Does Time Exist?

Schrödinger’s cat* can be expanded to Schrödinger’s universe.  In fact, we could well reason that the universe is, in fact, a rather large probability distribution of entities. Even the smallest probabilities are a part of this – such as those of the cat’s wave equation.  Simplify this notion by asking, “If there is a universe and nobody observes it, does it exist as we observe it?” The simple answer is no, but the deeper answer is this implies time may not exist. 

Time may well be an observational illusion of a particular path within this distribution. The path creates its own physics of its unique universe, with the common factor being gravity between them all. This becomes the particular universe observed by us with the path creating its own dimension of time. Bottom line: Time a path-wise artifact. 

It is difficult to unshackle thinking from process and therefore from time. 

* From Wikipedia: Schrödinger's cat: a cat, a flask of poison, and a radioactive source are placed in a sealed box. If an internal monitor (e.g. Geiger counter) detects radioactivity (i.e. a single atom decaying), the flask is shattered, releasing the poison, which kills the cat. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Yet, when one looks in the box, one sees the cat either alive or dead not both alive and dead. This poses the question of when exactly quantum superposition ends and reality collapses into one possibility or the other.

Also, check out Schrödinger’s Universe by Milo Wolff, Outskirts Press, 2008.