Does 'time' exist?

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amar
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Does 'time' exist?

Post by amar »

I say no.
The past does not exist, it is merely a memory in our heads, the future does not exist, it is merely what we anticipate. And the 'now' is infinitesimally short and yet, it is the only thing that exists.

So, what is time?
Is time defined by change? Nope, we define change by comparing body A now to body A then, but there is no body A then because it is only a memory. We can't compare a real thing to a memory.

If time exists, is it linear, does it shoot forward like an arrow?
Again, I don't think so, time does not flow, because, see above, there is no past and there is no future.

After troubling my mind with this, I did some reading here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time

Well, my mind still is troubled.
:wink:
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Blackout_Entertainment
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Post by Blackout_Entertainment »

Your logic is flawed in this manner:

Time can be manipulated. If it did not exist, it could not be manipulated.
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amar
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Post by amar »

Blackout_Entertainment wrote:Your logic is flawed in this manner:

Time can be manipulated. If it did not exist, it could not be manipulated.
but you can only manipulate something that exists. If it doesn't exist, it can't be manipulated.
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izzarina
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Post by izzarina »

good grief, amar. What are you doing getting all philosophical on us here? It makes me uneasy...

:wink:
Someday, everything is gonna be diff'rent
When I paint my masterpiece.
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amar
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Post by amar »

izzarina wrote:good grief, amar. What are you doing getting all philosophical on us here? It makes me uneasy...

:wink:
ok, let's get back to feck, drink, boobs!
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Post by emmline »

It is a dimension, and is perceived relative to other conditions experienced by the perceiver.
Taking the Quantum Leap by Fred Alan Wolf is a good, comprehensible introduction to the incomprehensible.

But I think that quantum theory and Eastern philosophy pretty much agree that the perception of time as linear is merely that--a perception.
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Post by Bloomfield »

You're phrasing the question wrong. It's not: Does "Time" exist? The way to ask the question is, Does time "exist"?

So what is existence? Surely not physical existence, since love "exists" even though you cannot touch or weigh or see it. In fact, can existence be conceived of if there were no time? time exists, because without time (and causation, and gummi bears) nothing else could exist.

Is a priori existence the same thing as existence? :twisted:
/Bloomfield
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Post by Joseph E. Smith »

For me, time and money are two things I never seem to have enough of. :D
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Silvano
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Re: Does 'time' exist?

Post by Silvano »

amar wrote:We can't compare a real thing to a memory.
This is a strange statement. It remembers me of a philosophical question: "Is the moon there when nobody looks?"
Compare a foto of yourself when you were younger to yourself now. Of course it's only a picture of what has been. If time does not exist, weren't you real then, or nothing has happend in between, or has the foto never been taken?
amar wrote:If time exists, is it linear, does it shoot forward like an arrow?
Again, I don't think so, time does not flow, because, see above, there is no past and there is no future.
I don't want to say I'm an expert but AFIK Einstein's relativity theory states that time is not linear in the sence that not the same amount of time will pass at different places, depending to their (relative) movement to a choosen relative system. This is a cosequence of the statement that light velocity has to be constant.

Silvano
--- A whistle a day keeps bad thoughts away ---
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Post by emmline »

Bloomfield wrote: time exists, because without time (and causation, and gummi bears) nothing else could exist.
People have no idea how hard Dimitri Mendeleev tried to find a spot for gummi bears on his original table of the elements, but their tendency to glob together made it really hard to isolate defining chemical properties.
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Post by BillChin »

It reminds me of the book "Flatland," where two-dimensional beings are visited by a three-dimensional creature. The two-dimensionals can not process the idea of a third-dimension.

Some theorists speculate that there are many more than the four dimensions of height, width, depth and time. That I have a difficult time processing. Time is a pretty easy one when visualizing the two-dimensional flatlanders moving through a third dimension of time in a linear fashion.

Four dimensional geometry makes my head spin, just as a third dimension did to the flatlanders. 10-dimensions or more and a person must think in abstract terms.

Physics article:
http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/dimens.html
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Post by I.D.10-t »

"Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so" ~Douglas Adams
"Be not deceived by the sweet words of proverbial philosophy. Sugar of lead is a poison."
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Post by avanutria »

Don't you come from that place where everyone makes watches and clocks? Questioning the existence of time could cripple your whole economy...!
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Post by amar »

The Swiss are a cunning people.. :wink:
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Post by OnTheMoor »

Let me know if you figure it out within the next 2 hours, I really don't feel like going to work.
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