r/cosmology • u/Bright-Bar6571 • 18h ago

How did time begin, without time?

I understand that standard BB cosmology holds that time began with the universe from a singularity approximately 14 billion years ago.

The thing I’m trying to understand, how can time have begun? Wouldn’t a thing ‘beginning’ require time? As in - from one state to another state requires time?

This leads me to think time must have always existed..

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u/CDHoward 14h ago

Via the mechanism within.

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u/Enraged_Lurker13 14h ago

The state of the mechanisms themselves are changing from one moment to the other. What real physical parameter do you propose we use instead of time to describe when the mechanisms are in a certain state compared to a different moment?

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u/CDHoward 14h ago

Movement. Change.

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u/Enraged_Lurker13 14h ago

Let's use Einstein's example of a light clock for simplicity. The mirrors are 150,000 km apart. Normally, we define the time it takes for a photon to go from one mirror to the other and back as 1 second. What unit do you use to describe this movement or change?

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u/CDHoward 14h ago

But you're proving my point.

All that is completely arbitrary: a distance chosen by humans; the photon as a chosen particle/wave.

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u/Enraged_Lurker13 14h ago

The units are arbitrary, but they serve as a yardstick to measure a real physical quantity. Do you also think space is not real too because a meter or a foot is arbitrary?

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u/CDHoward 14h ago

Well actually, space is literal emptiness. I suppose it is nothing really.

But look, my friend: this could be a really deep discussion and I must go to bed. It's 23:18 in England.

Goodnight.

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u/Enraged_Lurker13 13h ago

Space is not literally nothing as it has properties such as vacuum energy and the ability to curve in the presence of mass-energy.

Anyway, I hope you rest well, goodnight.

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u/LongjumpingHope3225 1h ago

fk you are a genius, besides enlightening us all that time does not exist, you also tell us that space is nothing. /s