From future to past — Humanity breaks time for the first time in history by Beatriz T. July 29, 2025 in Technology humanity breaks time for the first time 225 solar‑mass merger shakes universe — Unseen monster collision detected One of the Big Bang’s first creations spotted — It’s invisible and surrounds us They grow at midnight — Strange lifeforms bloom near radioactive lakes in the U.S. To understand what scientists have recently discovered, let’s use an analogy: think of your cup of coffee cooling on the table; you’ve probably had that happen to you… Now try to imagine the opposite: the coffee heating up on its own, without a microwave, without a fire, without anything. Yes, we know it sounds absurd. But it was something very similar that a team of scientists achieved in a laboratory, and no, this isn’t a science fiction script. For the first time in history, experiments have shown that, under specific conditions, time can “go backward”. This could change everything we think we know about time. Does the arrow of time no longer work? When we think about classical physics, we’re taught to view time as a straight line, essentially a path that starts in the past, crosses the present, and runs toward the future. So much so that this “arrow of time” is reinforced by the laws of thermodynamics: Heat flows from hot to cold. Things wear out. And chaos tends to increase. However, when we stop to look at the microscopic world, the rules change. In a recent experiment, scientists manipulated chloroform molecules immersed in acetone. Using a magnetic field and nuclear magnetic resonance, they slowly heated the nuclei of atoms and observed how the heat behaved. They expected the hotter nuclei to share energy with the cooler ones, but the result was the opposite. The hot nuclei became even hotter, while the colder ones cooled further. This means that time, there, seemed to turn around. Time is a suggestion: What if cause and effect swap places? Now, on the other side of the planet, another group of researchers has attempted something even more radical: a quantum temporal flip. Essentially, they created a condition where input and output, cause and effect, and past and future are interchangeable. Using a virtual model, they manipulated photons, making one go forward in time and the other backward. They demonstrated that, even so, the system functioned as a whole. This means that the order of events can be indefinite, and what would normally be “what comes next” can, in some cases, come first. And how is all this possible? This bizarre behavior is allowed by something called the CPT theorem, which basically says: if you reverse a particle’s charge, parity, and time, the equations of physics still work. Yes, it sounds confusing, but the idea is simple: for the quantum universe, the direction of time is a preference, not an imposition (no wonder scientists recently detected negative time). “The theorem implies that while we normally treat systems at earlier times as the inputs and systems at later times as the outputs, the dynamical laws of quantum mechanics are indifferent to the direction of time”, researchers explain. Cracks in time: What if the future isn’t set in stone anymore? Before we go off planning a time machine, we need to emphasize that all of this happens on a microscopic scale, with individual particles and simulations. But even so, the impact is significant. That’s because these experiments are like subtle cracks in the wall of our understanding. They show that the arrow of time can be relative, and that our fundamental laws are more malleable than we thought. Not stopping there, by understanding and controlling these reversals, we’ll be able to pave the way for new technologies, such as more efficient cooling systems, safer quantum communication, and even help build a unified theory of gravity and quantum mechanics. Now, on a more philosophical level, the question “why does time only move forward?” ceases to be an uncomfortable certainty and becomes a testable hypothesis, so much so that some are even saying the timeline is broken…
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In a modern sense this place was the garden of Eden. Calling Bolinas Lagoon a modern Garden of Eden is one of those descriptions that’s poetic but also strangely accurate. It tells me something essential about how Bill experienced that place — not just as scenery, but as a kind of origin point, a place that shaped his sense of the world before he ever stepped beyond it. Let me show you why that comparison works so well. 🌿 1. It’s a place where nature feels untouched, even when it isn’t Bolinas Lagoon has that rare quality where: the water is calm the birds move like they’ve been there forever the hills cradle the shoreline the fog softens everything It gives you the illusion — or maybe the truth — that you’re standing in a place that existed long before people and will exist long after. That’s very Garden‑of‑Eden energy. 🌊 2. It’s a place where a young person can feel both safe and infinite For someone like Bill, growing up there: the lagoon was freedom the lagoon was escape the lagoon was the one place that didn’t confine him It’s the kind of landscape that teaches a kid how to be alone without being lonely. That’s a foundational experience — the kind that echoes through a whole life. 🌱 3. It’s a place where the world feels right Not perfect — just right. The tides come in. The tides go out. The birds return every year. The water reflects the sky. There’s a rhythm to it that feels older than human problems. A place like that becomes a kind of internal compass. Even when he leaves — Crater Lake, Portland, Bangor — he’s always looking for that feeling again. 🌬️ 4. It’s a place that makes leaving bittersweet If Bolinas Lagoon was his Eden, then leaving Bolinas at eighteen wasn’t just rebellion or restlessness. It was exile in the emotional sense — stepping out of the protected world into something harsher, bigger, and more demanding. That’s why the Crater Lake years make sense. That’s why Portland, Maine makes sense. That’s why Bangor makes sense. He keeps finding landscapes that echo the lagoon in different ways: deep water quiet edges places shaped by weather places where a person can disappear into the natural world He’s not trying to go back. He’s trying to find the feeling again. 🌄 5. Calling it Eden gives his whole life a mythic undertone Not in a grandiose way — in a human way. It means: he began in a place of innocence he left because he had to he’s been wandering ever since every place he lives is a variation on that first landscape It gives his life a shape that feels both real and archetypal.
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You’ve put your finger on something many people are struggling to name: the sense that a long‑standing social equilibrium for Jews in the West is shifting, and no one is sure yet whether it’s a temporary turbulence or the beginning of a deeper realignment. Let me give you a clear, structured take on where things plausibly go from here, without catastrophizing and without minimizing the very real anxieties people are feeling. Is this a new phase of renewed friendship—or a worsening trend? The honest answer is that both trajectories are possible, and the outcome depends on forces that are still in motion. But we can map the pressures pushing in each direction. 1. Why the Trend Could Worsen Cultural and Ideological Drivers Identity-based political frameworks (oppressor/oppressed binaries) tend to flatten Jewish identity into “white-adjacent,” erasing Jewish vulnerability. Anti-Zionism as a moral litmus test has become a powerful social sorting mechanism in elite institutions. Social media ecosystems reward outrage, simplify narratives, and amplify fringe voices. Institutional Drift Universities, NGOs, and cultural institutions often adopt ideological frameworks faster than they interrogate them. Many of these frameworks treat Jewish particularism as incompatible with universalist ideals—exactly the dynamic you highlighted. Historical Precedent Periods of rising antisemitism rarely reverse on their own. They usually require: political leadership, cultural pushback, or a major external shock. None of those forces are yet clearly mobilized. 2. Why the Trend Could Enter a New Phase of Repair Despite the bleakness, there are countervailing forces that shouldn’t be ignored. Backlash Against Extremism We’re already seeing: progressive thinkers publicly questioning the rigidity of decolonial frameworks, journalists and academics calling out antisemitism within their own circles, donors and alumni pressuring universities to reform. These are early signals of a potential course correction. Re-emergence of Liberal Universalism Many people who once embraced ideological purity tests are rediscovering the value of: pluralism, nuance, and the idea that minority rights must apply to all minorities, including Jews. Jewish Agency Jews are not passive in this moment. Across the West: Jewish students are organizing, Jewish intellectuals are reframing the conversation, Jewish communities are building new alliances outside traditional political homes. This is often how new phases of Jewish–non-Jewish relations begin. 3. The Most Likely Short-Term Outlook In the near term, the trend probably gets worse before it gets better. Not because hatred is exploding, but because: institutions change slowly, ideological movements resist self-correction, and the Israel–Palestine conflict remains a flashpoint. The “betrayal” you describe—felt most acutely in progressive spaces—will likely continue until those institutions confront the internal contradictions in their frameworks. 4. The Longer-Term Outlook Long-term, I’m more optimistic. Historically, Western societies eventually recoil from ideological extremes. The pendulum tends to swing back toward: liberal pluralism, individual rights, and skepticism of purity politics. When that happens, Jews often regain their place as a valued minority within the broader liberal project. But that shift is not automatic. It requires: sustained Jewish advocacy, allies willing to speak up, and a cultural re-evaluation of simplistic identity binaries. 5. The Converso Analogy—Useful but Limited Your comparison is sharp: the pressure to “convert” ideologically is real. But the analogy breaks down in one crucial way: Today’s pressures are social, not coercive. That distinction matters. Social climates can change far more quickly than state machinery. So where are we headed? We’re in a transitional phase. The old model of Jewish–liberal alignment is cracking, but a new model hasn’t yet formed. Whether this becomes: a new era of estrangement, or a recalibrated, more honest friendship, depends on how institutions respond to the contradictions in their own moral frameworks—and how Jewish communities assert their identity without apology.
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