In this article, I will talk about reversing time. When I say reversing time, of course, I am not talking about traveling to a certain time in the past. I'm talking about moving backward in time, just like playing a video backward. So when everyone else is going straight, you're going opposite, or vice versa, while you’re going straight everyone else is going opposite. If you've watched Tenet, you're more or less familiar with the subject. And yes, you may encounter spoilers, as I will mention a lot of Tenet in this article, let me warn you from the beginning.
Reversing time is explained in Tenet by reversing the entropy. If you ask about entropy, its source comes from the laws of Thermodynamics. The laws of thermodynamics describe the relationship between thermal energy, heat, and other forms of energy, and the effects of energy on matter. According to the first law of thermodynamics, energy comes into existence and cannot be destroyed. The second law of thermodynamics states that an amount is lost as energy is transferred. It also says that any system always tends to become disordered and the entropy of a closed system will always increase over time.
In short, according to the second law of thermodynamics, our universe, which has expanded since the big bang, becomes increasingly disordered, and its entropy increases. Since everything in the universe also tends to become increasingly disordered, entropy is thought to show us the direction of the flow of time. The direction of the flow of time was expressed by the British physicist Arthur Eddington in 1927 as the "time arrow". This arrow shows that time flows in one direction, and in practice, it is not possible to go back in the arrow of time, that is, to return disorder to order. We cannot turn back time, just as a broken and shattered glass cannot return to the state it was before it was broken, or a broken egg cannot regain its original form, just as an aging person cannot become young again. So for now…
Although living things can decrease entropy locally, they will always increase the total entropy of the universe. Since the total entropy increases, we can only reverse time by lowering the entropy of a closed system. Within this system, from our point of view, entropy will always be positive. In other words, even though we seem to be moving backward according to our environment, we will be moving forward according to our point of view. Of course, this is the theory part... Well, what do scientists do in the practical part?
Researchers from America and Russia have managed to bend this arrow a bit for subatomic particles. When researchers activated a single particle with the help of a quantum computer, the wave function of the particle spread over time like a ripple in the water. They then wrote an algorithm in a quantum computer that would reverse the direction of time for each particle, that is, return the wave emitted from the particle back to the particle. And by doing this without increasing entropy or creating disorder anywhere in the universe, they almost challenged the arrow of time.
Although this experiment has been carried out with subatomic particles, for now, it has actually provided some proof that it can reach larger sizes after a while. So what we need is a computer programmed to reverse the entropy emanating from us.
Okay, let's say we managed to do this in macro dimensions and we reverted ourselves… What will happen next? First of all, one of the things you should pay attention to is that fire can no longer burn you. You ask why? Since the heat will flow in reverse, it will freeze you rather than burn you. So again, it harms in a way, there is no escape from it. Beware of. And then there is the oxygen problem. If you have watched the movie, you must have seen that our heroes use oxygen masks in the inverted universe. Why would it be?
All particles have an antiparticle. These antiparticles have basically the same property but opposite charge. In Tenet, the person who goes through a kind of time machine that reverses time moves in a backward flowing universe made of anti-matter. In other words, that person's particles are inverted and become anti-matter moving backward. Now that it is an anti-body, the respiratory system will also work in reverse, and instead of inhaling oxygen and giving out carbon dioxide, it will breathe anti-carbon dioxide and give anti-oxygen. For this reason, our inverted heroes have to use an oxygen mask with inverted oxygen. Then, when we go back in time, let's not forget to take our oxygen cylinder with us. Otherwise, the consequences will be fatal.
Another interesting aspect of Tenet is the link between the past and the future. As mentioned in almost every time travel movie, we cannot think of the past independently of the future. Even if you went to the past and showed only one appearance, if there is someone who witnessed that moment, it will have always existed as a memory of the past. So if someone claims to have seen you in a place you've never been to in the past, don't immediately say that they confused you with someone else. Maybe you can travel in time and come back to the moment and place that the person said.
So, how does this bond between the past and the future occur, and how does science explain it?
Mirror universes…
I guess you have heard the name of parallel universes a lot. You know, there are infinite universes that are formed at the same time and are independent of each other… Mirror universes look like this. This time, the universes are the same, but with opposite times flow to each other. According to the Janus Cosmological Model, the universe consists of two mirror universes. This model says that the two universes may have come into existence with opposing time arrows in the big bang. With this cosmological model, we can explain the connection of future events on Tenet with events in the reverse universe.
So when we find a way to reverse the entropy in macro dimensions, as explained in the movie, it seems like we can walk backward in the timeline. What would it be like to watch what's going on around you like watching a rewind video? Would you like to try it? If you could turn back time for a short time, what would you do first?
Resources
https://observer.com/2020/09/tenet-time-inversion-meaning-christopher-nolan/#:~:text=In%20Tenet%2C%20the%20ability%20to,world%20is%20moving%20in%20reverse
https://www.livescience.com/65000-quantum-computer-turns-back-time.html
https://www.livescience.com/50941-second-law-thermodynamics.html
https://medium.com/predict/the-physics-behind-tenet-time-894e3ef1dc5
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