What is time? Does time exist?

[Formless Tao]

In my opinion time is an illusion. Time is used as a tool which enables people to check point A to point B. When you keep checking the time it always seems to go so slowly. When you dont check the time it seems to go so quickly.

 

Live in the present moment, the now...

 

Any constructive thoughts on the above?

[KenBrace]

Well it has been shown that time slows down as speed is increased. The faster you go through space, the slower you go through time and vise versa. So if time can be changed then it is obviously something. You can't slow down something that doesn't exist. I'm uncertain as to what it actually is though.

[Marblehead]

I have no problem with believing that time is a random (in our case based on Earth's rotation on its axis and rotation around our star) measurement used to determine the recurrance of cycles or movement from point A to point B.

 

Everything changes over time (hehehe) though and at one point in time the moon was much closer to Earth than it is now and one day the moon will be further away than it is now and there will no longer be full eclipses of the sun.

 

However, time effects all living things. Once I was only one year old and had unlimited time for a future. Today I am much older and my future life potential is greatly limited.

 

But yes, "now" is the only moment that truely matters. The past is gone and the future isn't here yet. But we humans should do a little planning for our future in the event we actually have one.

[Formless Tao]

Imagine clocks and watches have not yet been invented today. The world will be a very different place. I think a more disorderly place where we would still be checking the position of the sun and the moon to know what part of the day we are at.

 

Time or should I say watches and clocks are really all about human convenience and making life more orderly in my opinion.

[KenBrace]

Imagine clocks and watches have not yet been invented today. The world will be a very different place. I think a more disorderly place where we would still be checking the position of the sun and the moon to know what part of the day we are at. Time or should I say watches and clocks are really all about human convenience and making life more orderly in my opinion.

 

Clocks and watches are a way to keep track of time, not time itself.

[Marblehead]

Clocks and watches are a way to keep track of time, not time itself.

And you, Sir, are playing with words. Hehehe. Do we really have time for that?

[Stosh]

The axes of an object XY and Z planes, relects the distribution of stuff relative to other stuff.Time is no dfferent it is also a dimension of dstribution of stuff relative to all other stuff.

The pace at which things are moving is always relative to something else.

Time is howevever not describing the presence of mass or the propagation of energy but rather it is the character of the situation which we call space.

It is a stage which events happen on, and is shaped by that which happens on it , by mass directly and by massless energy indirectly.

Since you asked ...

Edited September 28, 2013 by Stosh

[Marblehead]

Since you asked ...

The next time I will ask for a clearer definition!

[Stosh]

Its a stage.

[jove]

if any one has time, I would like some. peace!!!

[Marblehead]

if any one has time, I would like some. peace!!!

Only in the afternoons do I have extra time, that time of day when I mostly just live spontaneously. I never have enough morning time when I try to get some work done.

[KenBrace]

And you, Sir, are playing with words. Hehehe. Do we really have time for that?

Lol did I not understand what you were meaning?

[Marblehead]

Lol did I not understand what you were meaning?

Hehehe. This discussion is just for fun. No matter what we think or say time will go on as it already has for 13.7 billion years. I have heard that time flies when you are having fun.

 

We cannot measure time if we have not already identified it to exist.

[Thunder_Gooch]

 

Any constructive thoughts on the above?

I know exactly what time is, and exactly what is going on, because a few years ago I got to peak behind the curtain. I've tried to tell people before but mostly the ADHD culture we live in just kills it, and they barely make it past the first paragraph.

 

So if you are seriously interested in a explanation that will answer all your questions and then some on what time is PM me for a private chat sometime.

Edited September 28, 2013 by More_Pie_Guy

[Neophyte]

For a scientific view on the question, read "Timeless Reality" by Dr. Victor Stenger. He is professor emeritus of physics at the University of Hawaii.

 

He says, in esse, that time does not exist. Stenger maintains that reality may be simpler and less mysterious than most think. The quantum world only appears mysterious when forced to obey rules of everyday human experience. Stenger convincingly argues that, based on established principles of simplicity and symmetry, at its deepest level reality is literally timeless. Within this reality it is possible that many universes exist, each with structures and laws different from our own.

 

So now, even physicists are concluding that time does not exist. So Buddhists and Daoists have been vindicated!

[Marblehead]

So Buddhists and Daoists have been vindicated!

Hehehe. Not this Taoist. Time exists for me still.

 

And I would suggest that the good doctor does not live at the quantum level of reality and therefore time exists for him too. I would bet that somewhere on his driver's licence there is a birth date. It shows the day/month/year of his birth. Surely he will not deny being born on that date and then ask him what year it is now he would respond appropriately. From those two bits of data one would be able to tell him how old he is and how long he has been alive.

 

Anyhow, if time did not exist none of us would ever be born and we wouldn't be having this discussion. And worse!, none of us would ever die - we would just keep getting older and older for absolutely no reason because time doesn't exist. A fine paradox.

Edited September 29, 2013 by Marblehead

[doc benway]

In my opinion time is an illusion. Time is used as a tool which enables people to check point A to point B. When you keep checking the time it always seems to go so slowly. When you dont check the time it seems to go so quickly.

 

Live in the present moment, the now...

 

Any constructive thoughts on the above?

Two interesting resources I can suggest if you're interested -

 

Time's Arrow and Archimedes Point by Huw Price. Not an easy read, but very interesting.

 

Jiddu Krishnamurti offers some stimulating discussion on the nature of time. He refers to time as the movement of thought. Worth exploring his stuff if you haven't already.

[Marblehead]

He refers to time as the movement of thought.

I could probably accept this if it were included with other aspects of time.

[Starjumper]

For a scientific view on the question, read "Timeless Reality" by Dr. Victor Stenger. He is professor emeritus of physics at the University of Hawaii.

 

He says, in esse, that time does not exist.

 

Well, I'm smarter than he is and I say he's an idiot.

 

The really weird thing about time is what is implied by how some people can have premonitions that are correct (correctly see the future).

[Neophyte]

Here is further info on the debate.

 

Here in Ontario, Canada, we have a tv show called "Big Ideas", which showcases public intellectual culture. It is similar to TED Talks but much better: Each lecture is an hour and is much more information-intense (less dumbed-down than TED). The lectures are by academics (professors), authors and other luminaries, covering a wide-range of topics.

 

 

Here is a lecture by Julian Barbour, visiting professor at the University of Oxford and the author of The End of Time, addressing the question, Does Time Exist? Barbour explores the history of scientific thought on the concept of time and presents his own interpretations of what time is.

 

He delivers the lecture at the Perimeter Institute. The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is an independent research centre in foundational, theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1999.

 

(Stephen Hawking even conducted some physics research at this institute about five years ago.)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5rExaKLEoU

Edited September 30, 2013 by Neophyte

[Unlearner]

Ah time, such an elusive concept, it's really fun to think about, even though it's so hard to figure out. If you think from a relativistic view, time and space are interlinked, so what does this mean? By observation, space is expanding at an accelerating rate, pulling it tight like a sheet, so does this also apply to time? Does the expansion of the universe make time move forward? If the universe were shrinking, would time begin to recede as well? Would we simply freeze in time at the moment it begins collapsing in on itself? More over, if spacetime began shrinking, would it wrinkle up and fold over on itself? I could entertain myself for hours just imagining it

[Marblehead]

I could entertain myself for hours just imagining it

I have already told a couple of my friends here that they think too much. Looks like it won't be a long time before I'll be making that statement for you. Hehehe.

 

ETA (estimated time of arrival) was very important for me during my military years. People needed to know what time someone was expected to arrive.

 

Every movement we make in our life concerns time - the time it takes to move from point A to point B. If we waht to be there Sunday at 12 noon and it takes 24 hours to get there the latest you would want to leave would be Saturday, 12 noon.

 

We cannot escape the effects of time in our life.

[Unlearner]

I have already told a couple of my friends here that they think too much. Looks like it won't be a long time before I'll be making that statement for you. Hehehe.

 

ETA (estimated time of arrival) was very important for me during my military years. People needed to know what time someone was expected to arrive.

 

Every movement we make in our life concerns time - the time it takes to move from point A to point B. If we waht to be there Sunday at 12 noon and it takes 24 hours to get there the latest you would want to leave would be Saturday, 12 noon.

 

We cannot escape the effects of time in our life.

 

I hate to break it to you, but I already do think way too much

 

but don't worry, I can assure that I know all about punctuality

[BaguaKicksAss]

If anyone has JAJ's Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy vol. 3, checkout the Center of Time and the Time Displacement meditations . (page 185)

[silent thunder]

My experience of Time seems a function of Awareness.

It seems an interpretation my awareness creates through memory and comparison.