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What is time?


CraigD

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hi peeps :)

If I take the point of view of a phenomenalist i have to believe the clock was set by my mind, moreover i would also have to presume I hold the sum knowledge of the universe, and at some point in the past decided to spread this knowledge among created 'sense data' called people (purely to stop myself going insane) and then play games with myself to try and reconstruct my understanding of this universe, basically numbing time away. This i don't like, but can neither disprove, and just look at the pickle i get myself in with these forums :P . (my bad :lol: :) :) :hihi: ).

regards

 

Well for one thing you can look at memory as percieving something that you have percieved before, but to a lesser degree. Also there is probably not a set rate at which anything percievable occurs when you are thinking about something like that... Unless you want to look at the rate at which you percieve or remember percieving things as the set rate and the rate at which clocks pass the time as variable. Anotherwords time flies when your having fun, goes slow some other times etc.

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  • 2 months later...
In various forms, this question seems to come up a lot on scienceforums, stirring considerable debate.

Answers include:

  • [*]time is something defined by any clock

.... What’s do you believe time is, or is not, and why?

 

From all its directions physics tells us that there is no time.

If there is such and thing as time then we are confronted with limitless numbers of absurdities. Just to start with:

Light travels and yet it has no time to travel. (light can travel for billions of years and never lose time, not even a millisecond) It not only travels, without time, but it does this travelling in such a way that it makes everything, with time, stationary so it cannot have time. (Relativity 101) So if light has no time to travel how can we have time.

The only solution is we don't because it, time, is just a thought, word.

 

The 5000 year old study of thoughts "the Supreme Science" tells us exactly the same story as does physics: there is no time because it is just a word, thought, Reality's fiction, like the universe.

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From all its directions physics tells us that there is no time.

If there is such and thing as time then we are confronted with limitless numbers of absurdities. Just to start with:

Light travels and yet it has no time to travel. (light can travel for billions of years and never lose time, not even a millisecond) It not only travels, without time, but it does this travelling in such a way that it makes everything, with time, stationary so it cannot have time. (Relativity 101) So if light has no time to travel how can we have time.

The only solution is we don't because it, time, is just a thought, word.

 

The 5000 year old study of thoughts "the Supreme Science" tells us exactly the same story as does physics: there is no time because it is just a word, thought, Reality's fiction, like the universe.

 

i don't think i'm understanding what you mean about light and time. could you elaborate a little? :rolleyes: light (made up of photons) does take time to travel. but i guess that's not what you mean. i thought relativity said time would appear to 'slow down', not stop altogether at light speeds relative to everything else.

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i don't think i'm understanding what you mean about light and time. could you elaborate a little? :rolleyes: light (made up of photons) does take time to travel. but i guess that's not what you mean. i thought relativity said time would appear to 'slow down', not stop altogether at light speeds relative to everything else.

 

As long as your absolute is the Rolex on your wrist you will NEVER get physics’ message: there is no time. The absolute is “light” and not what you think is on your wrist.

The faster you go to catch light the slower your watch gets … and the more your mass increases towards infinity, and space shrinks towards nothing.

What does this mean?

When light becomes the absolute, and not your Rolex, the quicker you go to try and catch light the more obvious it gets that you are just standing still because all you are really doing is staying stationary while you are slowing your watch, and increasing your mass, as the speed of light stays the same because it has no time to change.

It’s all absurd ON TOP OF BEING ABSURD (… absurd ) but only if we try and make physics and its light and time “real” when they are just words, Reality’s fiction that we call thoughts.

 

If you want to start laughing at the all these absurdities on top of absurdities that physics gives us you will have to ignore physics’ particles/waves and focus your attention on what all physicists seem to ignore to keep their wild-goose chase active: the quantum-gap.

The quantum-gap (UV-gap) is the Absolute that Hindus call Atman, Samadhi, and the particles/waves are just thoughts/gooses to chase.

 

If you want to read more then try a Google blog-search for “advaita = physics” or universe-vanishing-gap "UV-gap."

 

When you start Laughing

it will be because you are Awake

and the laughter is just ME

and the joke is: there is no other.

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As long as your absolute is the Rolex on your wrist you will NEVER get physics’ message: there is no time. The absolute is “light” and not what you think is on your wrist.

The faster you go to catch light the slower your watch gets … and the more your mass increases towards infinity, and space shrinks towards nothing.

What does this mean?

When light becomes the absolute, and not your Rolex, the quicker you go to try and catch light the more obvious it gets that you are just standing still because all you are really doing is staying stationary while you are slowing your watch, and increasing your mass, as the speed of light stays the same because it has no time to change.

It’s all absurd ON TOP OF BEING ABSURD (… absurd ) but only if we try and make physics and its light and time “real” when they are just words, Reality’s fiction that we call thoughts.

 

If you want to start laughing at the all these absurdities on top of absurdities that physics gives us you will have to ignore physics’ particles/waves and focus your attention on what all physicists seem to ignore to keep their wild-goose chase active: the quantum-gap.

The quantum-gap (UV-gap) is the Absolute that Hindus call Atman, Samadhi, and the particles/waves are just thoughts/gooses to chase.

 

If you want to read more then try a Google blog-search for “advaita = physics” or universe-vanishing-gap "UV-gap."

 

When you start Laughing

it will be because you are Awake

and the laughter is just ME

and the joke is: there is no other.

 

that's really interesting.

 

i think the reason i had problems with that is because i don't take either light or time to be the absolute. i just look at them in relation to each other. also light is actually traveling across space and through time. it takes a few minutes for photons to get to the Earth from the Sun...and its traveling across a distance. if you took off from the Earth at light speed for the sun, your watch wouldn't change anything, because its attached to your body and moving at light speed with you. time everywhere else that is not going at light speed with you is moving slowly. but you aren't standing still. you're moving across a physical distance. i don't even think its possible for anything other than photons and stuff to move at c.

 

at least that's what i thought.

 

is there an equation to calculate that? anybody? like...if it takes 8 minutes or whatever for light to reach the Earth from the Sun. how much time passed by from the perspective of the photons of light in that same distance?

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that's really interesting.

 

...

 

is there an equation to calculate that? anybody? like...if it takes 8 minutes or whatever for light to reach the Earth from the Sun. how much time passed by from the perspective of the photons of light in that same distance?

 

All of mankind's intellects have equations and all sorts of spectacular numbers and theories that tell us with the utmost certainty that JUST TO START WITH at least half of the universe is missing, that anti-matter half.

 

These equations and theories then go on to tell us – with the utmost certainty -- that if this anti-matter half of the universe was NOT missing then the universe could not exist.

 

The rest of the equations and spectacular numbers and theories tell us with the same utmost certainty that at least 9/10 ths of the remaining half of the universe is missing and thus is “dark-matter.”

And so all these equations tell us that AT BEST only 1/20th of the universe can be real somehow.

And if that is what equations are good for then why on earth would anyone need equations except to laugh at the, at best, 1/20th of the universe that the experts of physics keep trying to tell us is somehow “real.”

And the Supreme Comedy called life is that these experts are not Real so their universe cannot be any more real than they are.

 

-- And that is the Supreme Truth because there is no other, there is no doer, only the Reality that is Heaven itself.

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Ok, let me simplify it for you. First, I have a very subtle thought experiment for you. Suppose someone you knew had a time machine with the limitation that it could only go forward in time (could not go back in time). And suppose further that the time machine looked exactly like a common wrist watch. It works by turning the stem which you would ordinarily expect to change the time on the watch. When the stem is turned, the wearer (and the wearer only) is transported to the new time indicated on the device. :naughty:

 

Now suppose this friend goes to demonstrate his time machine. He says, "watch this, I will go five minutes into the future", and turns the reading on the device to five minutes ahead of what it reads. B)

 

Now, as an exact scientific observer, tell me exactly what you would expect to see. (We are writing this for a science fiction story and we want to be perfectly consistent.) B)

 

Have fun -- Dick

 

"The simplest and most necessary truths are the very last to be believed."

by Anonymous

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Ok, let me simplify it for you. First, I have a very subtle thought experiment for you. ... tell me exactly what you would expect to see.

I am a trained observer. You are wearing the watch, and you spin the stem ahead five minutes.

I still see you standing there. Mass and energy are conserved. But you do not move. I take out my microscope. Nothing on you is moving at all, not a hair, not a microbe. You are cold to the touch, colder. You must not be moving even at molecular or atomic scales.

I look closer. It is not you I see, but a mirror surface that perfectly conforms to the surface of your skin, each hair, each freckle. Even light itself is not interacting with you, but reflects from you 100%.

I use a baseball bat and gently push against you. You fall over with a surprising lack of sound. You cannot be moved, even to make vibrations. The only sound comes from the floor material. You are in total stasis, the Unmovable Object. I strike you with the bat, but only the bat goes thud.

The five minutes are... UP! Your eyes flicker and your body twitches violently to find yourself lying on your back. No time has passed for you at all.

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If you guys want to get serious about the issue of time, read ....

 

Have fun -- Dick

 

"The simplest and most necessary truths are the very last to be believed."

by Anonymous

 

The most unbelievable truth is also the most obvious, and also the biggest joke. This most obvious truth is so obvious that Laughter makes it more than just SELF-evident.

The truth/joke: life is Reality's fiction.

 

And this Reality is Heaven itself that makes "life" not only its fiction but also the Supreme Comedy, that might not be very funny until laughter makes it literally vanish into Heaven itself.

 

And as for “time,” it needs no essays because it is just a word, thought, fiction, Reality’s nothing… that is no more real than is Mickey Mouse in the TV set.

Time is no more real than these hands that think so this ego can write for the only thing that is real: the Laughter, that is Heaven itself.

 

-- UV-gap

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I am a trained observer. You are wearing the watch, and you spin the stem ahead five minutes.

I still see you standing there.

Well, I will agree with you up to here but from then on, I don't think you have thought it out so well. ;)
Mass and energy are conserved.
Now how did you come to that conclusion? That "time machine" might have some rather energetic effects. I certainly don't know what powers it. :rainbow:
But you do not move.
That cannot possibly be correct. As the time machine is described the user must advance to the time indicated on the face of the watch like mechanism. So if you observe him carefully, you must see the position of the stem rotate slowly as time passes; likewise, you must see the hands advance as if it were an accurate watch (he always exists at each and every time displayed on the face of the device). :eek:
I take out my microscope. Nothing on you is moving at all, not a hair, not a microbe.
Well close but no cigar! :lol: Unless the traveler can rotate the stem instantaneously some motion will be detectable (the motion of his finger tips which rotate the stem if nothing else). Suppose that, to the traveler, rotating the stem takes him two seconds; that during that time his heart beats twice and he inhales once. You will see him inhaling very slowly (takes five minutes to inhale once) and that artery in his wrist will bulge slightly twice during that five minutes. :Guns:
You are cold to the touch, colder.
Well, "to the touch" measurements have to do with heat transfer rates, not with actual temperature. Temperature has to do with equilibrium heat transfer rate and that is very closely related to mass and energy effects which might be altered significantly by those mass and energy effects which I don't think you got right. I'll talk about those later with another thought experiment. ;)
I look closer. It is not you I see, but a mirror surface that perfectly conforms to the surface of your skin, each hair, each freckle.
Well, reflection has to do with the fact that the electric field of the light moves the electrons and that the motion of the electrons acts like an electro-magnetic oscillator broadcasting its own outgoing wave. If the electrons are free (as in a conductor) the out coming wave will be a duplicate of the incoming (and the reflection is mirror like). If the electrons are bound, the binding forces distort the interaction and you get more complex effects. So in both cases, the appearances will depend on that "mass energy" thing. :angel:
I use a baseball bat and gently push against you. You fall over with a surprising lack of sound. You cannot be moved, even to make vibrations. The only sound comes from the floor material. You are in total stasis, the Unmovable Object. I strike you with the bat, but only the bat goes thud.
This description should bother you a little. Look at it from the travelers perspective. During that two seconds (from his perspective) he will see you suddenly swing that bat at unbelievable speed and strike him with enough momentum transfer to make him hit the floor in a fraction of a second. In fact, I doubt very much that his eyes would flicker at all after that impact and certainly not after the "beating". But before we conclude that description, we need to look at mass energy effects. :rain:
No time has passed for you at all.
False! The time passage for the traveler must be identical to the length of time he thinks it took to turn the stem. :rainbow:

 

Does anyone out there argue with my comments? I'll need some kind of reaction! If I get two agreements with my description of the phenomena, I will present another, slightly altered experiment which will answer the mass energy phenomena. :)

 

Have fun – Dick

 

"The simplest and most necessary truths are the very last to be believed."

by Anonymous

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Well, we still seem to be having posting problems with the server. According to the cover info, "dad2bkmj" made a post here at 10:38 last night; however, if one looks at the thread, it appears that I am the last one to post. I suspect that flaw is also failing to send notification that "new posts" have been made meaning that the fact that I have answered "Pyrotex" isn't known so I will go ahead and post my next thought experiment. :rainbow:

 

Ok, let's proceed to the next level of this unique "science fiction story". The fellow with the time travel machine, having entertained us with its strange behavior, brings us some toys common in his culture which are based on that same mechanism. They are called "time balls" and built into every time ball is a time machine identical to the one he had. However, the time machines in the time balls have no adjustment stem. Instead, they contain devices which detect the average position of everything in its environment and uses this to estimate any change in its position in that environment. So long as it is sitting at rest in its environment, the time machine is off and the ball appears to be a normal ball. But, if the ball is moved, the time machine is activated and the ball moves one second into the future for every one foot it has been moved. That is, if its center of mass is moved a thousandth of an inch, the ball will move one twelfth of one thousandth of a second into the future. :eek:

 

Now these "time ball" only work for a limited length of time (a few years) so they had a clock face on them which displayed how long they had actually been in existence (so you would know when they were going to "wear out"). After all, as they had the power to go into the future, it was somewhat difficult to keep track of their actual age. :lol:

 

So we have several of these ball in our laboratory. We can perform various tests with them to see how they act. (We can't open them because to do so without understanding the technology is extremely dangerous (I am told they explode like nuclear bombs if their insides are exposed :angel: :Guns: ). Anyway, all we can do is move them around and read their "actual age". Can anyone here figure out how they appear to act? Why would a kid like to play with one? :rainbow:

 

Pyrotex, you're pretty good, tell me how they seem to act if you play catch with one. :rain:

 

Have fun – Dick

 

"The simplest and most necessary truths are the very last to be believed."

by Anonymous

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