The Origin of Time, Space, Etc.

Is time eternal? Or is it finite? If time is eternal, then an infinite amount of time has passed. Thus, there will be no future. If there is a future, then there is more time left. Thus, an infinite amount of time has not passed. Time is then finite; it had a beginning.

So how did time begin? For that matter, how did the universe begin? Where did energy, matter and space come from? Did something come from nothing? If we decide that nothing caused something, what does that mean? It could mean that time, space, etc. arose from the great void and black abyss of nothingness, or it could mean that these things always existed--and were, therefore, caused by nothing; i.e., had no cause.

Is your head spinning yet?

Let's assume, for starters, that time had a beginning, where time (t) equaled zero. The equation below reveals something interesting. To have zero time requires infinite energy:

Unfortunately our universe does not have infinite energy. Furthermore, it's a non-sequitur that there would be any energy if there was no time. Energy can't exist for any period of time without time.

There's also Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle to consider.

As you can see, if time was ever zero, the Uncertainty Principle was violated. Without time, there was clearly no momentum or motion. Today we have momentum, so momentum was not always conserved. If nothing existed (if and when there was no time) then the current energy and mass were not always conserved either. Then again, why would any laws of physics exist in the "great nothing abyss"?

If time was at zero the challenge before us is to figure out how everything emerged out of nothing. If we start with nothing, the concept of "cause and effect" is useless. We're back to the nothing-caused-something paradox discussed above.

If we start with something, "cause and effect" remains intact, but if we regress far enough into the past, we find nothing again--or we have the infinite-time paradox (also discussed above).

We must also consider relativity. Photons, for example, experience zero time, so zero time is possible if there is another reference frame where time progresses. The equations below show that time (t') can be zero as long as time (t) is greater than zero. The syntax t'/t means time (t') per time (t)--e.g. zero time (t') lasted for a period of time (t) seconds.

In the beginning there was no time for a period of zero seconds. In other words, a state of no time can't exist without time. Yet there was a beginning? A big bang? What caused it? Well, nothing. If something caused it, then we are not at the beginning. We need to move back in time another step or more.

There are several theorists who have proposed various models that allegedly explain how time, space and everything else emerged. But their models consist of shapes, objects, dimensions and other devices that are all functions of time and space. Their reasoning is circular. A geometric object can't cause time or space, since the geometric object requires time and space (and the imagination of the physicist who created it) to exist.

What if time is both eternal and finite? Relativity suggests this could be the case. We know that as the universe expands, its energy density decreases and its time rate increases. If we reverse the process, go back in time, the rate of time would decrease. It would slow to a crawl as we get closer and closer to the beginning.

Imagine you're wearing a watch that gives the time (t') illustrated above. If you start at the beginning and wait approximately 13.8 billion years, you experience the entire span of time. For you, the total time is finite.

Now imagine you're wearing a watch that gives the time (t). Recall the concept of the limit you find in elementary calculus texts. Imagine taking a string and cutting it in half, then cutting one of the halves in half. Repeat this process an infinite number of times. You find you get closer and closer to a zero length, but you never reach it.

Time (t) is an eternity, since a full 6.9 billion years passes for every fraction of that time (t')--and there are an infinite number of those fractions of (t').

So here's the scoop: Whether time is finite or eternal depends on which time you are looking at. Historical time (t') gives us a finite amount of time. But if we use current time (t), the universe's beginning was an infinite number of years ago. We can say that momentum and energy have always been conserved. We can say Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is eternal. We can say these things because the beginning of time is a limit that can never be reached. Yet, we have a future because time (t') is finite. So go ahead and eat the cake because we can have it too.

So what about space? Why did space expand? Well, I think it had no choice:

You see, space (x) is light speed (c) times time (t). If time grows, so must space. The first equation above shows what would happen if this were not the case. If time (t) grew and space (x) did not, energy would not be conserved and light speed would be less than c.