Maarten Vergucht

I am an independent thinker with a deep interest in Einstein’s relativity, neuroscience, and philosophy. My manuscript arose from a simple yet persistent question: if time is relative, as Einstein proposed, how can cosmologists meaningfully speak of a universal “age” of the cosmos? Since Newton, there has been no absolute standard of time or space. This led me to explore the deep interconnection between time dilation and spatial contraction, suggesting that if space is relative, time must also vary wherever distortions of space occur. Inspired by Hubble’s observation of the expanding universe, I set out to reconsider what it means to be an observer within such a framework, and where consciousness itself fits into this story. The philosophical aspect concerns the role of conscious observers: while physicists often regard consciousness as unnecessary in describing nature or formulating a Grand Unified Theory, I suggest that conscious observation may in fact be the backbone of any reference frame that allows an observable, measurable universe to exist. See for latest version on Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17352791