Criticism of the space-time sausage.

Ruslan A. Sharipov

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The concept of space-time arose in the early 20th century in connection with Einstein's theory of relativity. It is a combination of three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time, which had previously been considered separately, into one four-dimensional continuum. We cannot depict a four-dimensional continuum graphically. Therefore we reduce the three-dimensional space to the two-dimensional space and reserve the third dimension for to image the time. As a result we get the following picture.

The horizontal planes on the picture symbolize the states of the universe at different instants in time during its evolution. In fact, they are three-dimensional and there are not two of them, but infinitely many. They fill the entire four-dimensional space-time.

Instead of considering the entire universe, we can limit ourselves to some part of it. For example, the globe. Then we get the following picture.

The vertical cylindrical structure along the time axis resembles a sausage. I like to call it the space-time sausage. The entire history of planet Earth fits into this sausage.

The main question related to the space-time is formulated as follows.

Is the four-dimensional space-time a physical continuum? Or is it just a product of our mind — a mathematical abstraction to which nothing corresponds in reality?

This question is not usually voiced in Einstein's theory of relativity. In this theory, the default choice is made in favor of the fact that the space-time is a physical continuum. From this choice it follows that the space-time sausage containing the entire history of the Earth is a physical object. It contains in its original form the cloud of gas and dust, the primary hot Earth, the first oceans with the first bacteria, and dinosaurs, and mammoths with saber-toothed tigers. Moreover, the space-time sausage contains our entire future, which has not yet arrived.

Since the past does not disappear, being preserved in the space-time sausage, and since the future is predetermined and already formed in the space-time sausage, in Einstein's theory of relativity there is the potential for time travel back to the past and forward to the future. Although the mechanism of such movements is not spelled out, they are very popular in the science fiction genre. But neither in Einstein’s time nor now there were and there are no experimental demonstrations of time travel. Therefore, the position that space-time is a physical continuum is an UNPROVED AND DISPUTED POINT in the foundations of Einstein’s theory of relativity.