Could Space-Time Not Exist? Physics Describes It as a Useful Map, But Not as a Tangible Reality.
For just over a century now, space-time has become an undeniable protagonist in physics. Under this view, it is not just matter and energy that determine the behavior of the universe, but rather the curvature of space-time that forces objects to move along specific paths. An elegant, powerful… and profoundly intuitive idea.
However, some scientists suggest that, in reality, what we call space-time may be nothing more than a mathematical map that organizes events, without any inherent substance, much like a map is not the city it represents.
Events that do not exist but occur
A chair exists: it occupies a place and persists through time. An event, however – an eclipse, a heartbeat, an encounter – does not “exist” as a material thing, but rather happens and fades away.
If we follow this line of reasoning, space-time would not exist as a physical entity either. It would simply be the conceptual framework we use to relate those events. Treating it as a real “thing” is, according to this view, a fundamental error that leads to paradoxes and confusion, such as those associated with time travel.
The map and the territory
Imagine a car moving along a road. That line is useful, but no one believes it exists as an object. It is a description, not the reality itself. Space-time would function in the same way: a 4D model that explains the relationship between events, but not a cosmic fabric that curves and deforms on its own.
This approach does not invalidate physics, but rather reconsiders the language in which we express it.
A philosophical provocation
The consequences are more philosophical than purely practical. If space-time is just a mathematical construction, then the universe would not be a block where past, present, and future exist simultaneously, but rather a flow of events that occur in the real world.
Objects exist; events happen. That seemingly simple difference changes how we think about reality. Perhaps, like the ancient celestial sphere that once guided us,
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