Many of you arguing this topic, are simply reciting what others have said, as if they are necessarily the authorities. And I'm certain that you believe you understand their understanding of the topic, but that does not necessarily indicate that either you or they 'know' for certain that their solutions are necessarily correct. The long list of people that have given them such authority, did not necessarily 'know' that their understanding was necessarily correct either. So you should see yourself standing in a very long line indeed, of believers, that don't necessarily know, rather simply believe they know.
Here let me give you an example that proves my point. I've said it here before many years ago, before some of you peoples time here, and it may have fallen on the deaf ears of those that were present.
As to time, it's a construct of mans mind. As Kant would say, 'it's neither a thing nor can it be traveled, it's simply a means for humans to account for sequence, so as to measure events.' As to something that is invisible, that cannot be directly measured, the models, the math, may seem to indicate that what's actually happening is what's thought to be happening, that it's a sound theory, yet the truth of what is actually happening might simply parallel the model, the math, thus our belief.
So here it that example I promised above:
We have a clock that measures time, or so we say it does. In this case it's a pendulum clock, not for the sake of accuracy, but rather for the sake of the point easily being understood by you all. Now I can slow this clock by various means, but does it necessarily mean that time is slowing or simply the mechanism that we say is measuring time, that is slowing. As there is no necessary connection between this man made devise that is said to measure time, and time, which is simply a human mental construct, a human mental conceptualization.
If it were several hundred years ago when clocks existed, but knowledge of electromagnetism didn't. And I showed you the pendulum clock, and I touched the pendulum and told you I was slowing time, you'd probably tell ne that I was a liar and that I was simply slowing down the mechanism that is said to measure time. But if a had coils of wire, magnets, a battery and a remote control all hidden in the device and/or my pocket, and said that I was just kidding, but that I would now really slow time by simply passing my hand in front of the clock and I did so while secretly pressing the remote control in my pocket, thus energizing the electromagnetic field on either side of the pendulum which had a hidden magnet within it, such that it obviously slowed, you probably would believe my model, (my math) that I was capable of slowing time, when in fact I was just slowing the mechanism that is said to measure time. In such a case how would you know the difference?
That processes seem to slow or speed up might not be due to time being dilated, but rather simply the process that is being manipulated in some fashion that we are currently unaware. So then how can we say we definitively know that it's time that is being manipulated? In truth we can't! We can only say that as of this 'time' in our universal education, still in it's infancy, all that we 'believe' we know, seems to indicate that time is slowing, as it's the best guess of what's actually happening, that we currently have available to us.
That is, if we truly want to be honest with ourselves!
Remember, that I'm not saying that I necessarily know, I'm simply saying that you can't truthfully say that you necessarily do.
Happy Holidays to all you thinkers and clones alike, as I 'understand' much of the current human condition.
Peace be with you!