If Time Doesn't Exist, How Will I Cook My Rice?
First, Time is Completely Imaginary.
What does it mean when someone claims that 'time doesn't exist', what are they thinking? Have they never waited for rice to cook?
Of course if you were to ask what they mean by their claiming that time doesn't exist, you would be sorry you asked, since their explanation would actually take forever-- each excruciating second proving their theories moot at best, and wrong by any standards of measurement.
Here's a quick thought experiment: think of time as a ruler, and each little millimeter is a second of time. We can always divide that space between past and future, and it divides infinitely. There's an infinity within a second, so let that soak in a minute while I go check my rice.
Time doesn't exist, and if you've got a minute, I can explain what that means!
Shall we dust off some physics books and see what science has to say? Kidding! Come back, I was joking. I already did it, and science also says that time is mostly a 'suggestion', and not a fundamental principle in the physical world. Apparently it's a bit of a nuisance for some scientists. After a bit of time was spent sorting through their thick scientific data, it appears to me that science can prove that there is no use for time. They use big words and are constantly reciting big numbers, but when it comes to time and space, science has labeled such measurement of physics as useless and "spooky", and any further questions about 'time' will start endless fights among otherwise respectable scientists.
They may be making it harder than it needs to be, and I can explain the absence of time better, or quicker. I think my rice is nearly done, so my solution will be brief.
The reality of time's illusion is much easier to explain than all of that quantum uncertainty. We can look at time as being made of two fictional parts, those being the past and the future.
Simply, there's two parts to time, and they're both imaginary:
1. The Past: There is lots of evidence of the past, but we all know the past is gone, it's chronology remaining only in our memories. The past can only be remembered, or imagined, so it's imaginary and not real.
2. The Future: The future can only be imagined, since it can never exist in reality. It is imaginary and not real.
What does that leave? If all imaginary things are not real, then we find ourselves in a constant state of reality, and since past and future are not reality, then only now can be happening.
Science, once again, can hardly argue with such logic. Biologically, all of our senses were designed for this moment-- the sound of boiling water, the smell of rice-- so it is obviously the very meaning of life: to bring consciousness into the physical world right now. It's logical and sane to live in reality, to ignore the ego as it tries to pull us into the past or future, all day long.
It's not as easy as it sounds.
That's all I have time to write, I believe that the rice is ready now. Thanks for taking the time to read along.
Another refute to the idea of a timeless universe is simple physics.
If I have an object rotating at 30 RPM, and another at 60 RPM. Both with the same mass. One of the objects will yield a higher angular momentum, the speed at which it rotates can only be relative to the time it requires to do so. Therefore, Time, as a continuous flow, must exist.
Time was handy in that case to measure the speed of the rotation, and space is indicated there as well. We have evidence of time, like a boat's wake, and time leaves behind evidence, but always gets away in the end.
I would upvote this post but alas... I went on a voting spree. I didn't know there was such a thing, exactly! :)
So I'm pretty certain I am out of votes for a short time...or Steemit money, or whatever.
Anyway this is a brilliant article. It took me time to get through it despite how short and easy or simple it is. I tend to think shorter or simpler is generally right but not always. I reserve the right to reassess my reality at any given moment. Also I am debating one point about physical manifestation and the past being real so I don't totally agree with you there. But I get the 'floaty' reality of being grounded in the now. Thanks!
I wouldn't personally say that just because something is in our memory or that it hasn't happened yet that it's not real. I think they are just as real as the current moment and without past or future, there could be no "current" moment.
Assuming anything is real that is. Yet, the current moment is just as much imagined in certain was as the past or future, so why would the current moment be any more real? It's like a stream of water, just because a part up or down stream isn't at your current observation doesn't make it fake, just like turning your head doesn't make everything you're not looking at fake.
Of course assuming anything is real, that's another question though and I do assume we are assuming some things are real based on your write up, you used those words to signify differences in "time".
Even the present may not be real-- now I can see that too. I tend to go with the notion that everything is happening at once, past and future, and that would allow all of time to be included in my so-called reality. Also, to keep the article from becoming too heavy and deep, I was looking for contrast between what we are tempted to imagine, vs. what apparently is.
That's an interesting way to look at it, that it's all happening simultaneously. I'm open minded to that. maybe the past just seems like the past, and the future just seems like the future, but it's all connected in a way we can't totally understand.
And in regards to the last line about what we are tempted to imagine vs what apparently is.. I dunno.. I don't even know anymore, lol. For all I know we're in some kind of computer simulation.. I try to stay open minded to the possibilities without "clamping down" though, I tend to try to harmonize and line up with universal laws to the best of my ability.. It's difficult, it's so easy to go off into delusional land, cause what really is real anyways? Humans are great at making imaginary realities.
I find it uncomfortably difficult to argue with the computer simulation model of existence, definitely forces the mind open with possibility!
Heh. Yeah, but if true.. A lot of the same existential questions would arise.. Like who created the simulation and who created those who created the simulation and on and on and why? Life is strange!
Great ruminations.
Boy, you aren't kidding!
You and your readers may enjoy "Surfing The Time Wave" an essay in a similar vein... ;)
😄😇😄
I've tried living in reality for moments at a time-- tough work this 'conduit of consciousness' business, but someone's got to do it!
Indeed! ;) :) :D
So if the past only exists in the imagination then all those revisionist historians can't be wrong because it's just imaginary :D
My brain hurts now. (well hurts more because I was just banging it against a webdev problem not that long ago XD)
Enjoy your rice :D (I should go cook some too)
Historians only are able to paw through the evidence that time has left at the scene, someone's current agendas are what give it meaning in reality, I suppose, but it's going to hurt my head too. This post almost included my 'perfect every time' rice recipe, but there wasn't time.
I am thinking in this moment that the past serves the purpose of giving us choices. Teaching us ways to define reality so we can manifest it. We learn through good ones and bad ones I think. Hanging on to the good ones and letting the bad ones go. Maybe we don't have any choice about letting it all go. Then having had experiences that help us make better choices when we've let go of everything or it has all been ripped away. Personally I think the current or past or whatever timeline we've been on has just run out as a psychic perception and everyone will have to be responsible to create their own or sink. That sounds harsh and it may not apply to everything. But I think it applies to those that have been operating as vampires up to this point. At least I hope so. Then again, maybe that is too black or white. I mean, if the 'bad' ones learn their lesson they can turn around and complete the infinity symbol, right? The prodigal son, sort of? If he was ever a son in the first place, to go back.
Memory tends to be a good teacher throughout the animal kingdom. The stories I could tell! I'm a fan of learning from memory. I even had a memory exercise that I used to do to improve the function, a long time ago.
The reality is now. However the reality is not a constant, it changes. The reality NOW (this sentence only written till here), is different to the reality NOW (sentenced almost finished after I wrote the dot). So, even in case 'time' does not exist, some parameter is very useful to indicate the differences in realities. And if we in addition want to preserve the different realities we just observed in memory in chronological order, we like to have some parameter that tracks. We could call this 'time'.
Yeah...I was thinking...track record.
That is a good use for time-- to measure the different moments of now. What is, compared to what was, and etc. I wonder, if an acute awareness of 'what is' would leave any time to think about comparing It with an imagined 'what was'.
Well any moment, the here and now, the reality is simply NOW. If measures in time as we know and use it, the time from start to finish of the NOW, the reality, the moment, is infinite small, actually it is zero. So when we cannot think in terms of lapsing 0 seconds we do not have sufficient time to think about comparing the NOW with some other NOW being the NOW from NOW or any other NOW from the past.
That micro-infinity, little bits of time, is much easier for me to imagine than the big outward infinity, and inside of every millisecond is such an infinity.
I think that will count for most of us, since infinity inwards trends to zero and that is something we can understand much better than infinity in terms of gazilion kilometers and than after those gazillion kilometers you get another gazillion kilometers and so on. Also in time, gazillion light years will follow another gazillion light years and so on and so on and so on. That is quite difficult to understand really :)
Great explanation. I've also heard of time described as a river. There's something before and after where you are. And it's dynamic, always flowing.
If you get a chance, I highly recommend the show DaVinci's Demons. They also spoke about time being a river, but with a twist, I believe it went something like "Time is a river, but what most do not realize is that the river is circular".
The show is about Leonardo DaVinci's life when he was young, and it is truly fantastic, one of the most well-written and acted series I've ever seen. I believe there was only three seasons, but for me it was one long epic movie that I was sad to see end.
Thanks for the suggestion. I will have to look for it.
Dynamic is right, when I tried to divide a second into it's smallest part, right in the middle, it always got smaller instead of pointing at the moment of now. A person could spend all day trying to find the exact middle of a second, always a moving target.
This kindof reminds me of limits in Calculus but coming at the limit from both sides.
Infinity-- Ruining Math Since Forever
LOL
And then Satan said, "lets put the alphabet in math." Calculus wasn't so much my problem, it was Algebra. I did better in visual/spatial math than I did in linear math. Good with Geometry and Trig, terrible with Algebra. Also I never actually had a physics class in school. I think I missed out, it would have been fun. But I probably would not have appreciated it at that time, like I would now if I could possibly wade through it.
Check out this comment section, it is overflowing! Nice!
That's a great way to put it, past and future as part of the imagination (I've been thinking about that word lately, in terms of nations and magi)
I keep getting stuck on the idea of now too though. Because now is in the past as soon as we think it, every moment becoming part of that fantasy world faster than we can comprehend. It's easiest at this point for me to think of now in terms of the day.
Finding that single moment of now-ness reminds me of surfing, or teetering on the median of a busy 48-lane freeway. So much distraction that balance is quickly lost.
Oh thank you for mentioning the word! I, magi, nature, eye on. (?)
Very interesting article and lots of thoughtful points. I would suggest then that time is what may be keeping us prisoner by giving us the ability to regret past actions or fear the consequences of future actions. To be able to live in the present and enjoy it without fear of regret or consequence would, I imagine, be a very satisfying feeling, though I must say that I do not have very much experience of this myself. Hoping to get there though.
thanks for another really good post!
@tonyr
One time I read Eckhart Tolle's 'A New Earth', and after I finished reading it I was aware of my existence for maybe an entire minute, then I got distracted again by something else. I did practice more often after that, but there's always something trying to pull me away from now-ness. Thanks for the reminder tho, I need them constantly!
:) the hard part again is actually living in the moment rather than trying to live in the moment. I often find myself trying to live in the moment and it becomes a conscious thing but to get to a state of unconscious living would be nice. thanks again! looking forward to your next post.