Time Study

You’ve been reading this post for less than two seconds.

You might be wondering how you’ll get those two seconds back, or perhaps why you’ve now wasted two and a half additional seconds reading this post. My question to you would be, is that time really yours to waste? Can one actually possess time?

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-Marginally Sound Theories

I've been working on several time-based projects at work and, also some independent studies on my own lately. As a result I've started to write/ type some of my thoughts out. Anyway, the link references to a blog where there's additional thoughts.

One of the main issues I'm trying to tackle is whether or not time actually exists. Personally, I'm leaning towards the concept that it does not exist, at least not in any tangible sense.

What are your thoughts?

Time is a human construct of measurement just like inches and kilograms.

Declan said:

Time is a human construct of measurement just like inches and kilograms.

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I disagree. Time is a property of the universe like distance and mass. Clocks measure time the same as inches and kilograms measure distance and mass

Declan said:

Time is a human construct of measurement just like inches and kilograms.

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That's a good point, and I agree that the measurement system is definitely a construct. I'd say it's similar to the measurement of distance/ mass, but with both of those you can psychically manipulate and see them. With time, I think it's a bit closer to an intangible, but that's exactly why I made the post.

My thought is that we can't actually measure time, because it doesn't exist. All we can do is measure our perception of time.

Gaius46 said:

I disagree. Time is a property of the universe like distance and mass. Clocks measure time the same as inches and kilograms measure distance and mass

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I suppose, but with distance and mass, we can physically manipulate those values. I can wrap my hands around mass and can go back and forth through distance.

With time, that manipulation is essentially not possible. I see it in the same category as space and nonexistence.

Pseudointellectual horse****. What do you mean time doesn't exist - that I didn't have breakfast before lunch? Come on...

I tend to agree with Starbuck and Declan.

This morning I woke up around 5:00 AM with a thought in my head: sleeping at night is like traveling at light speed -- time slows down for us, we don't age as fast, while everyone else awake does age.

Then I went back to sleep.

Strange thing to wake up with, not only in and of itself, but in light of having a place to post about it this morning.

I wonder if dreaming is the closest we'll get to traveling at the speed of light or "time" travel.

Anyway .. our unconscious is incapable of discerning time. All of our personally recorded brain history that manifests in the unconscious experiences every event as happening all at once.

Only our conscious mind experiences time, manifested as a time stamp of events relevant to a consistent measure, a clock.

If time is only perceived in a conscious state and not in an unconscious state, then it's relative to the observer, as Einstein indicated.

It is thus impossible to travel forward or backward in time, as time is not a place, but a state of consciousness.

Nevertheless, there is something about motion that is real, and time is an attribute of material motion just like distance is an attribute of material space.

Thus our mind can discern motion that has occurred from motion that could occur.

In the midst of this is the eternal now, which is impossible to measure with a clock.

So when nearing the speed of light, a clock will shrink and slow down, meaning, perhaps, it doesn't age as fast.

That by no means means it traveled in time.

We have a lot to learn about the universe.

Physicists' equations incorporating time may work simply because they've defined time as they have and thus it will work as it does within their frame of reference, though it is not in our experience of life what they define it to be in their equations.

Physicists may need to backtrack a bit to where a wrong turn may have been made and pick up from there in order to make more progress, to where their equations match our experience in life.

Predicting motion future from motion past does not mean we could ever travel in time.

Time travel is a distortion of words, and thus time travel is impossible.

Starbuck said:

-Marginally Sound Theories

I've been working on several time-based projects at work and, also some independent studies on my own lately. As a result I've started to write/ type some of my thoughts out. Anyway, the link references to a blog where there's additional thoughts.

One of the main issues I'm trying to tackle is whether or not time actually exists. Personally, I'm leaning towards the concept that it does not exist, at least not in any tangible sense.

What are your thoughts?

Click to expand...

I am sure it does not. But God is it devilish to get out of the system.

Declan said:

Time is a human construct of measurement just like inches and kilograms.

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If there is no time, then I should not be getting so freaking old. :lol:

the_recruit said:

Pseudointellectual horse****. What do you mean time doesn't exist - that I didn't have breakfast before lunch? Come on...

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Maybe you did have lunch before breakfast. Then again, maybe you didn't.

Either way, if you screwed the order of that up, it's too late to turn the clocks back now.

joG said:

I am sure it does not. But God is it devilish to get out of the system.

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You're definitely right about that, it's a pretty all-encompassing system.

I remember sailing back across the Pacific a while ago and having to deal with the clocks shifting every night [it's funny that they always seemed to take that hour away while we were trying to sleep]. At that point I made the suggestion that we simply don't change the clocks until the night we arrive, and then just make the rapid 12 hour jump. That way it'd be more like flying on an airliner and we could at least enjoy the bulk of the transit unbothered by the time change.

Naturally, they didn't take my advice.

Ontologuy said:

Physicists' equations incorporating time may work simply because they've defined time as they have and thus it will work as it does within their frame of reference, though it is not in our experience of life what they define it to be in their equations.

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That's a really good point, one which I actually hadn't considered.

When I look at time, my biggest thought is that it is wholly intangible. Sure physicists, as you've pointed out, measure it and incorporate it into their calculations, but honestly are we actually measuring the time? Or is it something else we are measuring.

I really think it's our perception of time, which from a geological/ biological perspective is much more rational. I think it's pretty well established that certain processes happen at fixed rates (cells divide, carbon breaks-down, objects travel through space), but I still have trouble seeing time itself as something we can actually measure.

Starbuck said:

You're definitely right about that, it's a pretty all-encompassing system.

I remember sailing back across the Pacific a while ago and having to deal with the clocks shifting every night [it's funny that they always seemed to take that hour away while we were trying to sleep]. At that point I made the suggestion that we simply don't change the clocks until the night we arrive, and then just make the rapid 12 hour jump. That way it'd be more like flying on an airliner and we could at least enjoy the bulk of the transit unbothered by the time change.

Naturally, they didn't take my advice.

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Actually, the clock should have been set to jump, when a time zone boarder was passed. That is what happens to the smart type phones, when you are driving across the continent.

Starbuck said:

When I look at time, my biggest thought is that it is wholly intangible. Sure physicists, as you've pointed out, measure it and incorporate it into their calculations, but honestly are we actually measuring the time? Or is it something else we are measuring.

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Time is tied into space. Everything is "moving" at the speed of light right now. That's why when something physically moves through space, time dilation (and length contraction) occurs to keep everything on the right side of the universal constant. Even throwing a baseball causes a dilation for the ball relative to a stationary observer of something in the magnitude of a femtosecond.

Does anything exist when Earth is swallowed by the Sun? If there is no Earth is there anything was there anything? How would it be proved? If time starts and stops with the creation and it vanishes into .... then what is?

joG said:

Actually, the clock should have been set to jump, when a time zone boarder was passed. That is what happens to the smart type phones, when you are driving across the continent.

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We were underway, and I'm pretty sure the interpretation of crossing various time-zones was left up to the discretion of the command. I suppose it was more beneficial for them to change the clocks ahead while we were sleeping, rather than while we were working.

While we were sailing west across the Pacific, earlier on that same patrol, they set the clocks back while we were working, thereby extending the workday.

rhinefire said:

Does anything exist when Earth is swallowed by the Sun? If there is no Earth is there anything was there anything? How would it be proved? If time starts and stops with the creation and it vanishes into .... then what is?

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I think that hypothetical is starting to creep into the concept of existence. However, I suppose that is a pretty logical connection.

I don't actually think that time and/ or existence is tied to the Earth or our being able to observe either. I'm quite certain that both values are equal parts infinite and incalculable.

Starbuck said:

We were underway, and I'm pretty sure the interpretation of crossing various time-zones was left up to the discretion of the command. I suppose it was more beneficial for them to change the clocks ahead while we were sleeping, rather than while we were working.

While we were sailing west across the Pacific, earlier on that same patrol, they set the clocks back while we were working, thereby extending the workday.

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Cool trick. The Unions would like that one.

brothern said:

Time is tied into space. Everything is "moving" at the speed of light right now. That's why when something physically moves through space, time dilation (and length contraction) occurs to keep everything on the right side of the universal constant. Even throwing a baseball causes a dilation for the ball relative to a stationary observer of something in the magnitude of a femtosecond.

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If everything is constantly moving, which if I remember correctly was proven, then there would be no such thing as a stationary observer. Also, considering that any living tissue (humans included) is constantly altering and moving, that further complicates the equation. If we were to layer all of the possible motions in any given [and relative] scenario, I don't know that it is possible to calculate the true relationships.

Besides, is it possible that everything is simply moving relative to other objects rather than in one direction. Honestly, if we only look at any two given fixed objects at a time it would greatly simplify the equations.

How was it determine that everything is moving at the speed of light?

joG said:

Cool trick. The Unions would like that one.

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I'm pretty sure a lot of people would like that one. I certainly wasn't a fan of the concept though.

That is unless the turning back happened during my watch.

Time is money. Study a dollar bill and you shall understand time. Don't study the European Pound though, that's weight.

lizzie said:

If there is no time, then I should not be getting so freaking old. :lol:

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Yes. The entire universe exists relative to your boobies' distance from the floor.

Starbuck said:

That's a good point, and I agree that the measurement system is definitely a construct. I'd say it's similar to the measurement of distance/ mass, but with both of those you can psychically manipulate and see them. With time, I think it's a bit closer to an intangible, but that's exactly why I made the post.

My thought is that we can't actually measure time, because it doesn't exist. All we can do is measure our perception of time.



I suppose, but with distance and mass, we can physically manipulate those values. I can wrap my hands around mass and can go back and forth through distance.

With time, that manipulation is essentially not possible. I see it in the same category as space and nonexistence.

Click to expand...

How do you perceive something that doesn't exist?

Time is real. Because you can't wrap your hands around it doesn't make it any less real. Cause and effect wouldn't exist without time. You couldn't make the statement "After the sun rose I ate breakfast" without time. You could not order events without time.

While we can't hold "one second" in our hands we certainly travel through time, much as you travel from point A to B. The only difference in that respect between distance and time and that your travels in time are one-way only.

Gaius46 said:

How do you perceive something that doesn't exist?

Time is real. Because you can't wrap your hands around it doesn't make it any less real. Cause and effect wouldn't exist without time. You couldn't make the statement "After the sun rose I ate breakfast" without time. You could not order events without time.

While we can't hold "one second" in our hands we certainly travel through time, much as you travel from point A to B. The only difference in that respect between distance and time and that your travels in time are one-way only.

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That's my point though, I don't actually think we can perceive time itself.

Sure we can measure our perception of time, but really I don't see that as actually measuring time itself. We measure the movement of objects over fixed durations, as compared to other natural processes (break-down of carbon, movement of a celestial body, cells dividing). But with exactly what you say about traveling through time in one direction only, that's where I take issue. If the travel is only possible in one direction, it's not really travel at all.

We cant grasp time because it is intangible, unlike distance, mass or sound.

If time does exist, which I don't understand to be the case, then it must be something that flow's through us. Something that just happens, in spite of all outside influence.

Starbuck said:

-Marginally Sound Theories

I've been working on several time-based projects at work and, also some independent studies on my own lately. As a result I've started to write/ type some of my thoughts out. Anyway, the link references to a blog where there's additional thoughts.

One of the main issues I'm trying to tackle is whether or not time actually exists. Personally, I'm leaning towards the concept that it does not exist, at least not in any tangible sense.

What are your thoughts?

Click to expand...

Not everything in physics is time reversible, so I would think that time, at least on some level, exists.

If one questions the existence of time then they should also question the existence of space. How much time and space between your ears did that take?