Time... This paradox is based on the perception of time as a separate dimension. But in reality, time is not a dimension. It is one of the concepts invented by humans to simplify the perception and understanding of the world.
To simplify life, people began to count repeating cycles—days, years, periods of the day—and measure the flow of their lives with these cycles. Then it became necessary to count smaller periods, breaking large ones into smaller ones—hours, minutes, seconds.
But what are these basic cycles of time measurement? Correct—they are ratios of speeds. For example, the length of a day depends on the Earth's rotation speed around its axis. A year—365 days—is a measurement of the Earth's orbit around the Sun using the Earth's rotation around its axis as the unit of measurement.
Later, time measurement was based on a standard—the oscillations of cesium-133 atoms: 1 second equals 9,192,631,770 oscillations of the microwave radiation required for the transition between two energy levels of a cesium-133 atom. That is, this speed was taken as the standard.
To reiterate: what is called "time" is a ratio of speeds. One speed is taken as the standard, and all other speeds are measured against it.
What is aging? It is internal processes in the body. And they do not depend on the oscillation speed of cesium atoms. Their speed is simply measured in relation to the speed of these oscillations.
To the point: the fact that a body will move at the speed of light will not affect the speed of internal processes in the body. That is, both twins will age at the same rate—the one who stayed on Earth and the one traveling at the speed of light. After all, the speed of processes in the body does not depend on the speed of the body's movement in space.
To simplify: a train is moving at a speed of 100 km/h. A person is walking inside the train at a speed of 3 km/h. If the train accelerates to 300 km/h, the person's speed inside the train will remain the same—3 km/h. And this speed will be the same as that of the same person walking in a car standing at the platform.
Now, about the misconception on which Einstein's Paradox is based and what happens in reality.
People perceive the world through vision. Vision is based on the perception of light. When we look at distant stars and galaxies, we see them as they were many years ago, because light travels at only 300,000 km/h. Thus, if we move away from Earth at a speed higher than the speed of light and look at Earth, we will see Earth's past. This does not mean we will travel into the past. It means that due to distance and the limited speed of light, we will be in the same position relative to Earth as we are now relative to stars and distant galaxies.
At the same time, for people remaining on Earth, we will be "moving into the future" and "aging more slowly," as our image will reach them with a delay, just like the image of distant stars and galaxies. For example, if we send them our photographs, they will receive them with a significant delay. From their point of view, we will be aging more slowly than they are. But this illusion arises only because they receive our image with a delay. In reality, we continue to age at the same rate. If we find a means of communication that allows information exchange faster than the speed of light, we can confirm this.
This is the essence of the misconception of Einstein's paradox. If you can understand this, it means your brain is functioning well. If not, well, live with the belief in time travel and that time is a separate dimension.
In the next article, we will discuss why it is impossible to change the past.
© Evgeny Lenov, 19.03.2025
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