| Who said you are not travelling in time? Once in while you do, but when you
"jump" forward or backwards, you reach another time "spot", where (i.e., when)
your mind is already adjusted to the knowledge of getting there in the "normal"
way. Other words: You may travel in time, but you never know it, because it's
a different time then.
As a matter of fact, I just reached here from 2525, but I don't know it - how
could I? :-)
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| To think about time, I suggest you take time to think about the
words we use when thinking about time. To start, I suggest you
read the incomparable first few paragraphs of the poem called
"Burnt Norton", which is the first part of T.S. Eliot's quartet
of poems called, "The Four Quartets." It's a slim volume of 4
poems which you can get at the Book Corner for about $1.50. It's
worth it, even if you only read the 1st paragraph in the 1st poem.
It goes something like this:
Time present and time past are both perhaps present in future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is present, all time is unredeemble.
What might have been remains a perpetual possibility only in
a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been point to one end which
is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory down the
passage which we did not take, to the door we never opened.
oops, towards the door we never opened.
... anyway, it goes like that. Unsurprisingly, the "thought-
trends" of the literati seem to be ahead of the rest of us. In
fact, Freud and Jung both paid a great debt to Herman Melville,
calling him "The Father". In a similar way, Gary Zukav quotes
liberally from Eliot's Four Quartets in his book called, "The
Dancing Wu-Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics." As most
of you know particle physicists today are speaking like religious
mystics. It will be interesting to see whether the revelations
from the atom smashers will shatter our existing world-view, just
as Copernicus "De Revolutionibis" (a treatise in the arcane
language of physics, actually a refining of the meanings of words)
caused so much consternation among the religious establishment.
Like then too, the average person cannot actually understand
(myself included) such a refined language as the mathematics
of quantum mechanics applied to particle physics. So we have
poets.
- Jim
< Note 220.8 by HENRY8::BUSTA >
-< ;^) >-
Time was invented so everything wouldn't happen at once;^)
-unknown
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Perhaps a little mental imagery will help... here's how
I define time:
A child is born, and in that child consciousess exists.
It experiences the universe, slowly at first, taking in
those things closest to it first; its family, the surroundings,
and time. The child does not understand these things, it
merely experiences them. It hears the voices of its parents,
sees their faces, drinks their food, and all as it travels
helplessly with the current of time.
As it travels through time it accumulates a collection of
individual points of 'now' for itself. Its memory is composed
of those points of 'now', and little else.
Still, it rides the current of time, aging, maturing, adding
to the collection of points of 'now'. But as the brain develops,
it begins to create memories that are more than just points of
'now'; it creates points of 'what will be' and 'wht should have
been'. It creates, in effect, the future and the past. The past
may be built on a common historical reference, but since it is
not related to actual points of 'now', it is little more than the
imaginings of a fertile mind... except that it is used to define
the image for the future as well.
When the mind conceives of the future it is also creating that
future. Our actions in the 'now' are often controlled by our
vision of 'what will be'. We study certain courses in school
in order to get specific jobs, thereby affecting our contribution
to society in such a way as to make our visions of the future
into realities of the 'now'. In effect, we begin to steer our
way through the currents of time.
Some people stall their vessels in time. It flows ever on
under them, yet they do not move with it. Others try to reverse
the flow, but manage only to move their vessels against the
current. Still others push forward with the current, advancing
beyond it. Thus, some people are said to be 'behind the times',
'retreating into the past', and 'ahead of their time', when in
fact each is still very much part of the 'now' (though in different
places).
And through it all the current flows, affected only slightly
by the actions of those on the surface. It moves on inexorbly,
oblivious to the desires of those who ride the currents.
Yet there comes a time when each boat must sink, and as it
does its riders become lost in the currents. If it sinks slowly,
the riders gradually lose control of the boat, until it is
completely sunk. Sometimes it hits a rock and sinks quickly,
with the rider in complete control until the last seconds.
In the end, however, all boats sink, and all life is lost.
Time travel, in the clasical sense, implies building the
unsinkable boat that can move freely along the currents.
Yet to do so does not guarantee that the riders will move
backwards or forwards to what was or will be. Since the
pilot decides which course to take, they effectively alter
the reality in the same way they did when plotting their
course with the current, and if they plot the wrong course
they cannot help but end up in the wrong place.
To give you a better idead of what I'm talking about,
let's assume that a time travel device is invented. Let's
say it looks like a phone booth (a la Dr. Who). Step inside
the box, give it a destination in time, and just appear there..
right?
But wait! Where was the earth at that time in relation to
the sun? Where was the sun in relation to the galaxy? Where
was the galaxy in relation to the universe. If time is your
only operational parameter, you will not reach your destination,
because everything is moving, and there is no such thing as
absolute spatial references, since the universe is still
expanding. And who's to say that the universe itself is
not moving in some larger macrocosm?
So, it may not be impossible to effectively navigate the
rivers of time. After all, we all do it to some limited
extent. But when we talk about travelling freely to any
point along the river, we are talking about a much more
difficult challenge than just travelling along the one
dimension -- time. Time is irrevocably linked with the
other dimensions as well, hence the need for the term
spacetime.
Now, instead of a simple river composed of a stream of
points of 'now', we are given a broader set of dimensions.
Spacetime is more like an ocean. There are still currents
that propel us forward, but there is now a much wider
scope of where forward is... it could be anywhere in the
ocean, and the currents may shift. What was once forward
may now be considered sideways or backwards, yet to us it
feels ever like forward. Without some fixed points of
reference we are unable to discern our direction, but we know
it must be forward based on our experience on the river.
I doubt that there are many among us who can fathom the
awsome depths and breadth of the ocaen... yet. It may be
that our boats are too flimsy to allow us to discobver
enough of it to make an accurate map. Perhaps some day
such a map will exist. Until then, we will continue our
travels unaided, and mostly on the surface.
- Greg
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