The Illusion of Time: What's Real? (1 Viewer)

[samiam5211]

Because then we're reflecting on it. Its hard to say though. If I see a baseball coming for my head the time of it hitting my head is in the future. As its hits my skull its the present, as it falls to the ground its the past. We could say the slightly past is our present even its not the actual present.

It gets even weirder. If someone is 3000 light years away is somehow seeing out planet, they would see the pyramids being built in their present.

I agree that when it hits your head, it is the present, but by the time anyone notices it hit your head, it was in the past.

Also, i don't think anything every touches anything if you get down to the quantum level. When you touch your keyboard, the atoms in your hand never actually make physical contact with the atoms in the keys.

 

[ataraxia]

Not forward. What we perceive as time is change that could change in any order. We simply perceive it as directional, forward.

I am not sure it's just random thing that we perceive. It's hard to talk about time without talking about thermodynamics and entropy. The arrow of increased entropy always points in the same direction as the arrow of time. There is something fundamentally irreversible and asymmetric about the flow of time (that's why you will never see a cracked egg spontaneously re-assembling- the example given above).

 

[DrewPaul]

Time does not progress at a steady rate, trust me, the older you get the faster it goes.

That depends...I bet if your being tortured it goes manically slow no matter how old you are. But there is a reason the days flash by. When your 5 days old a single day is one fifth of your entire life. By 65 one day is only 1/23,725 of your life.

 

[DrewPaul]

I agree that when it hits your head, it is the present, but by the time anyone notices it hit your head, it was in the past.

Also, i don't think anything every touches anything if you get down to the quantum level. When you touch your keyboard, the atoms in your hand never actually make physical contact with the atoms in the keys.

I believe because of electromagnetism also known as the strong force. Its not because they're so tiny they stick together.

 

[noonereal]

Maybe it could...have you ever perceived time running backward?

How could it? Your question makes no sense. Think it through. Change is what we perceive as time.
Get it?

 

[noonereal]

There is something fundamentally irreversible and asymmetric about the flow of time (

This is change, not time.
Time is a construct.

 

[ataraxia]

This is change, not time.
Time is a construct.

Yes. I am not sure you can separate the two. The direction of of change and the direction of time are both one way. The laws of physics in both cases preclude us from playing the movie in reverse.

“This exact relationship underscores the essence of time's arrow as a manifestation of the second law of thermodynamics. It suggests that the forward march of time, as perceived in the unfolding of events and the aging of the universe, is a reflection of the inexorable increase in entropy.”
.

 

[noonereal]

Yes. I am not sure you can separate the two. The direction of of change and the direction of time are both one way

No.

 

[Risky Thicket]

We only have the present. The future does not yet exist and the past is gone.
Most all humans spend a major part of their present thinking about the past or dreaming/fearing the future. We can gain more time by being completely in the present. However, it isn't easy.

 

[DrewPaul]

How could it? Your question makes no sense. Think it through. Change is what we perceive as time.
Get it?

Is there some reason you're lecturing me? I realize you're a know it all but according to scientists even though time always runs runs forward they see no reason it couldn't run backward. Change would also occur if it ran backward.

Although processes that involve the exchange of energy don't behave like this at the scale of our everyday experiences, at the level of atoms and molecules they can and do run backwards. Physicists first acknowledged the possibility of this kind of violation of the forward flow of time more than a century ago.

 

[noonereal]

Is there some reason you're lecturing me? I realize you're a know it all but according to scientists even though time always runs runs forward they see no reason it couldn't run backward. Change would also occur if it ran backward.

Although processes that involve the exchange of energy don't behave like this at the scale of our everyday experiences, at the level of atoms and molecules they can and do run backwards. Physicists first acknowledged the possibility of this kind of violation of the forward flow of time more than a century ago.

Time runs in no direction!!! I already told you this. I stood up to stephen hawking when he was wrong and considered the smartest person on the planet.
I don't care what you think some scientists say. There is no consensus.
Oh, and another thing to contemplate. What has always been the biggest impediment to the science of tomarrow?
The science of today.

 

[noonereal]

at the level of atoms and molecules they can and do run backwards.

That is not time running backwards.

 

[DrewPaul]

That is not time running backwards.

Thank you Professor noonereal.

 

[noonereal]

Professor

That was a nickname bestowed at me many years ago.