Time

[Afrelen]

What is it?

Do clocks actually measure the rate at which time is moving? or are they a convenient construct for us to coordinate events?

Is there anything metaphysically special about the past, present, or future?

Is there any order to time or is that just perceived?

 

[randomsomeone]

I watched a program on PBS's NOVA about the science of time...it was very interesting.

My own relationship with time is odd. I stumbled across some periods in history where some folks got the whole spiritual journey thing very, very right. It caught my attention. I began informal study over many years...nothing fancy, just picking up critical histories where they existed. Fascinating stuff. Little by little I began to read between the lines...almost as if I could feel these people because of the inner dynamics of my own journey. More time passed...more study...things simmered. The lessons I found in these places have been very helpful...it was time-tested, yet ever fresh...different refractions of the whole. I did not start out to study history, and really it wasn't what I was doing...I was encountering spiritual dynamics, lived with vision, and clarity, and courage.....and very well......in times as messy as my own. It was all about perspective.

So now the boundaries have blurred........I live in all time. My mind as been slowly reoriented to see commonalities in the human quest across millenia. Even more....these luminous points of history became like a "connect-the-dots" picture. Remember when you would get enough dots to where you could all of a sudden grasp the final composite image?? That. Trouble is, I have no words for it. I'm not sure such words exist.

So that is my curious relationship with time....my mind and heart are anchored in times long ago and far away, and from there I draw inspiration to address my decisions, aspirations, and life course for the present. In my world, time is very thin.

 

[enfp can be shy]

What is it? Music

Do clocks actually measure the rate at which time is moving? or are they a convenient construct for us to coordinate events? Latter

Is there anything metaphysically special about the past, present, or future? Irreversibility, Life (for now!)

Is there any order to time or is that just perceived? Cogito ergo sentio

 

[Norton]

The physicists describe it mathematically.
The poets describe it metaphorically.
But, no one knows.

 

[sumone]

"Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future

I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
Till I'm free
Oh, Lord, through the revolution"

Steve Miller Band

 

[Roger]

Time is river and our life is boat. If we are flowing with it, then it means we are living our life, and if we are against it or not flowing with it, then it means we are dead.

 

[Stu]

this rings with me as well.

I stumbled across some periods in history where some folks got the whole spiritual journey thing very, very right. It caught my attention. I began informal study over many years...nothing fancy, just picking up critical histories where they existed. Fascinating stuff. ......The lessons I found in these places have been very helpful....I was encountering spiritual dynamics, lived with vision, and clarity, and courage..... My mind as been slowly reoriented to see commonalities in the human quest across millenia. ..... from there I draw inspiration to ...

I can relate

 

[enfp can be shy]

"Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future

I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
Till I'm free
Oh, Lord, through the revolution"

Steve Miller Band

LOVE IT! ... this cover also:
[YOUTUBE]zSwjqfTrWI8[/YOUTUBE]

 

[On my own path]

What is it?

Do clocks actually measure the rate at which time is moving? or are they a convenient construct for us to coordinate events?

Is there anything metaphysically special about the past, present, or future?

Is there any order to time or is that just perceived?

Time, seems to me as the construct produced by the mind to help us interpret and refer to points on a sequence of events. Clocks are devices to help us coordinate the sequence of events. With respect to the third question, I agree with Enfp can be shy's answer

 

[Afrelen]

Time is river and our life is boat. If we are flowing with it, then it means we are living our life, and if we are against it or not flowing with it, then it means we are dead.

So then death is our removal from time? Such that we become atemporal?

Interesting... Perhaps I need clarification though?

 

[Barnabas]

Time as i understan it, is the measure of the distance between two actions

 

[AUM]

Our only time is NOW. Imagine if you'd ask a bunny what time it was, they'll look at you weird and say "of course, the time is right now". The past is an illusion and the future is an illusion.

 

[Afrelen]

Time as i understan it, is the measure of the distance between two actions

What then determines past, present, or future? If it's simply a measurement of distance then coordinates would only matter for difference rather than relativity as well.

 

[Roger]

So then death is our removal from time? Such that we become atemporal?

Interesting... Perhaps I need clarification though?

Death is the renewal of our life span. To start a new life. It is also time.

 

[randomsomeone]

Time for me has almost come to be meaningless. The future, the past...all are lived, and are part of, now. I admit, I like this arrangement!!

 

[Agnus]

What is it?

Do clocks actually measure the rate at which time is moving? or are they a convenient construct for us to coordinate events?

Is there anything metaphysically special about the past, present, or future?

Is there any order to time or is that just perceived?

In my logic, time is gravitation.

I would say that clocks are measuring the rate at which time is moving and they are also convenient construct for us to coordinate the events. (depends on what kind of sort of clock)

If you mean metaphysically as supersensory, in my logic, there is no doubt that there is something special about time as a relation with the thought of the human.

Hmm, the last question is really difficult. But I think, that there is an order to time.

 

[Morpheus]

Time is memory, at least from a practical point of view. From an objective point of view, I have nothing but guesses: perhaps time's just an illusion, perhaps it's kind of a temporal dimension, or perhaps it's something that's created by motion.

 

[bamf]

Isn't time also considered the fourth dimension?

 

[Morpheus]

Isn't time also considered the fourth dimension?

Yes. But I find physics is quite confused when it comes to dimensions beyond the usual three. There's supposedly from three to like twelve dimensions, though some of them are really small and weirdly shaped (string theory). Sometimes time is mentioned as one of them.

The thing is, it's really hard to do any empirical research when it comes to theoretical physics.

Edit:

Also this:

[YOUTUBE]1V71MQEUJKY[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Duty]

Time is simply a dimensional construct in which other basic physical qualities: length, mass, and temperature, change.

Although time is oft considered a scalar quantity (with only a rating of its severity/extent and not a rating of direction), it is reasonable to argue that it is truly a vector quantity (a rating of both severity/extent as well as direction), as in the event horizon of a black hole, its takes on the properties of space, while space takes on the qualities of time. To elaborate, this basically is saying that if one were inside the event horizon of a black hole, one could "move" in time just as one now moves in space, while simultaneously one could only move in one direction in space: toward the center of the black hole.

So I'd argue it is just a dimension for us to act in, there isn't much significance to it other then that.