What kind of time for a Time Machine?

¹ Conservatorio Statale di Musica «Girolamo Frescobaldi», Largo Antonioni 1, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
² ITD-CNR and IASF-INAF, Via Ugo La Malfa 153, 90146, Palermo, Italy

Published online: 5 September 2013

Abstract

The linear, unstructured, parameter t used in the equations of mechanics, in spite of its great aptness in describing the nature’s laws, does not fit with the unidirectional flow of time t_ssubjectively experienced by humans, just the investigators of nature. Being t_s the main foundation upon which we build our knowledge of nature through our continuous and inescapable reciprocal interaction – the possible key factor of our cerebral modulation, mediator between us and the world –, its objective essence appears to be inevitably destined to remain unveiled. We derive that any imagined and theoretically possible Time Machine, aimed to get us in our past or in our future allowing us to act there, does not have any practical grounds if it is built by using the illusory, impersonal, time, modeled by the parameter t, at the place of our interpersonal lived time t_s. A real, humanly-tuned, Time Machine could perhaps arise by integrating t_sin the body of a new kind of rationality – a ‘complex thought’ – where empiricism and logic-mathematic are harmonized with participation and interaction. Ongoing joint research in neurophysiology and physics (without neglecting any important contribution coming from anthropology) will surely help achieving such a goal.