The Planck length. The smallest imaginable division in space. Light is enigmatic, consisting of photons; particles that even when fired individually and with great time between each, still behave in a wave-like fashion, interfering with each other through time.

The Planck time is the amount of time it takes light to travel one Planck length. So obviously the Planck time is exceptionally short. If light travels in a vacuum at one Planck length per Planck time, then on the Planck time scale, we and most other physical beings must appear to travel exceptionally slowly, appearing to remain completely static for long periods while building up enough energy to move even the smallest possible distance.

Special relativity teaches us that there is no single frame of reference. There is no static point in the universe from where all other points are moving relative to it, because it is conversely moving in relation to everything else. Could it be that there is one single time reference frame? At the Planck timescale in a given location, does the whole universe of physical matter appear to have stopped moving, and advances slowly forward with this miniscule tick tock? Maybe not so if we remember that as an object approaches light speed, it ages more slowly.

But wait, if there is no one true frame of reference, how does the universe know which object to age more quickly than the other? Maybe it is more to do with the use of energy to build momentum and overcome inertia. Perhaps to truly have no momentum with respect to a true frame of reference (if there were one) would mean exceptionally fast aging, and immediate cessation of existence. Perhaps that is why even if there were a true frame of reference, no one would be able to find it. Maybe this is where all the missing socks go.

Consider that the greater the use of energy to gain momentum and overcome inertia, the slower you age. The universe would then know which of two bodies should age slower, because one of them has required more energy to accelerate with respect to the other. The amount of energy on the Planck scale required for any object to move from one position to the next must seem enormous. Consider how much energy is required to move the entire universe from one configuration to the next. Maybe that is why the universe is so old with respect to us.

What is the point though, of aging more slowly with respect to anyone else, if time still seems to travel at the same rate in your own perspective? Maybe one of the true lessons in life is that using energy to overcome inertia (being more active) has a small age-slowing effect, but that time flies when you’re having fun. So if you want your life to feel like it is longer, while actually being longer, then you should spend huge amounts of energy on doing boring things. Like reading stuff like this while jogging on a treadmill.

You’re welcome.