and elsewhere that were found by researchers not to have any developed concept of time at all. Ernst Mach and Albert Einstein The fundamental 1883 statement above was outlined by Ernst Mach in his book "The Science of Mechanics" and with him the idea of a timeless universe first came to prominence as a serious scientific idea. The particular passage quoted was singled out by Albert Einstein in his 1916 obituary for Mach, in which Einstein also described the great influence the Machian corpus had exerted and continued to exert upon generations of physicists:I believe that even those who consider themselves opponents of Mach are hardly aware of how much of Mach's way of thinking they imbibed, so to speak, with their mother's milk.Einstein opens the obituary in the Physikalische Zeitschrift with a firm rejection of those of his contemporary colleagues who view the epistemological inquiries of Mach as being work of lesser importance, and then opens the obituary proper with the central question which according to him ought to passionately interest and concern any disciple of science, such as himself:What objective can and will that science achieve to which I have devoted myself? To what extent are its general results "true"? What is essential and what is only dependent on the accidents of development?Einstein then proceeds to the central and largest part of his obituary, stating the importance of Mach and his work as follows:The importance of such minds, like Mach, certainly lies not only therein, that they satisfy certain philosophical requirements of the age, which by the average inveterate specialist might be characterized as unnecessary luxury. Concepts which have proven useful in the ordering of things, through ourselves easily rise to such authority, that we forget that their origin is earthly - and accept them as unalterable/absolute facts. They are then established as "Logical necessities", "givens a priori", et cetera. The path of scientific progress is oft made inaccessible for generations through such errors. Hence it is certainly no frivolous activity, when we exercise ourselves in the analysis of these long-established concepts; in the analysis and demonstration of the circumstances upon which their justification and utility depend, even as they have emerged from the realm of experience and observed phenomena. In such exercise their overly large authority is broken: If they are unable to properly legitimize themselves, they are eliminated; if their application to a corresponding object in