Time doesn’t actually flow \ stacker news ~science

1861 sats \ 19 comments \ @cryotosensei 10 Jul science

Here are some interesting marinates on the concept of time by Paul Davies in Scientific American

The most straightforward conclusion is that both past and future are fixed. For this reason, physicists prefer to think of time as laid out in its entirety—a timescape, analogous to a landscape—with all past and future events located there together. It is a notion sometimes referred to as block time. Completely absent from this description of nature is anything that singles out a privileged, special moment as the present or any process that would systematically turn future events into present, then past, events. In short, the time of the physicist does not pass or flow.

Arianna Huffington wrote in response to Davies’ paper:

I love this because “block time” helps me see the big picture - there is literally both no time and all the time in the world.

I think the notion of block time is intriguing. I’m sure many of us are familiar with the theory why children lament that their birthdays take forever to arrive, whereas adults feel that time flies faster as they get older. If we subscribe to the notion of block time, each year comprises a lower percentage of the total amount of our lifespan. In other ways, each year represents a thinner block of time. That’s why we lament its increasingly transcendental existence.

If we can train ourselves not to be shackles by the confines of time and learn to value every moment as it is, perhaps we won’t keep feeling that we are a galloping stallion flogged by the whip of Father Time. If we perceive every event as a blob on this piece of paper depicting the entire time the Universe has gifted us, maybe we will be able to live more in the here and now rather than pining for the past or yearning for the future.

I guess I just want to feel less rushed about my remaining years on this planet, even though I ironically feel more compelled to leave something impactful behind to make my existence count. Is this a weighing scale present in your mind?

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11 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitcoinAbhi 11 Jul

Yes, you mean time is stationary? For me, time is just a constraint that stops us from thinking beyond the reality. I mean if there were no time, we can't differentiate between reality and past and future.

84 sats \ 1 reply \ @Coinsreporter 10 Jul

https://m.stacker.news/39079

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 10 Jul

I enjoy the differing perspectives haha

72 sats \ 5 replies \ @didiplaywell 10 Jul

For this matters, I take and use the example of the movie Click, do you know that one? It's a comedy that showcases with surprising rigour how the brain works on this matters. We can't avoid the "auto-pilot" mode, our brain is designed to work that way as much as it can. To prevent time from "skipping" away, we must be disciplined and control carefully what we allow our brain to do in "auto-pilot", so that we can live it ourselves, thus ensuring we keep the time we have with us, in what we consider is worth it. That's all we have and can do about it.

70 sats \ 2 replies \ @south_korea_ln 10 Jul

I was gonna comment something like that.

I forgot where I read it, but indeed, seems like children have more clicks in a minute than an adult has. The number of clicks decreases with age where a click is like a moment of consciousness. Our consciousness coming from chemical reactions is discrete rather than continuous, and so the reason we feel like time goes faster as we age is simply because these reactions are less frequent and we thus perceive less clicks.

This is from memory, and I'm by no means an expert in terms like consciousness, so forgive me if I'm not using the right of approved terminology~~

34 sats \ 0 replies \ @didiplaywell 10 Jul

That's interesting. It makes sense. Kids can't have an auto-pilot yet because they don't know anything, so they have to update consciously more often. As we grow, more an more can be delegated to the auto-pilot and updates are less frequent because are less needed. This fits with the idea that keeping yourself learning and out of the comfort zone helps to keep a grip on time.

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @zapsammy 10 Jul

analogy: truth (true reality) is an infinitely high frequency, a straight line rather than a sinusoid. whenever our sinusoidal perception intersects with the straight line of reality, we are conscious. other times we deviate from perception of truth and we become unconscious.

bad forces lower our frequency of perception. good forces increase our frequency of perception. [claims that there is not such thing as good and bad are false. this is a religion of solipsism.]

the goal is to spend more time in the true reality, by increasing the frequency of our perception with at least the 5 primary senses, to start. children generally operate at a higher frequency of perception.

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei OP 12 Jul

I have heard of the movie before but haven’t watched it yet. Sounds like a good one.

I think your comment brings up the dichotomy between adhering to a routine n switching things up to keep them fresh

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @didiplaywell 12 Jul

I'm sure you will enjoy it! 10/10 recommended I would rather say "complementing a routine with switching things up", than to say that's a dichotomy. "Balance" is the sacred word

62 sats \ 1 reply \ @SatsMate 11 Jul

I always think of the cavemen if I want to think of live before the construct of time.

I think they thought of life events, but never were granular. Sun up, sun down, winter come - spring arrived.

I think looking at life from this simple lens is good because you appreciate the natural order of events through nature instead of an arbitrary construct we've been taught.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 12 Jul

It’s a great idea but doesn’t apply in my context because I live in a tropical country. Hot n humid summer all year round ;(

62 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 10 Jul

I don't buy it.

For one thing, the Uncertainty Principle is as well validated as any scientific theory and time is a fundamental concept there. Reality seems to be realized in the present out of all of its potential states.

Another issue is consciousness. The best explanation I've heard for why consciousness exists (which came from Brett Weinstein) is that it does something to improve survival. The ability to consider different options and have preferences about outcomes makes more sense in a world that is not fully deterministic.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 12 Jul

I need to find out more about the Uncertainty Principle first haha

62 sats \ 1 reply \ @karanjajes 10 Jul

This's good but don't complicate it. We all know there's only Past,Present and Future. Period!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 10 Jul

Just be

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @16d86e9daa 10 Jul

I always believe time is nothing but an illusion

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @MiddleWay 10 Jul

Nonsense. I hate fatalism idea. By that logic we should release all prisoners, because they had no choice in their actions. Time is evolution of computation in Wolfram Physics.

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @Catcher 10 Jul

"And what if science were able to explain away the flow of time? Perhaps we would no longer fret about the future or grieve for the past. Worries about death might become as irrelevant as worries about birth. Expectation and nostalgia might cease to be part of human vocabulary. Above all, the sense of urgency that attaches to so much of human activity might evaporate. No longer would we be slaves to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's entreaty to “act, act in the living present,” for the past, present and future would literally be things of the past."

This can only happen if we have physical understanding of time (like movie Arrival). But I don't think it's possible, could be more like a religion thing - if you think your destiny is defined or if you are going to valhala, maybe you stop worrying about time, but otherwise I don't see how people will just not think about it.

"If we subscribe to the notion of block time, each year comprises a lower percentage of the total amount of our lifespan. In other ways, each year represents a thinner block of time. That’s why we lament its increasingly transcendental existence."

Could you elaborate on this one - how block theory makes it that the older you get the thinner is the block? As I understand from the article, the block is just the representation that the time is also 3d dimension where we move across

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @NaOD 10 Jul outlawed

stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.