Abstract

About "now", I agree with Pat that the idea of "the present now" is pretty incomprehensible within the "standard" picture, where one just adds a fourth dimension to the three spatial dimensions. This simple addition of time to the spatial dimensions is sometimes called the spatialization of time, and although Einstein himself generally avoided making ontological commitments he is sometimes credited with believing that this mathematical step is somehow closely connected to ontology. I think this attribution is merely on the basis of a letter of condolence to the widow of a colleague: the letter suggested that "now" was an illusion