the present - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

The professor pondered, "If past and future are illusions, and the present is no time, but the concept of time is a lie of sorts, then in what does all this exist?"

The professor said, "At one time we could not imagine light to act as both wave and matter, nor that matter and energy were the same thing. Now we see that time is not a continuum but another energy transformation, and it is part of what brings the sense of distance and space in our reality. For now, perhaps think of time as a ball of light, a buzz of energy that we call 'the present.' As such, there really is no past or future, only 'right now.' Yet what we do with this gift of 'the now' determines the health of our planet in all the moments to come. So, there is a separation to make here. We have what time really is, a ball of energy, and our human concept of it being a continuum from past to future. What I propose is that for our purposes as scientists rather than those speaking in the everyday sense, that we use energy-time and imagined-timeline. Giving concepts new words is helpful to the human brain when building new ideas. What was once considered one thing, becomes two, and so it goes on. This is learning, this is progress."

The rocket changed distance by playing with time. Time travel, it turns out, is not a thing because the present moment is all we ever have. But if you can manipulate time then you can change spacetime, which is the same thing as distance. These new rockets were a kind of teleportation, yet they folded spacetime and popped out in a different place. It was kinda neat.