If There Were Only One Constant in the Universe
For as long as humans have looked at the stars, we have searched for something permanent. Something that does not shift, bend, decay, or depend on our own limited perspective. Physicists have named constants, philosophers have argued over them, and people have built entire worldviews around them. But most of those so-called constants only exist because we measure them. They depend on clocks, rulers, units, and the way we decide to describe the world. Remove human measurement from the equation and almost everything falls apart. If you strip the universe down to its bones, to a place where time does not exist and clocks are never invented, nearly every constant disappears. What does not disappear is causality.
Nature Does Not Need Time. Nature Has Change.
Humans created time. Nature created change. Everything in the universe shifts through states. Stars ignite. Atoms decay. Molecules bind and break apart. None of this requires a second, a minute, or a year. These are just names we give to the way we experience change. If you remove time, the interactions do not stop. They do not slow down. They do not speed up. They do not “happen later.” They simply unfold through their own structure. The clock was never part of the physics. It was part of us.
The Collapse of Human Constants
Most of the constants people rely on collapse if time is removed. The speed of light depends on meters per second. Planck’s constant depends on dimensional units. Entropy flow relies on before and after. These constants are not eternal. They are dependent on the very thing we are questioning.
The One Constant That Remains
When everything else collapses, one rule stands untouched: Interactions follow consistent causal rules. This principle does not require a measurement device. It does not require time. It does not require clocks, seconds, or geometry. It only requires that the universe behave consistently in how one interaction leads to another. This is the constant that survives when time is removed because it does not depend on time at all. It depends only on relationships between states of matter. Causality is the bedrock. Everything else is bookkeeping.
The Thesis
If I had to present one constant that would survive a truly timeless universe, it would not be the speed of light, Planck’s constant, or any constant tied to seconds and meters. It would be this: Interactions follow consistent causal rules. Everything else falls apart without time. Causality does not.
Why Time Cannot Exist Under This Framework
A photon experiences no time. Its entire existence is a single event. As something approaches the speed of light, its experienced time shrinks. At light speed, duration collapses entirely to zero. This means time is not universal. It depends on the state and speed of the observer. If time can collapse to zero, it cannot be fundamental. This insight leads directly to the conclusion: Time is demolished at the speed of light. The fastest signals in the universe do not experience time. Change occurs, but no duration is attached to it. Under this view, time is not a dimension of the universe. It is a side-effect of being a slow, biological observer watching the universe evolve.
Causality survives.
Time does not.
Closing Reflection
Some readers, like myself, believe that God created the universe and shaped it as a kind of sandbox for us, a place where matter, energy, and interaction were set in motion according to consistent causal rules. If God is timeless, then time is not a requirement for the universe itself but something humans created to navigate our own limited existence. Under this view, the materials and laws woven into the universe were designed with known interactions and predictable outcomes, allowing the cosmos to unfold in a way that makes sense. But this insight does not depend on belief in God. Whether you see creation as intentional, emergent, or the result of pure chance, the underlying idea remains the same. The universe behaves the way it does because its components interact through consistent causality. That is the one constant that holds no matter your worldview.