Throughout human history, a certain class of questions has been asked repeatedly for millennia.

  • What is time?
  • Does life have meaning?
  • Must we fear death?
  • Do we truly have free will?
  • Where do good and evil come from?

These questions have long been categorized under “philosophy” or “metaphysics,” shrouded in layers of myth, religion, metaphor, and strong emotion.

But today, with the advancements in physics, neuroscience, and information theory, we have the opportunity for the first time to—

re-answer these questions using only science and reason, without resorting to faith or emotion.

Before we begin, it’s necessary to establish a common understanding:

What is a “scientific answer”?

I. The Boundaries of Science: A Redefinition

Here, “science” is not a collection of conclusions, nor a value stance, but a continuously operating cognitive methodology.

It must satisfy at least the following conditions:

  • Observability: The subject of discussion must leave observable traces in the physical world, not be purely imaginary.
  • Inductiveness: Laws are derived from the accumulation of facts, not from a priori assumptions.
  • Verifiability: Conclusions must be able to withstand experimental or real-world testing, not just be logically self-consistent.
  • Reproducibility: Laws do not depend on the identity of the observer (such as an “enlightened one” or a “genius”); the same results should be obtained under the same conditions.

Based on this methodology, we will attempt to provide contemporary, rational answers to the following ancient questions.

II. What is Time?

Traditional Intuition:

Time is a long river that flows uniformly, is absolute, and is shared by everyone.

Scientific Answer:

Time is not an independent entity, but a geometric property of spacetime.

In Einstein’s theory of general relativity, there is no absolute time, nor is there absolute space.

We exist in a unified four-dimensional spacetime structure.

The speed of light, c, is not a speed constant in the ordinary sense, but a fundamental scale in the spacetime structure used to unify the metrics of space and time.

In the “block universe” model, time does not exist as a “flow,” but is presented as a whole dimension within the spacetime structure, just like space itself.

The reason humans perceive the passage of time is not because time itself is special, but because our biological structure restricts us to moving in only one direction along the time dimension.

The so-called “present” is not a special moment in the universe, but a perspectival effect created by our perceptual mechanisms.

III. What is the Meaning of Life?

Common Answers:

Happiness, success, legacy, or some emotional “sense of mission.”

Rational Answer:

Meaning is not emotional solace, but an objective function at the level of civilization.

Detached from individual experience, the logic of humanity’s existence as a complex system can be summarized as:

To locally delay entropy increase, and to continuously understand, compress, and model the laws of the universe.

This is not feel-good rhetoric, but a fact of civilizational evolution:

  • Discovering natural laws and building physical models;
  • Transforming the universe’s information structure into a form that is understandable and transmissible by humans;
  • Individuals will perish, but the cognitive structures built by civilization can continue to endure at the information level.

IV. How to Face Death?

Intuitive Reaction:

Fear, avoidance, or hope for some form of eternal life.

Rational Answer:

Death is a deterministic event with a 100% probability.

From a biological perspective, death is part of the evolutionary mechanism, providing necessary space for genetic renewal and system reorganization.

For a deterministic event, fear can neither change its probability of occurrence nor yield any positive returns.

Since death treats all beings equally, it loses its threat to the individual.

Calmly accepting the inevitable is the optimal strategy for a rational system when facing natural laws.

V. Where Does Consciousness Come From? Does Free Will Exist?

Scientific Perspective:

Consciousness is an emergent phenomenon in complex systems.

The human brain is composed of tens of billions of neurons interconnected by electrical and chemical signals.

This structure is highly similar at a logical level to modern large-scale AI models:

  • Hardware Layer: Neurons and synaptic weights;
  • Training Process: Experience, learning, and sensory input;
  • Emergent Result: When the system’s complexity surpasses a critical point, intelligence and consciousness emerge.

Consciousness is not some supernatural entity, but a natural product of a self-organizing system at a high level of complexity.

As for free will, it doesn’t necessarily mean “transcending physical causality,” but more likely stems from the incomputability and unpredictability of complex systems.

This macroscopic uncertainty, rooted in complexity, is perceived at the subjective level as “free choice.”

VI. If There Is No Absolute Time, Does Causality Still Exist?

Scientific Answer:

Yes. But causality is not equivalent to “temporal sequence”; it is equivalent to structural constraint.

In modern physics and logical frameworks, causality should be understood as:

The accessibility of state transitions within a given spacetime and information structure.

  • Causality is not about who “pushed” whom;
  • Causality is the structure itself limiting possibilities—certain states are permitted, while others are structurally impossible.

Even from a perspective that does not rely on linear time, the structure still rigorously dictates the evolutionary logic of the world.

Causality is not an appendage of time, but a constraint condition of the structure itself.

VII. Is Choice Real?

Scientific Answer:

The answer depends on the dimension from which you observe.

  • In a high-dimensional structure:
    All possible paths exist simultaneously as a single geometric structure; there is no “choice.”
  • In a low-dimensional projection:
    The observer can only see a cross-section of the high-dimensional structure, making “choice” real and unavoidable.

This is analogous to the projection of a three-dimensional object onto a two-dimensional plane:

The shadow is not false; it is the necessary manifestation of a higher-dimensional reality in a lower-dimensional world.

Therefore:

Choice is a geometric position from a high-dimensional perspective,

but a real decision in a low-dimensional world.

VIII. What is Morality? Where Do Good and Evil Come From?

Traditional Understanding:

Good and evil come from divine commands, innate conscience, or some supernatural value system.

Rational Answer:

Good and evil are not the universe’s moral judgments, but the natural results of structural stability.

The universe does not “judge” actions themselves, but different structures have different capacities for survival.

From the perspective of information theory and complex systems, the universe tends to preserve structures that are:

  • Modelable;
  • Predictable and explainable;
  • Complex, stable amidst perturbations, and continuously evolving.

When this structural preference is projected onto human society, it forms what we call “morality.”

  • Actions that promote the long-term stability, cooperation, and continuation of a complex system are called “good”;
  • Actions that undermine system stability and reduce overall complexity are called “evil.”

Good and evil are not labels bestowed by the universe, but empirical generalizations made by humans over long-term evolution about which behaviors contribute to the sustainable existence of the system.

From this perspective:

  • Morality is not an emotional declaration;
  • Not a supernatural command;
  • But an evolved structural constraint.

Its purpose is not to serve individual emotions, but the sustainability of the complex system itself.

IX. Conclusion: When Reason Intervenes, the Questions Become Obsolete

When we try to re-examine these ancient questions with science, an interesting phenomenon occurs:

  • Some questions are solved;
  • Some questions are redefined;
  • And some questions simply become obsolete.

Time no longer needs myth,
Meaning no longer relies on emotion,
Good and evil no longer appeal to the transcendental,
Death no longer creates fear.

This is not the world becoming colder, but us finally beginning to understand it using the language of structure, laws, and verifiability.

When our focus shifts from “demanding meaning” to “understanding structure,” from “moral declarations” to “system stability,” the world becomes unprecedentedly clear, transparent, and calm.

When the questions become obsolete,

perhaps that is where true understanding begins.