We understand "time" in the context that we must: to subsist in order to procreate. The extent it exists outside of our own perception as we imagine it does, is debatable. Ultimately, time is our sensory interpretation of the world around us to facilitate our survival and thus, we may never make sense of it outside the constraints it exists within.
We know empirically that time only flows in one direction, it can’t be described as just a perception. You’d have had at least the tiniest of evidence that time sometimes flows backwards.
Time doesn't flow at a speed. So, time flows at no speed, so, time doesn't flow. Time doesn't exist within time, so it has to be static. Moments don't change.
How would you measure time going backwards if you can only perceive it going forwards? How can you "experience" everything around you going "backwards" if that includes your memory? How can you determine that a specific moment in time was arrived at by time going forward, or by going backwards?
How do you know anything outside of your perception is true? All things boil down to a philosophical argument. The simplest answer is that "time" as we imagine it is a product of our interpretation and the true nature of "it" is hidden from us.
This is about time as it relates to our understanding of the physical world through science. You might as well say matter is an illusion, nether is relevant to this discussion.
You believe it is irrelevant - I believe it is relevant. I argue matter itself has more basis in reality in that it cannot be as easily explained away as time. In the context you're speaking in, there is much more evidence and logic to support the existence of matter. My point is that time as we believe it exists, is a construct that has meaning to us because of its benefit to our survival, rather than it being an objective reality.
_Everything_ flows in one direction, all particles goes in a straight line from their self reference, fields "modifying direction" is just an observer point of view. The separation of time and space is purely a perception matter.
A gross comparison would be to compare with objects perception, it only exists because our mind can leverage it for a strong evolutional advantage (I'm not only speaking of humans here).
No, a particle can flow left OR right, up AND THEN down, forward THEN reverse THEN forward again.
But in time, it can only go forwards, at very slow rates like far from gravity wells, or fast like in relativistic situations. Never backwards. Never stop.
As we haven't seen any evidence of this, then the effects must be so tiny that we can just ignore that possibility. It's like worrying about the gravitational effects of Russell's Teapot.
