Time, that tyrant that obsesses us with its clocks, anniversaries, atomic clocks, and productivity apps, may not exist as we conceive it. A new study published in Symmetry, the journal of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, proposes a provocative thesis: time is not a dimension in itself, but an illusion emerging from the geometry of space. A consequence, not a cause, as it were.
The research—led by mathematical physicist Ishan Sharma of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur—is based on a detailed analysis of symmetry in the universe. For physicists, symmetries are not merely aesthetic matters: they are signs of deep laws governing the cosmos. In that context, Sharma and his team have proposed that time is a derived dimension, caused by the interaction of at least three hidden spatial dimensions that, together, generate what we perceive as past, present, and future.
Or, for the more uninitiated: time is a mirage. A projection. A mathematical consequence of something larger and more fundamental that we can’t see… yet.
The idea isn’t entirely new. Physicists like Julian Barbour, Carlo Rovelli, and Lee Smolin have been questioning the linearity of time for years. But Sharma goes a step further: he proposes that what we experience as a temporal flow is an emergent property of the way the universe folds upon itself. Thus, time as a dimension would not be on par with space, as we’ve been taught since Einstein, but subordinate to it.
The key lies in the so-called “internal symmetries” of particles and their interactions. If the universe is best described in terms of high-order spatial symmetries, then time is simply what manifests when those symmetries are broken.
What we understand as the “arrow of time,” that inevitable forward path that drags us mercilessly, could be merely a subjective interpretation of the human brain, accustomed to measuring entropy and change, but unable to see the totality of space.
And what does this mean for us mortals?
Nothing, and at the same time, everything.
For the average citizen, these theories will seem like metaphysical juggling without immediate practical application. But as has happened many times in the history of science, what is speculation today may tomorrow be technology, quantum therapy, or a new religion. It already happened with electromagnetism, relativity, or quantum mechanics. All of them began as academic absurdities.
Furthermore, this vision redefines who we are: if time is an illusion, then the past is not gone and the future already exists. Every moment is “there,” somewhere in this multidimensional space. It is not a line: it is a volume. An eternal geometric present. Or, as Borges would say, an Aleph.
The most intriguing thing about Sharma’s proposal is not its audacity, but its philosophical resonance. From Heraclitus to Heidegger, to Augustine of Hippo, thinkers have racked their brains trying to understand what time is. Now, theoretical physics seems to be approaching one of the most disturbing conclusions: that time, as we perceive it, simply doesn’t exist.
As Sharma sums it up: “If we understand space correctly, time emerges as a useful illusion, but not as a fundamental ingredient of the universe.”
Maybe the universe isn’t moving. Maybe it’s us who can’t stand still.
Time as Deception: When Space Decides to Lie to Us
We all want to know what time it is, but no one can explain what time is. Clocks, chronometers, electronic diaries, atomic clocks, Mayan calendars, and Google Calendar: all measuring something that perhaps doesn’t exist. Or worse, something that exists only because we can’t see beyond it.
A recent study published in the journal Symmetry, from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (yes, the one where physicists play god with particles), has just shattered one of the most established pillars of human perception: time as an autonomous dimension.
The central thesis, authored by Indian physicist Ishan Sharma and his team, is as devastating as it is elegant: time is not a dimension, but an emergent property of space. A consequence, not a cause. Or, to put it brutally clearly: time is a well-crafted illusion.
Sharma’s proposal is straightforward: there are at least three hidden spatial dimensions that, when interacting in a certain way, give rise to the subjective experience of time. In other words, what we believe to be “present” is nothing more than a phenomenon generated in space when certain symmetries are broken. Past, present, and future would be different ways of looking at the same geometric volume from different angles.
In physical terms: time does not “flow.” In philosophical terms: Heraclitus’s river is a pond in disguise.
These kinds of ideas are called emergent because they do not exist on their own, but rather as a result of other, deeper dynamics. This is how consciousness works in the brain or color in light: they emerge. According to this line of thought, time is what space does when no one is looking at it.
Relativistic physicists already knew that time is suspicious. Einstein placed it on an equal footing with space (the famous fourth dimension of “spacetime”), and quantum mechanics has long treated it as a technical encumbrance. What Sharma proposes is to take this inconvenience to its ultimate consequences: erasing time as an autonomous entity and relegating it to a secondary effect.
Julian Barbour had already anticipated this with his idea of the “timeless universe,” or Carlo Rovelli with his approach to quantum gravitation. What Sharma does is put mathematical language to this philosophical intuition: if the symmetries of the universe are rich enough, then time is what appears when we fail to read them properly.
In other words, time is our topological ignorance.
In everyday practice, this theory changes nothing. We will continue to grow old, running after deadlines, complaining about Mondays and crying on Sundays. But if it’s true, it changes everything on the ontological level: we no longer live in a universe that “moves,” but in one that is.
History doesn’t advance: it’s written, folded in space, like a book someone is reading out of order.
“There is no ‘now.’ There are many ‘theres,’” Sharma writes in his article. And he says this without poetry, but with equations. The linearity of time—the one we use to think about history, death, the future, and even taxes—would be merely a biological limitation of our consciousness.
Welcome to the eternal present (without you)
The most fascinating and terrifying thing about this idea is that it nullifies the subject as the center of experience. Time doesn’t “pass”: one moves through a network of relationships that already exist. The future doesn’t “arrive”: it was always there. It’s us who didn’t know how to find it.
This theory doesn’t take away our free will, but it does call it into question. If time is an emergent construct, then our decisions could be merely ways of navigating an already existing structure. Like Google Maps, but without the option to “avoid highways.”
Perhaps time never existed. Perhaps we were educated in a useful illusion so that human beings don’t lose their minds in the multidimensional chaos. Perhaps death is just a change of coordinate. Perhaps the future has already passed. Perhaps, as the mystics suspected, God doesn’t have a clock.
But don’t worry. As long as we don’t understand the geometry of deep space, we’ll continue to live in this theater of clocks called life.
So yes: you were late. But it doesn’t matter. You were already here.
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