A philosophical observation of time
Rather than what is commonly assumed to be time, have you ever considered the very entity of time itself?
"The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
--Albert Einstein
From a very fundamental level we see time as energy moving matter through space in some form.
But that on its own does not explain time, you have days that go by faster or slower than some, what feels like time travel as we lose conciousness or sleep, the effect of time dilation and quantum mechanics.
What this all has in common is the observer itself which leads me to think there is some kind of observer bias which gives the illusion of time.
An observer itself takes in senses at certain rates like the FPS of a video camera in our eyes or the vibrations in your ear, which means what we observe is energy move matter through space at a rate of our senses.
Because our senses run on energy it makes sense being able to observe reality that also uses energy to move matter in some form because they are the same thing fundamentally.
Something like sleep can cut off our observation of time which gives the illusion of time going by almost instantly, so this observation gives some insight to how days go by faster or slower.
If a day was filled with activities that are not engaging mentally or sensory while exposed to a slow rate of sensory, say slow paced music the day would appear to go quicker to that observer.
Needless to say the reverse has the opposite effect.
Then considering time dilation, observation rate is increased when traveling through space this has the effect of time slowing down due to a similar effect mentioned in the previous paragraph, where the input to your senses increase with passing objects or wind passing you and so on.
To an external observer it shows the observer traveling through space to be moving faster and in turn a shorter period of time.
The use of time devices is also energy moving matter through space but in a very consistent pattern, this allows us to observe a constant rate of time without having be there to observe it.
So even though we may measure time as things go by to different densities of space, it is still the same observation of energy moving matter through space in some form.
As such the illusion of time is a observational result of energy acting on matter, it is that same process we use to observe our reality that we can observe it.
Since the illusion is within ourselves as observers, it is rational to think that our physical reality has no time of which everything progresses but a constant state of here and now that changes as energy is acted upon matter.
Time is just a measure of a observation of matter, not so much a measure of progression.
This also answers why we haven't met any time travellers in our reality as such concept would not exist logically in this regard.
Thoughts?
"The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
--Albert Einstein
From a very fundamental level we see time as energy moving matter through space in some form.
But that on its own does not explain time, you have days that go by faster or slower than some, what feels like time travel as we lose conciousness or sleep, the effect of time dilation and quantum mechanics.
What this all has in common is the observer itself which leads me to think there is some kind of observer bias which gives the illusion of time.
An observer itself takes in senses at certain rates like the FPS of a video camera in our eyes or the vibrations in your ear, which means what we observe is energy move matter through space at a rate of our senses.
Because our senses run on energy it makes sense being able to observe reality that also uses energy to move matter in some form because they are the same thing fundamentally.
Something like sleep can cut off our observation of time which gives the illusion of time going by almost instantly, so this observation gives some insight to how days go by faster or slower.
If a day was filled with activities that are not engaging mentally or sensory while exposed to a slow rate of sensory, say slow paced music the day would appear to go quicker to that observer.
Needless to say the reverse has the opposite effect.
Then considering time dilation, observation rate is increased when traveling through space this has the effect of time slowing down due to a similar effect mentioned in the previous paragraph, where the input to your senses increase with passing objects or wind passing you and so on.
To an external observer it shows the observer traveling through space to be moving faster and in turn a shorter period of time.
The use of time devices is also energy moving matter through space but in a very consistent pattern, this allows us to observe a constant rate of time without having be there to observe it.
So even though we may measure time as things go by to different densities of space, it is still the same observation of energy moving matter through space in some form.
As such the illusion of time is a observational result of energy acting on matter, it is that same process we use to observe our reality that we can observe it.
Since the illusion is within ourselves as observers, it is rational to think that our physical reality has no time of which everything progresses but a constant state of here and now that changes as energy is acted upon matter.
Time is just a measure of a observation of matter, not so much a measure of progression.
This also answers why we haven't met any time travellers in our reality as such concept would not exist logically in this regard.
Thoughts?
Comments (17)
Here's a link to Wikipedia's article on the arrow of time. I think it is a good one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_of_time
Your apparent attempt to unify human perception of time, relativistic time dilation, and time measuring devices under "observer effects," makes as much sense as identifying gravity as an apple-related force because Newton was hit by an apple and we can calculate gravity's effects using an Apple computer.
TBH that is a lot of If's
A clock continues to move even if we do not observe it, but still requires energy to be consistent as it does not run on time.
The world runs on many energies throughout but time has never been one of them.
The big bang cast energy ahead of us, and behind us in time - which then coalesced into matter, forming separate past, present and future universes.
Everything ages at the same entropic rate, so we never catch up to the future, and the past never catches up to us.
The only discernible effect is the gravitational influence of what we call dark matter, but is actually gravity exerting an influence, inversely proportional to distance in spacetime squared.
Yup,
Will mention though that gravity is not a force but an effect according to Enistein's theory of relativity.
More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRgBLVI3suM
In my view, "time" is merely a description of changes observed to be taking place in reality. Therefore, it has a lot to do with the observer.
However, I don't think time is an "illusion" unless reality itself is an illusion. But reality can't be an illusion. We call it reality because we perceive it as real.
Your describing A observation of time, it is not uncommon to observe visual illusions that do not reflect reality or devices that emulate sound as auditory illusions.
We call it reality when multiple different perspectives demonstrate it as real or and an observation free of bias, much like the story of "the blind men and an elephant".
I agree. However, reality is generally regarded as "real".
I think it is also important to define what is meant by "illusion". Is it an ens imaginarium, a chimaera or something else?
illusion:
noun
An instance of a wrong or misinterpreted perception of a sensory experience.
Yes reality is regarded as real, but understanding how reality can be misinterpreted can increase our understanding of reality to be more real that what maybe commonly assumed.
Kinda like seeing a magic trick, then understanding how it is done to further the understanding of reality behind the magic trick itself.
Hence the paradox of time (several of many):
Quoting Tiberiusmoon
In your view, does that suggest a metaphysical component relative to our perception of time?
Quoting Tiberiusmoon
Are you saying present is static like eternity? Meaning, how big a slice of time does the here and now represent?
Quoting Tiberiusmoon
How does the illusion of time itself (from the foregoing), relativity, the speed of light (time stoppage), and other phenomena make time an observation of matter?
Quoting Tiberiusmoon
Can you elaborate a bit on that? I was thinking the cosmological theories about black holes/worm holes, etc..
F = ma. A force is any phenomenon that causes a massive object to accelerate. Gravity causes massive objects to accelerate. Gravity is a force.
Those are awesome questions Harry!
I'll just start with a simple supposition regarding mental states. Time is just a human calibration of change. A temporal-ness of sorts. We know change exists, but we really don't know whether time exists in a concrete way that is outside our perceptions of it. Time seems to be some sort of Subjective truth... . Some sort of feeling (as in time flies when you're having fun/from the OP).
I hope others will chime-in...
Quoting Tiberiusmoon
I know 180 and physicists want to slap me when I say stuff like this, but that's okay. I think time can indeed be an entity, and I think it can convert to energy and matter and back again. Maybe dark energy is the future on it's way, dark matter is the past on it's way, and the now is the conversion point as it passes by us; we see here light energy and light matter.
Now, back to now. Carry on.
I have always felt that time was more like a dimension, one of the ones beyond the three, but they are all interconnected and the three dimensional realities we experience are within the fourth dimension of time. I once read a book called 'Man and Time' by J B Priestley, which suggested that time can be viewed from the perspective of eternity and, in that context, the future may affect the past, challenging the way in which we usually understand the past to affect the future. I am not sure whether this makes sense, but it is interesting to wonder if time simply flows in one way, even though it appears to progress in that way.
I think so? Im not familiar with metaphysics.
Quoting 3017amen
Im not sure what you mean by using a discription of space to describe time, but yes static.
Quoting 3017amen
Well I already explained how time dilation works which is the same as the speed of light, the faster you observe reality the slower it moves, the slower you observe reality the faster it moves. (all be-it, the speed of light being one extreme)
In terms of relativity we know that space distorts but also remember that such distortion can expand and contract space, this is important because an observation of an object moving through such spaces can change how long it takes to travel a certain distance when compared to a different density of space while light travels along such distortions of space.
Another way of looking at it is like a 90 degree racetrack corner, to enter and exit the corner is a set distance to an external observer but the angle of which you approach the corner depends on the outcome.
If to took a tight turn close to the apex it would demonstrate a compression of space and slow you down, while cornering wide you would travel a greater distance but at a faster speed.
Another consideration is how we observe the universe, even though we see certain galaxies the light coming from those galaxies are old because they can only travel at the speed of light.
we know this because of how fast light is and this awareness gives us understanding of this.
I could go on listing everything in science so rather than do that I shall remind you of one field of science where common knowledge of time does not apply in the same way: Quantum Mechanics.
Quoting 3017amen
Ill give it a try, if our reality is a constant state of here and now; time would have no meaning other than to measure energy moving matter through space in some form, if such travel were to exists it would require such meticulous inversion of reality (energy and matter) down to the atomic level within our whole solar system, plus the knowledge of everything happening at all given points.
This kind of travel is A pretty much impossible, B replaces the solar system as we knew it at that point (one way trip) and C requires actual God tier amounts of knowledge, power, and accuracy. Like seriously beyond insanity levels, Like beyond the sense of distance within our observable universe kinds of crazy.
If the electrical activity in our brain were to operate faster taking in sensory input it would appear to the observer that time is slightly slower, while the reverse has the opposite effect.
Technically speaking we can only observe change but not time as a physical reality, we can only use time to measure change.