TED Community » Derek Tachiyama

More About Me

I'm passionate about

The universe, and how little we know about it.

Talk to me about

anything. i do enjoy a good philosophical conversation, such as the existence of time.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +1.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: Should public schools in the United States eliminate the traditional A to F grading scale? And if so, what assessment do we replace it with?

  Dec 30 2011: I am a senior in high school and getting ready to go to college. The dude next to me in algebra honors freshman year barely squeaked out a B, while I just barely missed an A. Colleges don't see that, they see our grades as equal. I think the A-F is too simplistic of a grading scale. At minimum, there needs to be pluses and minuses. However, I also think that is as far as it should go. The grading scale cannot be too complex either, since everyone has to be able to work with it.
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  A comment on Conversation: What do you have to be grateful for today?

  Dec 16 2011: Life. that i am living. That I still have a chance to enjoy life.

• A reply on Conversation: what is time?

  Dec 16 2011: aha, yes Colleen brought me to my little grammar problem as well. I was most definitely reffering to the system of time. i hope the world still exists without a time system... or else my argument sort of falls apart.
  
  So i like what you're saying. So to clarify my arguement into one compact area, I believe time exists, but only, as i use part of your definition, "as the passage of our perception of what we experience using our senses in the 3 dimensions of the Universe we live in."
  The system of time, however, is the product of the human mind. It is like money, ando nly works if we believe it works. People ask. "what time is it?", and they are reffering to the system.
  
  The fundamental problem with time, is that we must use time itself or properties/qualities of time to define it. Brings me back to the perception bit that Denis was so nice to add. Time is simply a perception, but it is not a system. Time is the word we gave to describe passing, "present", and future event
  
  Ive been trying for four years now to develop this statement below. If it confuses you, don't worry it confuses me too.
  Time does not truly exist. Time is the result of intelligence attempting to bring order to the chaotic world around them. Rather, it is the result of Life in general. Time is a concept that describe the order of events. Other organisms do not run on "time", but on their natural body cycles and those of the natural world. The natural world gave us the basis for time, as it runs on pretty consistent intervals. It is impossible to imagine there not being time.

• A reply on Conversation: what is time?

  Dec 16 2011: People used to live on cycles of the natural world, on which time is based on. Sun up, Sun down, stars in the sky, weather, etc. however, we needed to develop a system of time, especially when high speed travel was made possible by the steam engine. Time needed to be consistent and accurate everywhere.
  
  I think the now does exist, but not in the conventional sense. Usually the "now" is what happens at this one very moment. But now can mean several things. "Now" is the time to act, we should go "now". The present can be given different parameters depending on the situation.

• A reply on Conversation: what is time?

  Dec 16 2011: I agree with that. I also think that we can "slow time down". Our bodies run on internal clocks. However, when you have extreeme rushes of adrenaline, or you are really bored, time seems to pass slower. So time is definitely a perception as said above. I think the second definition of time is the system we use to "keep track" of our lives.

• A reply on Conversation: what is time?

  Dec 16 2011: See, the problem with defining time is that we use time to define itself. But the stream of thoughts is an interesting way to put it.

• A reply on Conversation: what is time?

  Dec 16 2011: Well, i said move through for the reason Denis brought up about perception. We apear to be moving forward in "time:"

• A reply on Conversation: what is time?

  Dec 16 2011: Denis you are my hero. ahaha!
  
  Now, im gonna go out on a limb here and tie in the tiny little miniscule amount i know about string theory. That there are strings which vibrate in what 11 12or 20 something dimensions? What if "time" is one of these dimensions, meaning it is something which can be traveled through. So it is ppossible to go back, or forward.
  
  The other lovely thing about perception is that we past, present, and future can be warped by distance and light itself. To us, the present lightyears away is actually their past. So are we "traveling back in time?"
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  A reply on Conversation: what is time?

  Dec 16 2011: alright, now this brings me to the point where i have to ask-- do you believe time travel is possible? I need to know before I say what im gonna say-
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  A reply on Conversation: what is time?

  Dec 16 2011: Sorry, i was reffering to time. Time as a system of measurement would not exist. Kind of like money, money is worthless paper and ink unless we give it value.