A Matter of Time

Ellis

Did Einstein go too far with his theory of relativity? And, maybe more relevantly, can a cogent scientific theory be based on personal beliefs? For South African cosmologist George Ellis, the answer to both those questions is an emphatic Yes. And life itself is the proof, he says, though he admits, “I wouldn’t say I think it’s all tied together yet.” Ellis had one major objection to Einstein's theory, and that was that it implied that the future is set, which, essentially, cuts free will ~ and, consequently, accountability ~ out of the picture. His dissatisfaction could be traced back to his early years as the child of outspoken opponents of apartheid. So the adult Ellis, with some help from quantum mechanics, reworked Einstein's theory, keeping relativity and four-dimensional space-time but reeling in the boundary between present and future so that instead of being projected into infinity, it moves just ahead of the present. In this way, says Ellis, “Tomorrow there will be one more day in the universe than there was today,” and it doesn't already exist: http://discovermagazine.com/2015/june/18-tomorrow-never-was