In hopes of a better time.

I have heard the phrase “Time is our biggest enemy” quite a number of times throughout my adulthood. Until very recently, I myself too stoutly held the same grounds. Until I came to realize, time is just time. It is nothing but an unstoppable force of nature with no mind of its own. But instead, It is we who curse at it when things do not go right. But simply, it is what it is. Let me put out some food for thought. If we were to say peace is equilibrium, then must not it be that the sum total of all good that happens must be the sum total of everything bad? For every act of good, there must be an equal amount of evil that must take place. For you to be happy, someone else needs to be sad somewhere else on this planet. The irony of it is stupendous.

Not so long ago, I almost had a discourse with someone who believes himself to be a logician through and through. I do not doubt the lofty ability of his logical reasoning, and I also sensed a big inflated ego accompanying that ability. Hence I nipped the topic in the bud, and also I realized my own knowledge and understanding are very limited. What we were talking about is how individual reality could be different as it is interpretive. But he was adamant that reality is objective and there are no if or buts to it. Is it completely true though?

The question of reality is highly a metaphysical one. Reality can truly and completely be objective if we, the beings with cognitive abilities, have observed it truly and completely. From the beginning to end and also all of its properties. It is of no doubt that the true reality is one and uniform. But the questions we have about it are not. As the science of it still has some miles to progress through, it can not be completely objective. The observed part may be, but the rest of it is still highly interpretive. And that is where chaos begins.

Reality by definition is the aggregate of all proponents in a system, more simply, what's real or existent. But what is real? There is a very interesting thought experiment done by the famous physicist Eugene Wagner who took Schrodinger's cat to another level. In this experiment, there are two observers in play. One is Wigner himself, and the other one is his friend. In an imagined lab, Wigner's friend is measuring the position of a polarized photon in a closed system. Before observing, the photon can be at any of the two positions, 0/1. Throughout the time the experiment runs, Wigner's friend observes and measures the position and records it. From afar, Wigner does the same, but with his friend. He observes while knowing well that his friend is doing the measurement, but he does not know exactly when he is performing the measurement. So to Wigner, the whole lab as a system can hold a superposition.

It is not until he asks his friend about the result, he cannot be completely sure. Until measured, the superposition remains intact. So the question Wigner asked is that, for his friend, the superposition collapsed as soon as the measurement was taken. And Wigner himself becomes sure when he asks his friend about the result. In that case, when exactly does the superposition of the lab itself collapses? Right when the measurement is observed by himself, or his friend?

Because of this, Wigner presented a very simple argument. As long as the system includes a being with cognitive ability, the process of it all can not be linear. Both realities, even if contradicting, can exist at the same time making the time evolution/progression through time of the superpositions, not to be linear.

There are actual physical experiments that were done on this concept using quantum computers. The outcome held true to Wigner's observation. And that in part theoretically makes the true reality, not the social reality we interpret using metaphysics, sociology, or philosophy, not completely objective. There are many no-go theorems and opposing, almost equally valid arguments, but just to think about all of this in itself is quite fascinating isn't it?

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The only thing we can be sure to exist is our own mind as we are aware of it. The doctrine is called solipsism. And it raises the question of whether our body affects our mind or in reverse. Reality observed through experience makes it subjective, or maybe however we observe it, it's completely objective. My take on it is that both might be true.

_{Art generated with Midjourney AI}