In the same sense leftness is not real, time is not real.
Objectively, the universe has no 'now' (versus 'then') in the same way it has no left side (versus right side).
Einstein showed that the difference between space and time is as much an illusion as the difference between left and right. Change your speed or direction and suddenly what was once space becomes time (or vice versa), what was once future becomes past (or vice versa), and what was once left becomes right (or vice versa).
The illusions/appearance of leftness, hereness, & nowness emerge from subjectivity (a.k.a. 'consciousnesses', or 'subjective experiences', or 'conscious presences'), with each instance of such subjectivity/consciousness having its own left, right, here, now, and present.
Even terms like "the present" are in and of themselves misleading at best if not inherently nonsense. Such illusions and/or emergent appearances are by definition not singular or definite. There is no "the present" nor "the past" nor "the left" nor "the right". Insofar as there are consciousnesses (i.e. conscious presents), then each has its own corresponding unique relative subjective present, and its own relative subjective emergent leftness, etc.
Insofar as there are countless or even infinite consciousnesses scattered in the otherwise timeless eternal 4D spacetime, there are countless infinite presents in 4D spacetime. There is no 'the present' or 'the past' nor 'the left', but rather there are infinite relative subjective emergent presents, pasts, lefts and rights all existing together as part of the eternal timeless whole that is holistic reality. There is no singular special 'the present' that exists as some special piece or slice of the whole universe, but rather the universe as a whole is revealed as a patchwork of countless and presumably infinite presents. The temporal-based dualism that would seem to separate present from non-present does not really exist, but is rather analogous to an optical illusion, emerging from a distorted and inherently subjective perspective.
How consciousness fits into it is perhaps best explored and explained by my book, "In It Together: The Beautiful Struggle Uniting Us All". As explained in the book, you, meaning the real you (i.e. 'consciousness' or 'conscious presence' itself), are what makes the now now and makes the here here. Without you, there is no now, there is no here, there is no present, and there is no time. And, yet, most interesting the real you and the real I are (as shown in the book) one and the same.
What it means for the simpler narrower area of objective physics (i.e. when excluding conscious subjectivity from the description of fundamental reality) is perhaps best explored and explained in the following three forum topics:
- Would Flat-Land Four-Eyed Freddy Notice a Difference?
- Objective Leftness and Rightness Do Not Exist
- Neither time, time-ness, unconscious here-ness, unconscious now-ness, nor any unconscious presence exist.
^ Please do read and reply to each of the above three forum topics, preferably in the order listed. I look forward to discussing these interesting issues with you.
The book is available for purchase from all major book retailers in both ebook and hardcover format.
