Keanumoreira Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 So lately there's been some questions regarding time here in the forums, and I came across an interesting amount of information that I thought I should share with the community. I hope what is stated will answer any questions you may be stuck with, but keep in mind that what follows belongs to Theoretical Science. Why time doesn't exist: According to this belief, those who don't believe in time often call it a figment of the human mind. It is often agreed between those who share these views that the belief in time is simply the perception of the individual. For example, let's say that I wake up before my alarm clock. "Oh", I say, "this must be my brain's way of telling time". The answer is both yes and no. No, because my brain cells don't have a literal sense of time, they just know when it's time to wake up because a certain amount of "time" has passed for them to perceive awareness. Well, isn't this proof of time? Regarding the "yes" statement, yes, it is, but for those who believe time doesn't exist, they would say time is not what you think it is. Interestingly, this means they do believe time exists (to some extent), but that belief is completely different from those who think they know what time is. To clarify, it was stated earlier that time is perceived uniquely by the individual, therefore, this is the base for their answer, and it does hold some truth. It is true that everyone perceives time differently. The way I perceive it may be a billionth of a second less or more than how you perceive it. If you've ever heard the story of a man who went for a drive in a car one day, he noticed that the world was whizzing by him at an extraordinary pace. When he slowed down, he discovered that nothing had changed to him, yet, he really was going slowly. This deficit in time perception is the difference for some between the existence of time and its supposed fabrication, all depending on the individual. If you've ever heard and understood the famous quote "I think, therefore I am", then you'll understand my meaning. Why time is an illusion: Continuing on what was said above, those who believe time doesn't exist also often call it an illusion. Some may say they follow the Wheeler Dewitt Equation, in which is an equation, in conjunction with Einstein's Theory of Relativity, has an ultimate value of the absence of value ( or zero) and the lack of the variable "T", which represents time. The Wheeler Dewitt Equation can be observed here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/math/5/f/c/5fc0e50d828432dbd06db0d17bc982a3.png So, according to these believers, time is an illusion. How? Well, imagine a t.v. screen in motion. Are the pictures really moving? No, because the images are being played in a rapid sequence that mimics movement. The same is true if you write a series of drawings on a flip book. If you place each image in just the right place and play it in a rapid enough pace, the drawings will appear to move. So what does this mean to those who see time as an illusion? It means that the universe is one big snapshot of freeze-frame images. The past, the present, and even the future are all fixed within trillions of snapshots within snapshots, each with their own place in time. They appear to have motion simply because, just like time, they have a common relation with other objects, represented as motion. According to followers of the Wheeler Dewitt Equation, they're moving in sequence so rapidly, that they appear to move, and this is why time itself is just an illusion, as there is no change, or passage of "time", just simply snapshots of other snapshots all interacting with each other. How time can be proven: Now, with this overwhelming amount of information, where do believer's in time stand? Luckily, they need only one kind of solid evidence to break the case. Imagine a gamma ray burst can be viewed some ten billion light years away, which means, regarding our place in the universe, what we're seeing actually occurred ten billion years ago. Now, imagine two light protons escape from that gamma ray burst, one with more energy than the other. Physics today tell us that the proton with more energy will travel faster than the proton with less energy, but if the physics of the universe have evolved since the Big Bang, which Science seems to lean on, then the proton with less energy will appear to travel faster than the proton with higher energy. This proves that Physics have evolved, and that time must exist because there would be no other explanation to explain this change. If we can prove this, then we can prove time also exists. Where time is going: A lot of people believe time moves in only one direction: forward. Which is true, isn't it? We're living on the border between the present and the future, and we haven't found a way to reverse time yet. Some Physicists would call you on your butt. Why? Because they believe time isn't a line. Some actually believe time has a shape, just like the theories surrounding the different shapes space can make (this is known as the nine, ten, or eleven dimension theories). They believe time moves not just forward and possibly backwards, but also up and down. The way time would move in correspondence with this theory would give evidence to the fourth dimension, a dimension we can't see yet is supposedly all around us; the dimension we live through and what warps space itself: time. How time behaves: Finally, we come to Intrepede (intrepid? The internet holds no way to spell it, lol). Intrepede, known by Quantum Scientists and the second law of Thermodynamics, is the force that gives the universe chaos. If you've ever heard the law that chaos caused is chaos fixed (I believe it's called the Chaos Theory), then you may know what I'm talking about. Basically, the universe fixes the chaos it causes to achieve balance, which is why you can't travel faster than the speed of light, because the universe forces you to travel so fast that you're actually traveling slower than the speed of light. Now, according to Intrepede, the universe gets more unstable as the passage of time increases, which means the universe today is more organized than it will be billions of years from now, and was more organized than it is today way back during the Big Bang. So, add this in with the Chaos Theory, and time has a funny way of existing. Why? Well, this means what if we live in a universe of chaos, then we need a universe that isn't chaotic to balance things out. This suggests the proof of a multiverse because in order for a universe to exist, it seems it needs an evil twin to achieve balance, so the creation of one universe is actually the creation of two. This would explain why we have anit-matter, parallel universes, and String Theory. Any questions? Concerns? Please debate. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quetzlsacatanango Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 It would be exceedingly difficult to test a hypothesis that time is anything other than what we observe, as all of our instruments are based in the same physical, entropy-filled, forward arrow of time universe that we perceive. In fact it seems likely that our brains and other sense organs are just more of the same instruments. I believe the math when it says there are other solutions, outside of those we perceive. History has shown that when math says something about the universe, that thing tends to be true. But that doesn't mean much for our day to day subjective reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keanumoreira Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 (edited) It would be exceedingly difficult to test a hypothesis that time is anything other than what we observe, as all of our instruments are based in the same physical, entropy-filled, forward arrow of time universe that we perceive. In fact it seems likely that our brains and other sense organs are just more of the same instruments. I believe the math when it says there are other solutions, outside of those we perceive. History has shown that when math says something about the universe, that thing tends to be true. But that doesn't mean much for our day to day subjective reality. That has sparked a debate on whether or not time is relative or absolute, but as you said, and as I agree, it's next to impossible to measure any physical amount of time, only evidence that it has passed, assuming if it does indeed exist. Edited March 19, 2012 by Keanumoreira Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidus44 Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 So, in other words...... The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. - Albert Einstein Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the "present". - Oogway And thus that's all I need or want to know about time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonspyre Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Time is a chronologically flowing spatial dimension, the 4th, to be exact. A 4 dimensional graph consists of a 3 dimensional point surrounded by a 3 dimensional tube extending infinitely in both directions on an X axis. The tube a long 3 dimensional projection of a line traced about the object in question. To move in time, an action deemed time travel, you must reposition the X coordinate to a negative value (Indicating the past) or a positive value (The future). The origin is ever-shifting, representing the chaotic linear form of the seemingly static present. Positioning a sentient entity at a different X coordinate will not change its location, but will instead give it knowledge of the corresponding time period it was sent to, in the location it was in. This is considered seeing the past or future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyYou Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Time has things in common with light.... not a wave, not a particle, but, behavioral aspects of each.... time can pass quickly, (like when you are having fun) or, it can drag on interminably. (listening to a dull lecture....) Driving home is always faster than driving to someplace else.... Even though the 'measured' amount of time for either trip is roughly equal.... it SEEMS to be quicker getting home. Even time spent waiting for some particular event is mutable.... something you are really looking forward to... the clock hands seem stationary..... something that you dread... you can feel the breeze generated by the hands spinning so quickly. Time does indeed exist...... and is measurable, (atomic decay anyone?) but the perception of it can change from moment to moment, depending on just what it is you are doing at the time... :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marharth Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Time is a observation and measurement and not really anything else. It is as much as a physical thing as a foot or a meter is. In no way it it a dimension. You can not predict the future because it hasn't happened yet. It is really that simple. The future will never actually exist because it will become the present. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonspyre Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Time is a observation and measurement and not really anything else. It is as much as a physical thing as a foot or a meter is. In no way it it a dimension. You can not predict the future because it hasn't happened yet. It is really that simple. The future will never actually exist because it will become the present. Consider carefully what you said: Time is a measurement. Time is a dimension, because it is the definition of an objection in a 3D Cartesian system. Whereas most dimensions we think of use zero dimensional points and one dimensional lines, a 4D Cartesian system is made of three dimensional points and three dimensional projections of contoured lines. Think of a sphere rolling in a tube perfectly it's breadth, width, and height, but of infinite length. The center of the sphere is the origin of a 3D Cartesian system, Since the sphere is always moving forward, the origin is constantly redefined. Outside the sphere, all points before it were points it traveled in in the entirety of it's existence. Those represent the past. Redefining the coordinates of the sphere in the fourth dimension to those points would be putting it in the past, because the tube IS time, and it is not moving through a 3D spatial system, but a 4D one. To go ahead in the future, put it in different point it will eventually reach. For a person to "see" the future or past, they would merely have to shift their coordinates in the fourth dimension. It's like how we walk in the third dimension, only we are walking in the fourth dimension to redefine our place in time. How the hell this is done? Beats me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marharth Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 So since when was time a "tube?" Not really following the connection between the third dimension and time being the forth dimension. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonspyre Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 The tube was an analogy. In truth, the tube is a traced line around the exact dimensions of an object, projected into the third dimension. And the tube analogy explains how coordinate systems are what link those dimensions. SEPARATE systems. 1st - XYZ2nd - X Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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