Time May Not Exist
A Links entry from Friday, July 27, 2007Time May Not Exist
Discover Magazine questions the existence of time. Here’s a quote from the article by physicist Carlo Rovelli:
What happens with the Wheeler-DeWitt equation is that we have to stop playing this game. Instead of introducing this fictitious variable—time, which itself is not observable—we should just describe how the variables are related to one another. The question is, Is time a fundamental property of reality or just the macroscopic appearance of things? I would say it’s only a macroscopic effect. It’s something that emerges only for big things.
tina oiticica harris
My view supports that of Proust (Remembrance of Things Past) — The present exists as past only. The minute one realizes the moment, it’s past.
The future we know doesn’t exist. In English we don’t have a tense for it; we have modalities.
So the question that remains is about the present, how real it can be. Time changes — LSD trips show that, demented states show that. The question is whether there is a continuous line linking all moments. I think not. Maybe a left-over of hippie days, “It’s all in the mind, y’know?”
I wish there were more people participating in these really stimulating posts. Mine is just a bunch of memories from my beginning days at USC. Why don’t you drop me a comment?
The Author
Bryan Klausmeyer
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