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this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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People have answered the 'how come we don't feel it or realize it?'. The 'How does gravity bend time' part we mostly don't know (yet). Mathematics that matches what we observe we have, it's called General Relativity, it works very, very well. But how (and perhaps why) gravity bends time, what makes mass bend spacetime, we are relatively clueless about...
There are hopes quantum gravity will give more of a mechanism, one interesting approach currently gaining momentum, binds quantum information and computation into spacetime and starts to pull General Relativity out as a consequence. Here is a good primer.
Kepler: "I have conclusively proven that the planets orbit the Sun in elliptical paths!
"But why do they orbit in ellipses?"
Kepler: "I have no idea!"
Newton: "I have explained Kepler's findings! There is an invisible force called "gravity" that attracts all masses in the universe to each other, at a magnitude proportional to mass and inversely proportional to the square of distance!"
"But what is this force, what causes it?"
Newton: "I have no idea!"
Einstein: "I have explained Newton at last! What we call gravity is actually the warping of space-time caused by massive objects!"
"But why do massive objects warp space-time?"
"I have no idea!"
There is always another why. For any mechanism explaining any phenomenon, there will always be another "why" you can ask. Science is ultimately about explaining our observations. And as any child knows, there is always another why.
Heh, fair cop, doesn't really answer the question though, and quantum gravity, whenever it arrives is the next why. The interesting thing about the above theory is that instead of only reformulating the mathematics, it changes the underlying physical / philosophic paradigm.
Physics is reverse engineering the universe's game engine.
Whe can only ever observe what's happening, piece by piece, not why.