The Photon Empire

Light, it's one of my favorite things.

I have such a weird mind. I came across something on the internet about photons the other day. I went through a chat with an AI about it. I keep thinking about it the way men think about the Roman Empire all the time.¹

Due to relativity, time does not exist for a photon. If you watch science fiction movies, you probably know that as you travel closer to the speed of light, perceived time slows down. This is called time dilation. Well photons are at the speed of light, which means there is no time for a photon.

This feels profound but it's very difficult to understand in the usual sense. Like what does it imply, that time isn't real, or that it's an illusion? I know physicists sometimes say things like that and I think I can see why.

Like we can measure a photon being emitted, and measure when it is received. It travels at the speed of light in a straight line in a vacuum and in the absence of gravity until it reaches its destination. We measure it traveling at a rate of a distance over a time span.

Now I'm going to personify the photon, because that's what you do when you don't understand something. From the photon's point of view, it came into existence all along the path from where it was emitted to the destination. Since there is no time, there was no traveling. It simply existed as a ray in a timeless instant². I guess stretched along the entire distance?

That's weird. It makes you think either time is fake, or distance is fake, or at least they are illusions.

I think that's how people get to believing the universe is a hologram or that we live in a simulation.

Anyway I don't have a conclusion, I just keep thinking about this.

Footnotes

1 It's a meme. I couldn't find the original but here's an example.  I don't know if I think about the Roman Empire every day but I do think about it quite a bit.

2 Photons can also be thought of and observed as waves. More weirdness.