NOW OR NEVER: After Everyone Explains It
Episode Two - The universe doesn't use the word "now". We do.
In the previous episode, Takkan asked a deceptively simple question:
“What’s happening in Andromeda right now?”
The answer proved far less straightforward than it first appeared.
This week, the conversation turns to relativity, not to challenge Einstein, but to ask a different question entirely.
Khajji switched off the wall display.
The observatory became darker.
Only the stars remained.
“I’ve been wondering something.”
Takkan looked over.
Khajji smiled.
“Why you’ve been avoiding the obvious.”
“The obvious?”
“Relativity.”
Takkan laughed quietly.
“I wasn’t avoiding it.”
“You’ve spent nearly an hour walking around it.”
“I suppose I have.”
Khajji pulled another chair beside the window.
“Sit.”
Takkan did.
For a while neither of them spoke.
Then Khajji asked,
“What do you know about simultaneity?”
Takkan shrugged.
“Enough.”
“Meaning?”
“I know two observers moving differently don’t always agree about distant events.”
Khajji nodded.
“And?”
“They assign different times.”
“And?”
Takkan smiled.
“I feel like I’m sitting an exam.”
Khajji laughed.
“Humour me.”
Takkan thought for a moment.
“They compare clocks differently.”
“They define simultaneity differently.”
“They transform coordinates.”
Khajji nodded.
“Good.”
“So where’s the problem?”
Takkan looked down at the cold mug in his hands.
“I don’t think there is one.”
Khajji frowned.
“There isn’t?”
“No.”
The older physicist looked genuinely puzzled.
“I thought that’s what we’d been discussing.”
Takkan shook his head.
“No.”
“I’ve never argued against coordinate systems.”
Khajji leaned back.
“No?”
“They’re practical.”
“They have to exist.”
He pointed towards the docking bays below.
“If two ships arrive...”
“...someone has to know where they are.”
“Someone has to know when.”
Khajji smiled.
“Exactly.”
Takkan continued.
“If I want to describe where I am...”
“...I need a frame.”
“If I want to compare my measurements with yours...”
“...I need another.”
Khajji nodded slowly.
“So?”
Takkan looked towards the stars.
“I don’t think relativity went wrong there.”
Silence.
Khajji looked almost relieved.
“Good.”
“Because it didn’t.”
Takkan laughed.
“I wasn’t trying to rewrite Einstein before breakfast.”
Khajji smiled.
“I’m glad.”
Another silence.
Then Takkan spoke again.
“My question starts afterwards.”
Khajji folded his arms.
“After what?”
“After we’ve assigned the coordinates.”
The smile faded from Khajji’s face.
“What do you mean?”
Takkan rubbed the side of the mug with his thumb.
“I’ve been trying to explain this...”
“...and I keep failing.”
“Try anyway.”
Takkan nodded.
“When I write...”
He pointed towards the dark display.
“...‘Event A happened at these coordinates.’”
“I’ve described something.”
“Yes.”
“I haven’t changed it.”
“No.”
“I haven’t created anything.”
“No.”
“I’ve only related it...”
“...to me.”
Khajji nodded.
“Yes.”
Takkan looked up.
“So why...”
He hesitated.
“...does it sometimes feel as though...”
“...we begin treating those descriptions...”
“...as though they’re the thing itself?”
Khajji didn’t answer immediately.
Instead he asked,
“Can you give me an example?”
Takkan looked back towards Andromeda.
“The phrase...”
“‘Everyone has their own now.’”
Khajji smiled.
“That’s a common way to explain relativity.”
“I know.”
Takkan answered.
“But every time I hear it...”
“...I wonder...”
He searched for the words.
“...what exactly belongs to them?”
Khajji frowned.
“Their frame.”
“Yes.”
“Their coordinate system.”
“Yes.”
“Their assignment of simultaneous events.”
“Yes.”
Takkan nodded after every answer.
Then he asked quietly,
“But does ‘now’ belong to the frame...”
“...or does the frame belong to our description of ‘now’?”
Neither spoke.
The question lingered between them.
Finally Khajji stood.
He walked slowly towards the window.
“When I first learned relativity...”
“...I never asked that.”
Takkan smiled.
“I didn’t either.”
“So why now?”
Takkan looked out into the darkness.
“I think...”
He paused.
“...because somewhere along the way...”
“...I stopped asking...”
“‘How do we describe the universe?’”
He looked at Khajji.
“And started asking...”
“‘What gives us the right to describe it that way?’”
Khajji remained silent.
Outside, Andromeda shone with the same ancient light it always had.
It offered no answers.
Only distance.
Khajji remained by the window.
He watched the stars for a while before speaking.
“You’ve spent the whole morning questioning one word.”
Takkan looked over.
“‘Now.’”
Takkan smiled.
“I suppose I have.”
Khajji turned.
“Then forget relativity for a moment.”
Takkan looked surprised.
“Forget Einstein.”
“Forget coordinates.”
“Forget moving observers.”
He pulled another chair closer.
“Just tell me...”
“...what do you think ‘now’ is?”
Takkan opened his mouth.
Nothing came.
Khajji waited.
After nearly a minute Takkan laughed quietly.
“I don’t know.”
“I believe you.”
Khajji answered.
“But you must have something.”
Takkan rubbed his forehead.
“I keep thinking...”
He stopped.
“No.”
“What?”
“It sounds wrong.”
“Say it anyway.”
Takkan looked back at Andromeda.
“I don’t think ‘now’ is something.”
Khajji remained silent.
“I think...”
“...it’s where we happen to be.”
Khajji frowned.
“Spatially?”
“No.”
Takkan shook his head.
“Experientially.”
The word surprised even him.
Khajji noticed.
“You’ve never used that word before.”
“I know.”
“I’m not sure I like it.”
“Why?”
“Because it sounds as though experience creates reality.”
Khajji nodded.
“And you don’t believe that.”
“No.”
Takkan answered immediately.
“Reality doesn’t wait for me.”
Silence.
Takkan continued more slowly.
“But my ‘now’ does.”
Khajji leaned forward.
“Explain.”
Takkan stared into his coffee.
“I can only call something ‘now’...”
“...once it reaches me.”
Khajji thought for a moment.
“You mean information.”
Takkan looked up.
“Maybe.”
“Or interaction.”
“Or...”
He shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
Khajji smiled.
“That’s three different ideas.”
“I know.”
“They’re all tangled.”
Another silence.
Khajji broke it.
“What if nobody existed?”
Takkan looked puzzled.
“No observers.”
“No astronomers.”
“No stations.”
“No people.”
He gestured towards Andromeda.
“Would it still have a present?”
Takkan answered without hesitation.
“Of course.”
“So ‘now’ doesn’t depend on us.”
“No.”
Khajji nodded.
“Good.”
Takkan smiled.
“I never thought it did.”
Khajji folded his arms.
“So what’s the problem?”
Takkan stood.
He walked back to the glass.
“I think...”
“...we quietly borrow Andromeda’s present...”
“...and pretend it became ours.”
Khajji frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Takkan pointed through the window.
“If someone lived there...”
“...they could honestly say...”
“‘This is happening now.’”
Khajji nodded.
“Yes.”
“I can’t.”
“No.”
“I can imagine it.”
“Yes.”
“I can calculate it.”
“Yes.”
“I can assign coordinates to it.”
“Yes.”
Takkan lowered his hand.
“But I can’t honestly say...”
“‘I know what’s happening there now.’”
Khajji became thoughtful.
“No.”
“You can’t.”
The observatory became quiet again.
Outside, nothing announced itself.
Nothing declared,
“I am present.”
Takkan smiled faintly.
“That’s strange.”
“What is?”
“We’re the ones using the word.”
“The universe never does.”
Khajji laughed.
“I’ve never heard a galaxy complain about grammar.”
Takkan laughed too.
“No.”
“But we’ve spent centuries arguing about a word...”
“...that stars never learned.”
Khajji walked slowly towards him.
“You know...”
“I still think relativity has an answer.”
Takkan nodded.
“I know.”
“But I’m beginning to think...”
“...I’ve been asking the wrong question.”
Khajji looked curious.
“What question?”
Takkan looked at the distant galaxy.
“I kept asking...”
“‘What’s happening there now?’”
He shook his head.
“I should have been asking...”
“...‘What allows me to use the word "now" at all?’”
Khajji didn’t answer.
Instead he looked through the glass himself.
For the first time that morning,
he wasn’t looking at Andromeda.
He was thinking about language.
After a while he spoke.
“There is a thought experiment.”
Takkan smiled.
“I knew we’d get there.”
Khajji smiled back.
“No.”
“I think this time...”
“...you’re ready for it.”
Takkan looked at him.
“The Andromeda paradox?”
Khajji nodded.
“Not because it answers your question.”
He paused.
“But because it asks a different one.”
A question for you
What do you think the word “now” actually refers to?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments before we explore the Andromeda paradox in the next episode.
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