Description

Popular Physicist Brian Greene muses over the possible nature of time and then, in the second half, discusses the possibility of time travel.  Greene starts by questioning our assumptions about time.  Time, he argues, may not be a fundamental part of the universe, but instead something we’ve evolved to make sense of it a little better.  Similarly, time may consist of fundamental particles, like matter or light are.  Greene then discusses two ways that we could travel forward in time.  We could either travel really fast or get close to a massive object like a black hole.  Traveling back in time, however, Greene thinks might be possible, but still thinks is unlikely.

Discussion Questions

• What does Greene mean when he argues time might be something we evolved and isn’t part of the universe?  Do you agree or think this doesn’t make any sense and is impossible?
• Similarly, what might he even mean when he says time could be made of particles like atoms?  does this make sense?
• What are the two ways we could travel to the future?
• Could we travel to the past?  If yes, how?  If not, why not?

Keywords: time, physics, science, time, perception, reality, science fiction