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There is no such thing as time

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  • M Marc Clifton

    Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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    Chris Maunder
    wrote on last edited by
    #22

    So what you're suggesting is that the universe changes (OK, let's get technical: Entropy increases monotonically) as some measurable reference value changes. Suits me. How about we call this measurable reference quantity "Time". It'll save paper when it comes to rewriting physics. (Hint: Don't think of time as separate from space)

    cheers, Chris Maunder

    CodeProject.com : C++ MVP

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    • M Marc Clifton

      Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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      Anna Jayne Metcalfe
      wrote on last edited by
      #23

      "Time is an illusion - lunchtime doubly so" - Slartibartfast, in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Enough said, really. :rolleyes:

      Anna :rose: Linting the day away :cool: Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"

      modified on Monday, January 07, 2008 1:19:11 AM

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      • C Chris Maunder

        So what you're suggesting is that the universe changes (OK, let's get technical: Entropy increases monotonically) as some measurable reference value changes. Suits me. How about we call this measurable reference quantity "Time". It'll save paper when it comes to rewriting physics. (Hint: Don't think of time as separate from space)

        cheers, Chris Maunder

        CodeProject.com : C++ MVP

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        Anton Afanasyev
        wrote on last edited by
        #24

        Isn't that rephrasing exactly what Marc stated?

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        • M Marc Clifton

          Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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          blackjack2150
          wrote on last edited by
          #25

          Imagine a closed system, where the objects inside it change their states (position, temperature, etc). We describe the state changes that take place by relating to the notion of time, like for example speed = d(distance) / d(time) (d - differential). Now, one can think that no state changes happen in this system, then the notion of time is irrelevant, as there are no state changes, thus no way to notice passage of time. But I ask you: is it possible to have such a system where absolutely nothing changes? The answer is NO. There are some things which can never be stopped like the Brownian movement or the electrons revolving around the nuclei of atoms. In theory, these can also be 'frozen' in a system where the temperature is ABSOLUTE ZERO (-273.15 C IIRC), but then again it has been proven that absolute zero is unreachable in practice. So, time exists! Good mental gymnastics, though. Have you seen the movie 'What the #$^@ do we know?' It's a part-fiction part-documentary dealing with quantum physics, philosophy and bio-chemistry.

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          • A Anton Afanasyev

            Isn't that rephrasing exactly what Marc stated?

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            Paul Watson
            wrote on last edited by
            #26

            Yes, except Chris is a scientist and understands this a lot deeper than most of us and the thought Marc is having has been had before and led to Time being defined. Not defined as you define a variable but defined as in describing something in our heads to make sense of something outside of our heads. "Time" is a label for something we have observed. It would exist whether we labeled it or not.

            regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa

            Andy Brummer wrote:

            Watson's law: As an online discussion of cars grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving the Bugatti Veyron approaches one.

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            • M Marc Clifton

              Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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              Paul Watson
              wrote on last edited by
              #27

              I thought this was something most people think about for awhile, along the lines of "How the bejeezus did we get here?" When I had this thought I thought I was onto something but then realised I was just relabeling. Time will exist in its form ("state change", 4th dimension, whatever) whether we label it or not. An alien race may call it something else, possibly equating it to some religious manifestation of the universe ("the universe lives through time and as god is life so time is god"). We didn't invent time, we just coined it, gave what we observed a name. So as Chris says, you are right but heck, lets just call it time at the end of the day :)

              regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa

              Andy Brummer wrote:

              Watson's law: As an online discussion of cars grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving the Bugatti Veyron approaches one.

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              • M Marc Clifton

                Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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                Frobro
                wrote on last edited by
                #28

                >the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes Well then that's TIME! Your argument merely re-defines time. You've simply said that time doesn't exist in the units of measure we use today (i.e. no seconds, days, years etc); you're simply saying it's a measure of the changes in state that particles undergo. Which is spot on, because changes in state are a process - time is therefore a measure of those processes! Therefore time exists - you just don't wanna call it time. Elementary my dear Marc :-)

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                • M Marc Clifton

                  Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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                  MartyExodus
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #29

                  This argument has come up a lot in "amateur" philosophical discussions. We amateurs are the real philosophers, not those dumbasses like Freud or Jung. Anyhow, my friend and I have been discussing this idea for some time. As he is a philosophy major, he's going to be doing his senior thesis on this idea next fall. I'm always pleased to find this idea brought forth by a new person. Congrats, Marc, you've just joined yet another circle of enlightened beings. How many does that make for you now?

                  There is no knowledge that is not power. - Mortal Kombat

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                  • B blackjack2150

                    Imagine a closed system, where the objects inside it change their states (position, temperature, etc). We describe the state changes that take place by relating to the notion of time, like for example speed = d(distance) / d(time) (d - differential). Now, one can think that no state changes happen in this system, then the notion of time is irrelevant, as there are no state changes, thus no way to notice passage of time. But I ask you: is it possible to have such a system where absolutely nothing changes? The answer is NO. There are some things which can never be stopped like the Brownian movement or the electrons revolving around the nuclei of atoms. In theory, these can also be 'frozen' in a system where the temperature is ABSOLUTE ZERO (-273.15 C IIRC), but then again it has been proven that absolute zero is unreachable in practice. So, time exists! Good mental gymnastics, though. Have you seen the movie 'What the #$^@ do we know?' It's a part-fiction part-documentary dealing with quantum physics, philosophy and bio-chemistry.

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                    JDL EPM
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #30

                    blackjack2150 wrote:

                    In theory, these can also be 'frozen' in a system where the temperature is ABSOLUTE ZERO (-273.15 C IIRC), but then again it has been proven that absolute zero is unreachable in practice.

                    You're right, ABSOLUTE ZERO can't be achieved, but a former Physics 101 lab student of mine got within a millionth of a degree: http://govexec.com/features/1006sam/1006samS2.htm[^] By the way, that article is not just not PR - he really IS a nice guy!

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                    • M Marc Clifton

                      Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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                      James Ingram
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #31

                      That's pretty close to what I think too. For me (as a brain), brains are symbol manipulators which use massive multiprocessing (at the neuron level). Symbols and Time are parts of the (my) brain's strategy for reducing complexity. "Time" is the user thread - otherwise called "conciousness"... ;) James

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                      • M Marc Clifton

                        Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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                        Pharago
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #32

                        i agree, theres not such a thing as time, u cant take time from some place and move it to another, u cannot stop time, u cannot make time go backwards, time is the name we have given to a concept, our way to measure how many events have happened between... other events. time is measured now using atomic clocks, some scientist discovered that some atomic nuclei undergo some changes periodically in a stable form, precision comes to mind, 10^-9 seconds per day... so imo, time, if it were to be inluded into any formula, it should be handled with care, because its a concept that never goes backward, cant be exchanged, cannot be stopped, simply flows whether u want, belive, or anything, its a shame the scientific community its swamped into relativistic bullshit, time dilation, the twin brothers paradox, seems to me that some human especimens still feel the need to hold into the chance of the magical or mystical man beeing a possibility, and dont start with the e=mc2 'magic' as some of us always knew that its the kinetic energy formula to which someone just exchanged velocity with the speed of light anyway, this is not easy matter (xD) and the web is full or controversial opinions and flames. take care, regards jan

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                        • M Marc Clifton

                          Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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                          Jim Mac
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #33

                          relevance of observation. this is true of most scientific discoveries. the proverbial "if a tree falls in the forest"

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                          • P Pharago

                            i agree, theres not such a thing as time, u cant take time from some place and move it to another, u cannot stop time, u cannot make time go backwards, time is the name we have given to a concept, our way to measure how many events have happened between... other events. time is measured now using atomic clocks, some scientist discovered that some atomic nuclei undergo some changes periodically in a stable form, precision comes to mind, 10^-9 seconds per day... so imo, time, if it were to be inluded into any formula, it should be handled with care, because its a concept that never goes backward, cant be exchanged, cannot be stopped, simply flows whether u want, belive, or anything, its a shame the scientific community its swamped into relativistic bullshit, time dilation, the twin brothers paradox, seems to me that some human especimens still feel the need to hold into the chance of the magical or mystical man beeing a possibility, and dont start with the e=mc2 'magic' as some of us always knew that its the kinetic energy formula to which someone just exchanged velocity with the speed of light anyway, this is not easy matter (xD) and the web is full or controversial opinions and flames. take care, regards jan

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                            ricmil42
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #34

                            Time exists for one reason... To stop everything from happening at once. :)

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                            • M Marc Clifton

                              Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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                              User 4753893
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #35

                              In this dimension time does exist, it is cyclical, so seasons change, animals age, plants wither, dinaursaus become extinct, sun rises and sets, project life cycle etc. all these are relative to time. However only in this dimension. Therefore you can only prove time does not exist or even suggest this, from within a dimension that has no notion of time eg Heaven. :-D

                              Me

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                              • M Marc Clifton

                                Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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                                gjkiker
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #36

                                Agreed. time is a human measument to explain why the sun shines and sets. simple. how long do I have to do this work before the sun goes down and I cannot see without help. Much like numbering codes of line. it all works, until there is a bug. simple way to point to a number to solve the problem. :doh:

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                                • M Marc Clifton

                                  Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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                                  MrPlankton
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #37

                                  Hey bro. You been writing too many FPGA logic equations. I deny the universe is on a discreet digital master clock that can be descried by Mealy-Moore diagrams. further more... you are obviously one "of those" digital types. You know the type, "analog is not my religion, it's my antireligion". You people believe that everything and every event occurs on a digital scale and can be measured on a digital scale as long as the granularity of the measurement is fine enough. bahhh... The world is analog, you people need to get use to it. :)

                                  MrPlankton

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                                  • M Marc Clifton

                                    Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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                                    AspDotNetDvlpr
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #38

                                    You all sure are wasting alot of "time" discussing this :)

                                    Happy programming!

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                                    • M Marc Clifton

                                      Speaking of physics... I've come the idea (probably not original, but I never read the works of the great or not so great philosophers), that time is merely a subjective concept created by the human brain to relate to state changes. There is no such thing as time, rather, the universe simply undergoes a continuous set of state changes as a result of forces being applied. Time is something we create to describe the relationship of those different states according to some, undefined, master reference. The master reference isn't time, it's a metastate change, much like your CPU is driven by the state changes in the oscillator. :) Marc

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                                      Brent Lamborn
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #39

                                      If you try to explain that time doesn't exist and you have to use the words "time is.." to explain that idea, then stop right there. That's a dead give away that you are wrong.


                                      "Half this game is ninety percent mental." - Yogi Berra If you can read thank a teacher, if you can read in English, thank a Marine.

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                                      • U User 4753893

                                        In this dimension time does exist, it is cyclical, so seasons change, animals age, plants wither, dinaursaus become extinct, sun rises and sets, project life cycle etc. all these are relative to time. However only in this dimension. Therefore you can only prove time does not exist or even suggest this, from within a dimension that has no notion of time eg Heaven. :-D

                                        Me

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                                        Pharago
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #40

                                        first u have to give some proof that another dimesions exist at all, u see, this is the place when ppl mix maths and physics, maths can make anything you want to, your only limit will be your imagination and of course maths itself, but physics arent maths u cant just cruch some numbers are tell everyone that this or that exist just because your maths say so, u will have to prove it and if you try and fail your maths could still be right, so no dimesions please, keep your feet on earth regards jan

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                                        • B Brent Lamborn

                                          If you try to explain that time doesn't exist and you have to use the words "time is.." to explain that idea, then stop right there. That's a dead give away that you are wrong.


                                          "Half this game is ninety percent mental." - Yogi Berra If you can read thank a teacher, if you can read in English, thank a Marine.

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                                          Marc Clifton
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #41

                                          Brent Lamborn wrote:

                                          If you try to explain that time doesn't exist and you have to use the words "time is.." to explain that idea, then stop right there. That's a dead give away that you are wrong.

                                          Oh good. Proof that heaven exists because I have word for it. :) Marc

                                          Thyme In The Country Interacx My Blog

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