Please post what you think.
Does time exist or is there only a NOW?
- Thread starter aussiedude
- Start date
well, there was a 5 minutes ago, becuase my cinamon buns are now halfway done in the oven. So i guess yeah, measurable distance has occured between when I put the buns in and now.
but is that time?
Einstein didn't think so.
that is a pretty good example of time. yes.aussiedude said:
"Time cannot exist. If you take temporal relations and apply it to the physical world you come up with the fact that outcomes result from situations. by this I mean that a situation arises and something happnes. This is the basis of every physical equation that involves a variable, because variables denote change and change requires time (because one thing cannot have two separate values simultaneously). Therefore, if you take any situation that is happening NOW, as the original question states, and follow it back to the set of circumstances that made it happen, eventually you have to either agree that everything started from one single thing or concede that there is such a thing as infinity. now (no pun intended), if you think that everything started from a single thing, you cannot believe in time because you cannot explain where THAT one thing came from and we have agreed that things come from situations that arise or yield them as a result. As for the concept of infinity, well believeing in infinity is saying that you do not understand whatever you find to be infinite..after all that's the definition of infinite, not attainable.
Therefore, I propose a theory on our concept of time which does not step on any classical, quantum, or super-string theories that I know of. everything has happened. equilibrium has already been reached. there is no such thing as chaos. I can illuminate this with a simple example. think of a comic strip. the end of the comic strip is already drawn, as is the begining and every frame in between. you unravel the story of the comic strip frame by frame and hence lend the comic strip the illusion of time.
and we are just like that. everything has happened or better yet, just is. like in the comic strip. therefore the state of you reading this post on the internet not only exists NOW but always. it is just the viewfinder that is your conscious mind that moves beyond this frame, but the frame still exists."
Therefore, I propose a theory on our concept of time which does not step on any classical, quantum, or super-string theories that I know of. everything has happened. equilibrium has already been reached. there is no such thing as chaos. I can illuminate this with a simple example. think of a comic strip. the end of the comic strip is already drawn, as is the begining and every frame in between. you unravel the story of the comic strip frame by frame and hence lend the comic strip the illusion of time.
and we are just like that. everything has happened or better yet, just is. like in the comic strip. therefore the state of you reading this post on the internet not only exists NOW but always. it is just the viewfinder that is your conscious mind that moves beyond this frame, but the frame still exists."
Why waste TIME thinking about whether time exists or not.
So what you're saying is I already have a Yeti 303 DH, except I don't have it yet.
how could he not be smart with a name like "einstein"
it was destinty I guess.
it was destinty I guess.
aussiedude said:
"Whoa!"
Yah time is just a tool, but the only lesson that i've learned that is worthwhile is that filling it with worthwhile enriching activity works for me. To take the time to actually study and "attempt" to comprehend all these scientific theories would give me an anuerism.
BurlyShirley said:
Burly, just so you know, I thought that was funny as hell.
me too.BurlyShirley said:
So, in theory, had you already congratulated yourself on your witty comment before, we just hadn't seen it yet?BurlyShirley said:
And if those two events did occur simultaneously, were you still the only one who thought it was funny?
With time i would have thought that woulda been hella funny but time doesn't really exist so it was stupid..... sorry.BurlyShirley said:
My witty retort is funnier than yours because since time doesn't exist you can't prove you made your post before mine. :eviltongubinary visions said:
I think time was around well before monks or religion or any of that. They may have come up with the first unit of measurement, but I doubt that even, since a day is a measurement of time and people have been getting up each morning and going to bed each night since there have been people.biggins said:
i dont understand what you're saying.biggins said:
the measurement was invented yes. But all measurements were invented.
The measurements between events IMO are just as valid as measurements between places, since there is a seperation at least within the human realm of comprehension, which is, of course, all that really matters.
i took this class about a year ago....don't make me do my midterm over again, it was hard.
But then this gets into all that quantum physics and the big question of whether reality is even real. Anybody see the movie "What the bleep do we know?" Definitely very interesting regarding all this stuff.BurlyShirley said:
I know kung-fu.
I think Steve Winwood was smarter than einstein, with all that "Time is a river, flowing on to nowhere" profundity. The finer things, indeed.
Really, though, I equate time to things like math...people, especially western-educated scientific types, tend to think that math and time and measurement relate to an ultimate reality. But they're basically linguisitic concepts, albeit a language of numbers instead of letters...still representing a human conceptual framework rather than anything inherent to existence. While they help us describe the world around us, build bridges that don't fall down, and make it to work on time (or not), they're not some insight into the metaphysics of the world. Which is good, because there are none, really.
All metaphysics are products of our own minds-illusion and a deathtrap for spiritual progress. If you look at ideas for utility instead of truth, you're much better off.
I just wish I could DO that instead of describing it...but it's pretty hard to drop the cultural baggage.
So, er, yeah...time is a human idea, so it exists insofar as we invent it. But it's not really there. Our picture of the universe, even as painted by quantum mechanics and such, is just human language. Even if the ultimate stuff of the universe is played out in quarks and gravitons and temporal particles, it does so mindlessly and outside our comprehension and consciousness...what we can see and name is bastardized by our understanding of it, which is necessarily limited and un-holistic.
MD
I think Steve Winwood was smarter than einstein, with all that "Time is a river, flowing on to nowhere" profundity. The finer things, indeed.
Really, though, I equate time to things like math...people, especially western-educated scientific types, tend to think that math and time and measurement relate to an ultimate reality. But they're basically linguisitic concepts, albeit a language of numbers instead of letters...still representing a human conceptual framework rather than anything inherent to existence. While they help us describe the world around us, build bridges that don't fall down, and make it to work on time (or not), they're not some insight into the metaphysics of the world. Which is good, because there are none, really.
All metaphysics are products of our own minds-illusion and a deathtrap for spiritual progress. If you look at ideas for utility instead of truth, you're much better off.
I just wish I could DO that instead of describing it...but it's pretty hard to drop the cultural baggage.
So, er, yeah...time is a human idea, so it exists insofar as we invent it. But it's not really there. Our picture of the universe, even as painted by quantum mechanics and such, is just human language. Even if the ultimate stuff of the universe is played out in quarks and gravitons and temporal particles, it does so mindlessly and outside our comprehension and consciousness...what we can see and name is bastardized by our understanding of it, which is necessarily limited and un-holistic.
MD
what about the Space Time Continuum? oooh freaky...
but how does one explain when time slows down. like that time in the air before impact and everything slows down. is that your brain comprehending it slower so you can make adjustments? also how do you explain the idea that people in space age slower than on earth?
Einstein worked out the theory of relativity for the space aging.biggins said:
As for things slowing down before impact, Ive never had that happen, but Id assume its an adrenaline thing. If your brain works faster, things would appear slower to you, so maybe you get a brain boost.
I have flow through the air and pile into many things, but Ive never had time slow down. I always just kind of black out when that happens, only i can hear myself saying "Oooooh ***!"biggins said:
i would say yes, but no one but you knows for sure since you're talking about your own experience (as in a clock in your pocket would still tick away the same number of seconds no matter what your perception of their length). a related question is of how different are peoples' perception of time. i've wondered idly about this: is the guy finishing his test in 5 minutes thinking faster than the one finishing it in 30? does the test seem as long to each? hmmbiggins said:
general relativity, and special relativity before that. http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/GenRelativity.htmlbiggins said:
also, einstein is not god, so don't take his sayings as the gospel. he spent the latter part of his life on a quest for a unified theory with no probablistic elements to it, which may ultimately have been a waste of, yes, time.
a relevant paraphrased einstein quote, from john wheeler's "geons, black holes and quantum foam" (p 167)
another, more famous exchange (p 168)Albert Einstein said:
John Wheeler said:
Albert Einstein said:
that's some smart sh!t right there.
i've just developed a theory that proves that time does in fact exist. However it is difficult to explain
click here and be illuminated.
click here and be illuminated.
anybody ever see that Steven King movie, the langoliers?
Time for a beer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lord Helmet: Go back to then!
the Colonel: We can't sir
Lord Helmet: Why not?
the Colonel: Because we just passed it
Lord Helmet: When?
the Colonel: Just now.
Lord Helmet: When will then ...be now?
the Colonel: SOON
the Colonel: We can't sir
Lord Helmet: Why not?
the Colonel: Because we just passed it
Lord Helmet: When?
the Colonel: Just now.
Lord Helmet: When will then ...be now?
the Colonel: SOON
Anti-particles have been deemed a threat to the venerable institution of marriage and have been outlawed. :eviltonguToshi said:
So maybe time didn't exist before then, but it came into being then. If you try to navigate through the events that have occured you have to orient them by a set of coordinates in both space and time. If you say that time cannot exist, then how can any other dimension exist?aussiedude said:
wow, i really think i am in love with you now that you quoted spaceballs.Megan Black said:Lord Helmet: Go back to then!
the Colonel: We can't sir
Lord Helmet: Why not?
the Colonel: Because we just passed it
Lord Helmet: When?
the Colonel: Just now.
Lord Helmet: When will then ...be now?
the Colonel: SOON
"whats the matter colonel Sanders, chicken?