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Indigo cantor

commander in chief, Satori International

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How could we relate to the world around us without the concept of time?

I have often wondered about what life would be like if I could not include the concept of time. It is in EVERYTHING we do, think, talk about, it is a component of life that is completely man made, it seems to me it is the glue that holds everything together? without it... what do we have? how do we explain? where do we stand?
what is NOW?
So, how would you explain " life" without time? the universe without Time? all your thoughts without implementing time?

Related Talks:
Topics: cognitive science consciousness design human behavior human origins mind physics relativity theory time
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    Tim Colgan 50+

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    Mar 5 2011: What I want to know is - why does it only move forward?
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      Matthieu Miossec 100+

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      TED TranslatorAssociate
      Mar 6 2011: I think it's got something to do with entropy and the second law of thermodynamics. If that law could somehow be broken, where entropy globally decreases, we could move in both directions.
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      Indigo cantor

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      Mar 13 2011: Does it? I remember? and when I remember I feel.... Like the moment my daughter was born. That is a space in " time " I can have right here in this moment in time. Great question!!
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        Pascal-Xavier Van de Goor

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        Mar 15 2011: You can go back in time but only as a spectator, you can experience that moment again, see it, but you can't change it and while you experience that moment you had time keeps going forward.
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          Anna Hoffmann

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          Mar 15 2011: What about those weird moments when you kind of get a glimpse of the future and then return back to now? That would be going back in time would it not? So in reality you can also only go FORWARD in time as a spectator. We are not moving forward IN TIME, we are always in the here and now, but because of movement in space (some part of us is always moving, at least on atomic levels) we also move in time....

        • Ed Schulte 50+

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          Mar 19 2011: Yes Truth !! Pascal !!!!....."only" as a spectator .....and to "go forward" is to "imagine" and nothing more ............All that exists as unchangeable Truth is "Here is Now" in the Now
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          Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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          May 15 2011: Hi Pascal..nice to meet you. Do you know Lynne McTaggerts work, the Intention Experiment? A series of experiments meant to xplore the implications of qunatum mechanics ( in qunatum mechnaics it seems that all things exist in infiite possibility until fixed by the observer through the act of observation) Her work has been much challenged, and her experiements, so I am not putting forward as gosepel..just "mind candy" ..one of her expereiments involved "changing the past" participants were each given , as I recall, a pre-recorded pattern of sounds. Some were asked to form an intent for that pattern..others for a difernt pattern and apparently in many cases the different pattern was actually on the pre recorded ( apoligies Lynne if I have blown this description) . My point in sharing it with you isn't to refute what you say about time travel that is what science says in logically extending relativity) but to inviye a journey of the mindand spirit where that might not be correct. I love imaging that forgiveness actually corrects and changes.the past.
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        Pascal-Xavier Van de Goor

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        Jun 7 2011: Hi Lindsay, thank you for your reply. Honestly, I didn't understand much of what you said (quantum mechanics and I broke up a while ago). I did some research on Lynne McTaggart and The Intention Experiment and I find it very interesting, I think I'll buy the book.

        Even though I didn't understand much of your reply at first you had me with you your last sentence! I wouldn't go as far and say forgiveness can change the past but it certainly can correct it. What is done is done but by accepting it and forgiving it you change your perception and that makes place for a better future. I have the feeling people underestimate the value of making peace with the past.
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      mariac acciaio

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      Mar 17 2011: credo sia scientificamente possibile viaggiare nel tempo...la cosa ke ci resta difficile è la velocita' della luce cn cui le nostre cellule dovrebbero spostarsi...esse si distruggerebbero...e si ritorna cn qst al concetto ke finkè saremmo in qst dimensioni legati al nostro corpo...come ancorati alla terra cio' nn ci sara' possibile...kiss
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      Charles Ma

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      Mar 19 2011: I don' t think it is the time that is moving forward. Instead, it is the process of the universe, say chemical and physical process, is moving forward. If we had the ability of reversing the whole process, the time would be moving backward. But I don't think it possible.
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      John Bulmer

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      Mar 21 2011: Does it only move forward?

      Simply because our species has not discovered the concept of reversing time or going back in time is not proof that time only moves forward.

      What we know today is only a miniscule fraction of what we will know in the future.
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        Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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        May 15 2011: agreed, John..and very few on the leading edge ofscience in exploring what time also agree..you are in excellent company!!! On the mor efruitful side of human endeavor, I think, to be very very wary of those who speak about time with any certainty.
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          Gerry O'Connor

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          May 15 2011: i agree Lindsay ... we're sitting in a gigantic pool of time trying to get an overview .. doesn't make sense unless we can lift ourselves outside of it to get some perspective
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        Pascal-Xavier Van de Goor

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        Jun 7 2011: I would love to be able to go back in time and do some things differently or just not do them at all. But wouldn't be too much of a hassle of one could go back in time? By going back in time and changing something you change the future but every action has an effect on uncountable different things so you might not even realise what you change. By going back in time to secure your own happiness you might cause somebody else a lot of harm without realising it.

        And to be honest, going back in time would be to easy. We need to take responsibility for our actions and learn from them.

        I would say that time as we defined it only moves forward but time (to me) is relative. By going forward in time (getting older) you can go back in time (midlife crisis and act like a teen) so as time is moving forward you're moving backwards... I think it depends of your own view on what time is if time is only moving forward.

        I realise this might sound confusing so I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.
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      Thomas Pisarchick 10+

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      May 13 2011: Hawking uses a paradoxical example: If a mad scientist were to create a wormhole one minute into the past and then from the future shoot his past self from through the wormhole who shot him? How could he be in the future if he was dead in the past...

      He says that paradoxes like this cannot exist so this proves that time only flows in one direction. Although his conclusion may be correct there is a fundamental flaw in this paradox. That is a wormhole going forward in time will not send a projectile backwards through time.

      If the scientist were to create a wormhole going one minute in the future and shoot through it he could hit himself one minute before he shot the gun. That would be a more accurate paradox. Being that the wormhole would then be flowing from future to past.
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        Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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        May 15 2011: thomas do you happen to have a citation or link on what hawking said?
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        Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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        May 16 2011: Great link, Thomas, thanks for taking the time to find and post it for me..and here is a quote from it for all who have been thinking baout time travel back in time"Physicists have been thinking about tunnels in time too, but we come at it from a different angle. We wonder if portals to the past or the future could ever be possible within the laws of nature. As it turns out, we think they are. What's more, we've even given them a name: wormholes. The truth is that wormholes are all around us, only they're too small to see. Wormholes are very tiny. They occur in nooks and crannies in space and time. You might find it a tough concept, but stay with me. "..Stephen HawkingRead more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1269288/STEPHEN-HAWKING-How-build-time-machine.html#ixzz1MX84KRltI guess the part that hangs folk up, according to Brian Cox, is the idea of causality...that once an actionhas caused another action that is fixed in time and unlike all other dimensions which we can travel two ways (up and down back and forth) lowwiing that in the dimension of time poses all kind of complexities. But apparently Stephen Hawing isn't allowing that to stop him for considering time as two ways ( or perhapsa continuous loop?) Thankss again for your great courtesy in finding and posting the links
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      Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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      May 13 2011: it is only in a linear concept of time that time moves only forward..many are moving away from linear concerpts of time..I no longer feel any resonance with the idea that time is linear..that it has a beginning and an end.
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        Thomas Pisarchick 10+

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        May 14 2011: Yes thank you, What I also should point out about the paradox above if the future self whacks the past self then the present self is still. And as soon as you fired that event would be in the past.

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