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Michael Yeaman

Stone Sculptor, Accenture

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What is Time?

Time. What is it?
A seperate dimension?, an interelationship of spactial dimensions? Why does it appear to "flow" in only one direction? We seen to exist "in" it, yet its connection to our consciousness seems highly variable from "time flying" to "clocks stopping". Can we really understand anything about Time that would change our Science, Religion and/or Culture? And why do I like Doctor Who so much?

Topics: Space and Time
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    John Merryman

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    Mar 14 2012: Time is a measure of motion, ie. rate of change. The only reason there is any confusion about it is because our subjective perception is a singular transitioning from past to future, but the actual physical process is that the changing configuration of what exists turns the future into the past. For example, the earth doesn't travel the fourth dimension from yesterday to tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes yesterday because the earth rotates. It's a measure of an aspect of motion, just as temperature is a measure of thermodynamics. Temperature is level of activity. Clockrate is variable because such effects as gravity and acceleration affect levels of activity and thus rates of change. One twin ages faster than another because of the effects on their metabolic rate, not because they travel different time vectors. Spacetime is correlation, not causation. One could just as easily use ideal gas laws to argue temperature is another parameter of volume, since changing the volume of a given amount of gas will have an inverse effect on its temperature, yet no one talks about "temperaturespace," because there is no confusion about the nature of temperature.
    For much of human existence, it was quite obvious the sun moves across the sky from east to west. The problem was trying to formulate a theory to explain it. Originally it was carried by Apollo's chariot and eventually giant cosmic gearwheels were presumed, before we realized it was the earth rotating west to east. Just as epicycles became ever more complex, now we have ever more complex explanations for how we move from past to future. The fact is that that cat is not both dead and alive, because it is the collapse of probabilities, the future, which yields actualities, the present. We are not moving from a deterministic past into a probabilistic future, it is these events which go the other way.
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      Michael Yeaman

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      Apr 12 2012: Thanks for your comments...great ideas and I enjoy the way you wove probability into the conversation....I am a fan of the "multi-worlds" hypothesis as supported by David Deutsch among others.....I love being able to have all my cakes and eat them too!
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        John Merryman

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        Apr 13 2012: Thanks Michael.
        I would have to say I'm not a proponent of multiworlds, for the reasons mentioned above.
        Consider that the traditional concept of time, with the present as a dimensionless point along a vector from past to future, is very deterministic. Since you cannot change the past, or affect the future. On the other hand, considering time as arising from the physical activity in what we would call the present means your actions affect your context, and vice versa.
        If we had complete freedom from external influence, we would correspondingly have no reciprocal influence on outside affairs. So while it may not provide the comfort of multiple outcomes, it does allow you influence over what does happen.

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