in the universe. Everything is in motion whether riding along as a passenger or the transporting body. When we came along and wanted to measure everything in sight we began to construct measuring devices. We tend to call these devices clocks and they are nothing more than motion devices. The particular rate of their motion has no meaning and doesn’t matter in any way shape or form. What does matter is that the rate is consistent. If the clock stops, speeds up or slows down it is a very poor measuring device. For the most part we have calibrated our clocks and calendars to the spin and orbital period of the earth but that rate of motion has no meaning either. In fact there is no rate of motion in the universe that has any particular meaning or preferential status. In a universe where absolutely everything is in motion there is not any one single rate of motion that has written on it “I am the rate of motion that is constant, never changes, or is affected by anything. All other rates of motion must be measured against mine in order to know their value”. Einstein endeavored to solve this problem by stating that the speed of light in a vacuum is the special rate, it is the one with the writing on it. Furthermore, he stated that the speed of light has one other special property, it doesn’t submit to composition of velocities like everything else in the universe does. In other words, its speed cannot be increased by increasing the speed of the body that is emitting the light.

By stating that the speed of light is the benchmark of the universe, Einstein concluded that in order for the mathematics to match actual physical observations and measurements, space and time has to be malleable. This malleability manifests itself in a mathematical construct known as spacetime. The conceptual model of spacetime is the curvature of space produced by the presence of matter which is the new definition of gravitation and acceleration. In order to get the mathematics to work out he needed a modifier in both the time and the space component. These are respectively, time dilation and length contraction. Time is said to be affected by gravitation and acceleration so that it slows down or speeds up. Furthermore with the mathematics of spacetime, Relativity states that time can be traveled in certain ways where there is extreme gravitational curvature. If you have understood this paper up to this point you are now beginning to detect a problem. If there is no time component in the universe then it certainly can’t be dilated or manipulated in any way.

What is the only thing that can be affected by anything else in the universe? Yes! you are correct; its motion. Motion is certainly affected by what we currently understand as gravity and acceleration. Space is also affected but we will get to the reason why a little later. Time and the fourth dimension are definitely not affected simply because it does not exist.

There is a distinct problem regarding pinpoint accuracy when discerning motion. Consider the speed of light; that speed was measured by another rate of motion. We have gradually built better clocks by matching one against the other but at the end of the day there is a measure of uncertainty involved. For example, if the speed of light is the benchmark; we can never fully know it with infinite precision simply because that precision is determined by another rate of motion. The only other alternative is to measure light with light which tells us nothing. This uncertainty is small but it can become a problem at the extremes. At extremely high rates of motion, extremely long distances, extremely low rates of motion, and extremely short distances, there is an inherent uncertainty regarding measurements made with any construct of the human mind. To fully understand this you must follow the evolution of clock construction from totally synthetic devises to natural rates of motion such as light. As we match one against the other to get ever more consistent rates we finally get down to one that has beaten the thousands of others out, but its rate still has no meaning. We then decide that the speed of light is the special rate which we have measured with our beautiful, end of the long line clock. In reality, the speed of light is not the benchmark but rather the benchmark is our clock simply because light’s speed value was determined by the clock. We assign meaning and endow rates of motion with a certain mathematical value with the only tool we have available to us, the human mind. As our clocks evolved from totally synthetic constructs to natural rates such as the cesium clock we “carry” a degree of uncertainty through the process. We decrease the uncertainty through refinement but it remains simply because the current “value” is determined and is relative to the last. We can’t destroy the uncertainty by stating at a late point in the process that a certain natural rate is perfectly consistent in all frames simply because we can’t prove that value.

It is simply a product of not knowing at the beginning of a search exactly what the benchmark is. We have to establish a benchmark through a series of refinements and at the end of that line of refinement is simply the best we have at that point. Everything we measure with that “best clock” is subject to its accuracy. Therefore, within our conceptual models and subsequent measurements there is, by definition, a degree of uncertainty simply because WE the interpreter had to establish a value. We cannot be “one” with the real system; we are limited to observing it. The small “distance” that keeps us from being “one” with the real universe is equal to the uncertainty just described.

When we participate vicariously in the physical world through mathematics we must be continually aware that we are not in locked step with it, especially at the extremes. We are constrained to be cautious regarding the values we assign and the subsequent interpretations that we make. The smallest degree of uncertainty can produce divergence from the straight line of the natural universe.

Our clocks measure motion and absolutely nothing else. If a clock were present in a completely void universe the only thing it would be is the motion of that universe. It would not be measuring anything. Its motion would continue until the energy which fuels it is exhausted.

Time, oh Time thou ardent deceiver; why hath thou deceived us for so long? Your freedom is now taken from you. Thou are now trapped forever in the dungeon of our minds. Your daily bread will be definition and your drink the bitterness of uncertainty. Torture us no more.

Where does the subtraction of a time component leave our models of Relativity? It deals a substantial blow conceptually but only a minor blow mathematically. This is because the mathematics of the model equates the time component with energy in certain ways but it’s an uneasy coupling and the translation is never fully completed. The four vector relationship then made with three dimensional space becomes dominant. This relationship defines the properties of space throughout the equations. Three dimensional space is a primary component locked in a close relationship with energy/matter but the Relativity model has limited it. Every scientist at this point in the evolution of the universe knows one thing for absolute certain: The physical universe completely utilizes every aspect of all of its components. There are a small finite number of base components in the universe and to get the complexity we witness at this point, nature has to max out the duties of each one to the absolute limit. In other words, if we have a base primary component in our model that is sitting there doing very little we know for certain the model is dead in the water. The primary component of three dimensional space in the Relativity models is very lazy and ill defined.

As one might expect; if there is one nonexistent (ill defined) component in a model there is likely another. The other nonexistent component is a product of false relationships. Gravity is not one of the fundamental forces and in fact does not exist at all. Its assumed existence is a product of our ignorance regarding the space component.

It is important to remember that nonexistent components and false relationships can survive the progression from one model to the next but as our observational perspective becomes more encompassing the new models become more complex in order to continue to compensate for them. When a model becomes to inflated, confusion and stagnation is the result along with a tendency to build satellite models based on partially false premises. This is exactly where we now stand with our Relativity and Quantum models.

My revised model of Relativity, Composite Relativity is the product of severely trimming the existing one with Occum’s Razor and correcting false relationships. A product of correcting false relationships is the seamless flow from the sub-atomic scale to the universe at its largest scale. The current gulf between Quantum Theory and Relativity disappears quickly when nonexistent components and their subsequent false relationships are removed and corrected.

The revised model is due to be published mid to late 2010 and is simply a closer match to the actual universe than the current model, as the current model was to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /?>Newton’s model. It is very important to remember that the new model could not exist without the old one before it. The process reflects progression not replacement.