What is the present?
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Paul Watson wrote: Really? LOL, what a coincidence. I have just finished reading The Truth by the same and am going to go get Thief of Time this Saturday Cool. Get it, I really enjoyed the story and it has an interesting twist I found the Vampire doing flash photography hilarious in The Truth, I cracked up each time he took a photo. :-D Future and past do appear to be human concepts, but then we have experiments that show goldfish have a 20 second memory and lab mice can remember paths through mazes and (pavlovs) dogs can be trained to remember certain stimulii will result in a future reward. This tends to imply that some animals at least have a concept of past and future, so is it just a human concept, or just some phenomenon that we have put into words. Paresh Solanki Murphy’s Law (Mathematics): “If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try multiplying by the page number”."
Paresh Solanki wrote: I cracked up each time he took a photo. -ing hilarious Mr. Pin. :laugh: Paresh Solanki wrote: or just some phenomenon that we have put into words. A neccesary phenomenon of evolution to survive? We have evolved this concept of time, past, future, present etc. to better understand and use our universe. That animals also display "understanding" of the present is no shock to me as I still believe we are as animal as the next (but lets not go there shall we.) But I wonder if it is also part of our universe at the physic, space/time level. I wonder how we can even tell if a particle is bound by "the present." Arrrgghh, too much thinking. Back to work now... :-D regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
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Ok so the debate yesterday on how replicating a cat would produce a dead cat got me to thinking about the present. What is it? The past and future are easy enough concepts to grasp, but I cannot get my mind around the present. Even though we bandy the concept around all the time, without thinking much about it I assume. To my understanding as soon as you define a timespan as the present, it becomes the past. Also how small or large is that timespan? A second, a minute a pico-second? A moment? Dictionary.com defines it as: pres·ent1 (prznt) n. A moment or period in time perceptible as intermediate between past and future; now So it is the period between our past and our future. Not much help really is it? And if you do not feel like talking about past, present and future... "The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence and patience to turn that dream into reality." - Ronald Reagan Doesn't it seem as though the political system denies the ability to turn a dream into a reality? 4 years and then you are out unless you have done good and you are re-elected. But to do real good you need time, of which 4 years is not enough. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
I think the proper way to consider it is that we move through the dimension of time at the speed of light. "Now" is about as meaningful as "here" is when you are moving down a highway in a car. In a moving car you are never really "here". "Here" and "now" are continuously redefined - hence the concept of motion, through space or time. Given the limitation of having only two functional neurons, my understanding of this is all quite basic. However, I do believe that the only way you could ever experience a stable "now" is if you were to accelerate to the speed of light along a dimension other than the dimension of time. In that way, your travel through time would stop and you would be at a permanent "now", just as if you stopped all movement through the three known dimensions of space to experience the concept of "here". "Humans: The final chapter in the evolution of rats"
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Ok so the debate yesterday on how replicating a cat would produce a dead cat got me to thinking about the present. What is it? The past and future are easy enough concepts to grasp, but I cannot get my mind around the present. Even though we bandy the concept around all the time, without thinking much about it I assume. To my understanding as soon as you define a timespan as the present, it becomes the past. Also how small or large is that timespan? A second, a minute a pico-second? A moment? Dictionary.com defines it as: pres·ent1 (prznt) n. A moment or period in time perceptible as intermediate between past and future; now So it is the period between our past and our future. Not much help really is it? And if you do not feel like talking about past, present and future... "The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence and patience to turn that dream into reality." - Ronald Reagan Doesn't it seem as though the political system denies the ability to turn a dream into a reality? 4 years and then you are out unless you have done good and you are re-elected. But to do real good you need time, of which 4 years is not enough. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
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This is surreal, I have just finished reading 'Thief Of Time' by Terry Pratchett and the main character there could slice time smaller than anyone else. I don't think that the present is an concious length of time, the present must tend towards zero time, since anything that has happened will be in the past as soon as it has happened. Paresh Solanki Murphy’s Law (Mathematics): “If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try multiplying by the page number”."
Paresh Solanki wrote: This is surreal, I have just finished reading 'Thief Of Time' by Terry Pratchett This is surreeeaaal, I'm half way through 'Thief of Time' right now ! And I've just finished 'The Truth'. :omg: I love Terry Pratchett, especially Corporal Nobbs & Sargeant Colon of the watch, and the witch Granny Weatherwax, her 'headology' approach to life is great :-D. Paresh Solanki wrote: I don't think that the present is an concious length of time, the present must tend towards zero time I think you've got it dead right here. 'The Present' is infinitely small. :) Ali
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Paresh Solanki wrote: This is surreal, I have just finished reading 'Thief Of Time' by Terry Pratchett and the main character there could slice time smaller than anyone else. Really? LOL, what a coincidence. I have just finished reading The Truth by the same and am going to go get Thief of Time this Saturday :-D Paresh Solanki wrote: I don't think that the present is an concious length of time, the present must tend towards zero time, since anything that has happened will be in the past as soon as it has happened. So we wrap the present around whatever it is we are doing or thinking about. e.g. I am eating and that is my present. It wraps up from when I started opening my lunch box to when I finish the last mouthful, at which point it gets filed under "my past." So this discussion is in the present. Once we have reached some kind of "it has happened" point it becomes the past. It is all so human, far too created and unreal. I was hoping someone would have show that the present is also embedded in the universe, that particles have some impression of the present. Alas no. Paresh Solanki wrote: the present must tend towards zero time That is what I was thinking, that the present is just a neat concept we evolved to help us think, but that in reality there is no present, just past and future. I saw a book the other day where a scientist trys to explain the concept of nothing. He talks about zero time, null values and the concept of a space of, well, nothing. Hard to get your head around stuff like that when everything we are is something and even thinking about nothing makes it something. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
Just had to point out that I'm half way through 'Thief if Time' right now ! And I've just finished 'The Truth'. :omg: :omg: :omg: Oh yeah, nice sig too :-O Ali
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Ok so the debate yesterday on how replicating a cat would produce a dead cat got me to thinking about the present. What is it? The past and future are easy enough concepts to grasp, but I cannot get my mind around the present. Even though we bandy the concept around all the time, without thinking much about it I assume. To my understanding as soon as you define a timespan as the present, it becomes the past. Also how small or large is that timespan? A second, a minute a pico-second? A moment? Dictionary.com defines it as: pres·ent1 (prznt) n. A moment or period in time perceptible as intermediate between past and future; now So it is the period between our past and our future. Not much help really is it? And if you do not feel like talking about past, present and future... "The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence and patience to turn that dream into reality." - Ronald Reagan Doesn't it seem as though the political system denies the ability to turn a dream into a reality? 4 years and then you are out unless you have done good and you are re-elected. But to do real good you need time, of which 4 years is not enough. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
The present is that which gives you the memories of the past that you look forward to reminiscing about in the future. The present is either a nothing-kth - the indivisible point when the future becomes the past, or the the present is your entire life. We don't live in the past, or the present (at least we shouldn't) - we live in the here and now. The present is a continuum of change where we watch, from our vantage point of 'I' the world changing and growing and ageing around us. cheers, Chris Maunder
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Paresh Solanki wrote: This is surreal, I have just finished reading 'Thief Of Time' by Terry Pratchett This is surreeeaaal, I'm half way through 'Thief of Time' right now ! And I've just finished 'The Truth'. :omg: I love Terry Pratchett, especially Corporal Nobbs & Sargeant Colon of the watch, and the witch Granny Weatherwax, her 'headology' approach to life is great :-D. Paresh Solanki wrote: I don't think that the present is an concious length of time, the present must tend towards zero time I think you've got it dead right here. 'The Present' is infinitely small. :) Ali
Alison Pentland wrote: 'The Present' is infinitely small. Ahh, well there is the nugget of my problem. When they declared the Atom the building block of everything they thought they were right. Then someone showed that in fact an Atom is made up of smaller building blocks. At that point they thought that was as far as it went and that they had reached the ultimate "particle." Then someone discovered quarks and it's ilk. From that history I came to believe that everything is made up of something else, and that it never really stops. A quark is also made up of something surely? And whatever makes up a quark, is also made up of something else. And so on and so on. So infinitely small seems like a cop-out to me. As soon as you reach what we think is the smallest measure of the present, I am pretty sure we will find something smaller a year or two down the line. And if the present is infinitley small, that as we inspect it, it recedes further from us, what use is it to us? Ahh to have a mind and no answers! :-D Alison Pentland wrote: And I've just finished 'The Truth' -ing funny book. And I am going to pick up Thief of Time this Saturday. What a small world we live in! regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
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I think the proper way to consider it is that we move through the dimension of time at the speed of light. "Now" is about as meaningful as "here" is when you are moving down a highway in a car. In a moving car you are never really "here". "Here" and "now" are continuously redefined - hence the concept of motion, through space or time. Given the limitation of having only two functional neurons, my understanding of this is all quite basic. However, I do believe that the only way you could ever experience a stable "now" is if you were to accelerate to the speed of light along a dimension other than the dimension of time. In that way, your travel through time would stop and you would be at a permanent "now", just as if you stopped all movement through the three known dimensions of space to experience the concept of "here". "Humans: The final chapter in the evolution of rats"
Reverend Stan wrote: In that way, your travel through time would stop and you would be at a permanent "now", But only relative to everything else, right? You yourself would still be experiencing time passage and therefore a past and future, wouldn't you? Is time really not just the view of the difference between one point and the next? Einstein was a great philospher! :-D And you, Reverand Stan, astound me as always. From this post you should tag on a Prof. to your name :) Reverend Stan wrote: In a moving car you are never really "here". "Here" and "now" are continuously redefined - hence the concept of motion, through space or time. Somehow the bullet-time sequences in The Matrix come to mind as I read that. Just imagining your viewpoint of a car suddenly stopping and swivelling around it, trying to define where "here" is for it and where it is at present (which changes for you as you swivel around it, but not for the car?) regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
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The present is that which gives you the memories of the past that you look forward to reminiscing about in the future. The present is either a nothing-kth - the indivisible point when the future becomes the past, or the the present is your entire life. We don't live in the past, or the present (at least we shouldn't) - we live in the here and now. The present is a continuum of change where we watch, from our vantage point of 'I' the world changing and growing and ageing around us. cheers, Chris Maunder
Chris Maunder wrote: or the the present is your entire life So it is all relative or rather individual points of view? No two can share the same present? Chris Maunder wrote: The present is a continuum of change where we watch, from our vantage point of 'I' the world changing and growing and ageing around us. Sounds very lonely, doesn't it. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
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Paresh Solanki wrote: This is surreal, I have just finished reading 'Thief Of Time' by Terry Pratchett This is surreeeaaal, I'm half way through 'Thief of Time' right now ! And I've just finished 'The Truth'. :omg: I love Terry Pratchett, especially Corporal Nobbs & Sargeant Colon of the watch, and the witch Granny Weatherwax, her 'headology' approach to life is great :-D. Paresh Solanki wrote: I don't think that the present is an concious length of time, the present must tend towards zero time I think you've got it dead right here. 'The Present' is infinitely small. :) Ali
Where I work, it's really surreal One of the managers is the spitting image of Rincewind (as I imagine him), we have had various people 'fit' into the roles of Greebo, Corporal Carrot (Was still corporal when he left), Magrat Garlik, Nanny Ogg, Lord Vetinari, Death, Death of Mice, and Lady Sibyl Ramikin. Paresh Solanki Murphy’s Law (Mathematics): “If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try multiplying by the page number”."
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Ok so the debate yesterday on how replicating a cat would produce a dead cat got me to thinking about the present. What is it? The past and future are easy enough concepts to grasp, but I cannot get my mind around the present. Even though we bandy the concept around all the time, without thinking much about it I assume. To my understanding as soon as you define a timespan as the present, it becomes the past. Also how small or large is that timespan? A second, a minute a pico-second? A moment? Dictionary.com defines it as: pres·ent1 (prznt) n. A moment or period in time perceptible as intermediate between past and future; now So it is the period between our past and our future. Not much help really is it? And if you do not feel like talking about past, present and future... "The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence and patience to turn that dream into reality." - Ronald Reagan Doesn't it seem as though the political system denies the ability to turn a dream into a reality? 4 years and then you are out unless you have done good and you are re-elected. But to do real good you need time, of which 4 years is not enough. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
If you are experiencing it...then it's the present. If you are remembering it...then it's the past. The future doesn't exist...you can only presently think about the future.
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Alison Pentland wrote: 'The Present' is infinitely small. Ahh, well there is the nugget of my problem. When they declared the Atom the building block of everything they thought they were right. Then someone showed that in fact an Atom is made up of smaller building blocks. At that point they thought that was as far as it went and that they had reached the ultimate "particle." Then someone discovered quarks and it's ilk. From that history I came to believe that everything is made up of something else, and that it never really stops. A quark is also made up of something surely? And whatever makes up a quark, is also made up of something else. And so on and so on. So infinitely small seems like a cop-out to me. As soon as you reach what we think is the smallest measure of the present, I am pretty sure we will find something smaller a year or two down the line. And if the present is infinitley small, that as we inspect it, it recedes further from us, what use is it to us? Ahh to have a mind and no answers! :-D Alison Pentland wrote: And I've just finished 'The Truth' -ing funny book. And I am going to pick up Thief of Time this Saturday. What a small world we live in! regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
Paul Watson wrote: Then someone discovered quarks and it's ilk. I think they guessed about this one, then someone opened up a bar, then suddenly there were Quarks everywhere Paresh Solanki Murphy’s Law (Mathematics): “If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try multiplying by the page number”."
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Given that what we perceive as "the present" is actually delayed by the length of time it takes the brain to process the nerve impulses, the present is actually the recent past. As you move further away from an event, the speed of light causes "the present" to move further into the past. :wtf: :omg:
"I drink, therefore I am." René Descartes
Richard_D wrote: what we perceive as "the present" is actually delayed by the length of time it takes the brain to process the nerve impulses, the present is actually the recent past I was mulling over that too, not a nice thought at all. Reminds me of the explanation of the light-speed "barrier." We can never catch light as it is always leap frogging away in front of us. I can never catch the present because it is always receding into the past. Richard_D wrote: the speed of light How does the speed of light actually, physically, come into this? regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
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Where I work, it's really surreal One of the managers is the spitting image of Rincewind (as I imagine him), we have had various people 'fit' into the roles of Greebo, Corporal Carrot (Was still corporal when he left), Magrat Garlik, Nanny Ogg, Lord Vetinari, Death, Death of Mice, and Lady Sibyl Ramikin. Paresh Solanki Murphy’s Law (Mathematics): “If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try multiplying by the page number”."
Paresh Solanki wrote: One of the managers is the spitting image of Rincewind Strange how Rincewind who basically kicked off the Discworld novels has faded out of existence. I enjoyed his pranks, but the later Discworlds are far better, much deeper and better from the lack of him. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
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Richard_D wrote: what we perceive as "the present" is actually delayed by the length of time it takes the brain to process the nerve impulses, the present is actually the recent past I was mulling over that too, not a nice thought at all. Reminds me of the explanation of the light-speed "barrier." We can never catch light as it is always leap frogging away in front of us. I can never catch the present because it is always receding into the past. Richard_D wrote: the speed of light How does the speed of light actually, physically, come into this? regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
Paul Watson wrote: We can never catch light as it is always leap frogging away in front of us Not always :-D Slowing the speed of light (I thought this was old news...) "It could have been worse, it could have been ME!" -Rincewind
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I think the proper way to consider it is that we move through the dimension of time at the speed of light. "Now" is about as meaningful as "here" is when you are moving down a highway in a car. In a moving car you are never really "here". "Here" and "now" are continuously redefined - hence the concept of motion, through space or time. Given the limitation of having only two functional neurons, my understanding of this is all quite basic. However, I do believe that the only way you could ever experience a stable "now" is if you were to accelerate to the speed of light along a dimension other than the dimension of time. In that way, your travel through time would stop and you would be at a permanent "now", just as if you stopped all movement through the three known dimensions of space to experience the concept of "here". "Humans: The final chapter in the evolution of rats"
Reverend Stan wrote: I do believe that the only way you could ever experience a stable "now" is if you were to accelerate to the speed of light along a dimension other than the dimension of time Well, according to this article, all i need is my trusty bicycle... ;) "It could have been worse, it could have been ME!"
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Ok so the debate yesterday on how replicating a cat would produce a dead cat got me to thinking about the present. What is it? The past and future are easy enough concepts to grasp, but I cannot get my mind around the present. Even though we bandy the concept around all the time, without thinking much about it I assume. To my understanding as soon as you define a timespan as the present, it becomes the past. Also how small or large is that timespan? A second, a minute a pico-second? A moment? Dictionary.com defines it as: pres·ent1 (prznt) n. A moment or period in time perceptible as intermediate between past and future; now So it is the period between our past and our future. Not much help really is it? And if you do not feel like talking about past, present and future... "The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence and patience to turn that dream into reality." - Ronald Reagan Doesn't it seem as though the political system denies the ability to turn a dream into a reality? 4 years and then you are out unless you have done good and you are re-elected. But to do real good you need time, of which 4 years is not enough. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
Defining the present is easy. It's now. No, wait, it's right now. No, wait for it, it's... etc etc etc. BTW, I did not read the thread, was it full of people making the same lame joke I did ? Christian come on all you MS suckups, defend your sugar-daddy now. - Chris Losinger - 11/07/2002
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Ok so the debate yesterday on how replicating a cat would produce a dead cat got me to thinking about the present. What is it? The past and future are easy enough concepts to grasp, but I cannot get my mind around the present. Even though we bandy the concept around all the time, without thinking much about it I assume. To my understanding as soon as you define a timespan as the present, it becomes the past. Also how small or large is that timespan? A second, a minute a pico-second? A moment? Dictionary.com defines it as: pres·ent1 (prznt) n. A moment or period in time perceptible as intermediate between past and future; now So it is the period between our past and our future. Not much help really is it? And if you do not feel like talking about past, present and future... "The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence and patience to turn that dream into reality." - Ronald Reagan Doesn't it seem as though the political system denies the ability to turn a dream into a reality? 4 years and then you are out unless you have done good and you are re-elected. But to do real good you need time, of which 4 years is not enough. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Alison Pentland wrote: I now have an image of you in front of the mirror in the morning, wearing your knickers, socks and shoes trying to decided if they match!
Understanding the present is easy. Just step outside of time and look at the course of history as a long 1 dimensional line(length only, no height or width). Now look at a zero dimensional point moving along that line in one direction. This point has no length, width, or height. It's almost theoretical. But there it is sliding along the line of time. Now lean in and look at this one particular point and see the entire universe, everything that is happening everywhere at the very same time. Stop the point of *NOW*, and explore the entire universe at this one particular now. (You can see nothing or hear nothing because he motion of light and sound require time to pass for them to reach your eyes and ears.) Now step outside of time again and slide the point of *now* like a scroll bar to any point of history, two days ago for example. When you lean in and look around in this universe it is still "now" for all these people, including yourself if you should meet. If you started the now point sliding again the "Now" would move away from you and you would remain in "the past" frozen at that particular point in time, unless you reattached yourself to time and moved along with it, like a passenger getting into a vehicle. In theory, since time is 1 dimensional, you could step into the line of time and look with your eye all the way down the line to infinity. You would become omniscient. Everything that ever happened in every place would seem to be happening right now. It's hard to imagine, but remember that you are not currently in the "vehicle" of now. You are outside of it and are looking down the line of time, a line without width or height. It would not be like looking through a straw or a pipe or whatever, as that requires the passage of time to take in each event one by one in a stream. You would in fact percieve all events in every place as happening right *NOW*. In essense, the whole history of the universe is an endless collection or "nows". There is no past and no future. We simply ride through the "nows" one by one in this particular now. We percieve the infinite universe from this particular point in time the same way we percieve the universe from this particular place. But if you could be in every place, and in every time and experience it all as right here and now you would be truly omniscient. <Theology> This is how God sees the world. This is why he is able to forgive sinners based on what Jesus did on the cross 2000 years ago. As far as he's concerned it is happening right now. This is how he is
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Understanding the present is easy. Just step outside of time and look at the course of history as a long 1 dimensional line(length only, no height or width). Now look at a zero dimensional point moving along that line in one direction. This point has no length, width, or height. It's almost theoretical. But there it is sliding along the line of time. Now lean in and look at this one particular point and see the entire universe, everything that is happening everywhere at the very same time. Stop the point of *NOW*, and explore the entire universe at this one particular now. (You can see nothing or hear nothing because he motion of light and sound require time to pass for them to reach your eyes and ears.) Now step outside of time again and slide the point of *now* like a scroll bar to any point of history, two days ago for example. When you lean in and look around in this universe it is still "now" for all these people, including yourself if you should meet. If you started the now point sliding again the "Now" would move away from you and you would remain in "the past" frozen at that particular point in time, unless you reattached yourself to time and moved along with it, like a passenger getting into a vehicle. In theory, since time is 1 dimensional, you could step into the line of time and look with your eye all the way down the line to infinity. You would become omniscient. Everything that ever happened in every place would seem to be happening right now. It's hard to imagine, but remember that you are not currently in the "vehicle" of now. You are outside of it and are looking down the line of time, a line without width or height. It would not be like looking through a straw or a pipe or whatever, as that requires the passage of time to take in each event one by one in a stream. You would in fact percieve all events in every place as happening right *NOW*. In essense, the whole history of the universe is an endless collection or "nows". There is no past and no future. We simply ride through the "nows" one by one in this particular now. We percieve the infinite universe from this particular point in time the same way we percieve the universe from this particular place. But if you could be in every place, and in every time and experience it all as right here and now you would be truly omniscient. <Theology> This is how God sees the world. This is why he is able to forgive sinners based on what Jesus did on the cross 2000 years ago. As far as he's concerned it is happening right now. This is how he is
Great post, but one very minor quibble. ;P Being able to see anywhere at anytime doesn't automatically provide you with omniscience. There are still plenty of things you wouldn't know, like what all of the subatomic particles do (and how many there are for that matter). Yes, you would have all the "time" you needed to look at past events or to hunt through the entire universe at any given point in time, but you wouldn't exactly know everything. Now, aren't you glad I posted this? :) John
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Great post, but one very minor quibble. ;P Being able to see anywhere at anytime doesn't automatically provide you with omniscience. There are still plenty of things you wouldn't know, like what all of the subatomic particles do (and how many there are for that matter). Yes, you would have all the "time" you needed to look at past events or to hunt through the entire universe at any given point in time, but you wouldn't exactly know everything. Now, aren't you glad I posted this? :) John
Well obviously you are I lack that capacity to comprehend the entire universe at-a-glance in that way, even if we could see it. Our brains would probably disintegrate into sludge.... Good point though. By omniscience I meant seeing the universe at-a-glance, not necessarily comprehending it. :omg:
"I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?" -xterm
