Is Time a Fact?

[Straw Dog]

I find these questions to hold enormous weight in many other domains of inquiry.

Is time merely an illusion?

Or is temporal passage a reality?

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

 

[atanu]

I find these questions to hold enormous weight in many other domains of inquiry.

Is time merely an illusion?

Or is temporal passage a reality?

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

Hello. I am reading your post after a long gap. Welcome.

There is a thread from science POV. See whether it is of use or not.

Spacetime is doomed

From, Vedantic perspective space-time appears and disappears in consciousness, which is the foundation.

...

 

[Straw Dog]

Hello. I am reading your post after a long gap. Welcome.

There is a thread from science POV. See whether it is of use or not.

Spacetime is doomed

From, Vedantic perspective space-time appears and disappears in consciousness, which is the foundation.

...

Your post is over one-year old, so tell me what you have learned. What will replace it?

Thanks for reminding me of the vedantic perspective. What makes you think that consciousness is the foundation rather than just another human limitation?

 

[Subduction Zone]

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

Douglas Adams.

 

[exchemist]

I find these questions to hold enormous weight in many other domains of inquiry.

Is time merely an illusion?

Or is temporal passage a reality?

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

Is length a fact?

 

[Twilight Hue]

I find these questions to hold enormous weight in many other domains of inquiry.

Is time merely an illusion?

Or is temporal passage a reality?

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

I think its a means of measurement.

 

[ChristineM]

I find these questions to hold enormous weight in many other domains of inquiry.

Is time merely an illusion?

Or is temporal passage a reality?

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

It depends what you mean by time.

It is indefinite, it is relative, it is effected by mass, it only goes one way, it is a measure of passing.

These are facts

 

[Straw Dog]

I think its a means of measurement.

So without measurement, there is no temporal passage of events?

 

[SalixIncendium]

Is time merely an illusion?

Yes.

Or is temporal passage a reality?

If one is perceiving passage in pragmatic reality, then yes, one observes temporal passage of time.

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

Matter to whom?

 

[paarsurrey]

I find these questions to hold enormous weight in many other domains of inquiry.

Is time merely an illusion?

Or is temporal passage a reality?

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

Time is relative so we can say that it is our temporary perception, I understand, or it is an illusion. Right, please?
G-d, I understand, has created it for our convenience else it does not exist as space does not exist and is a creation of G-d for our convenience. Right, please?

Regards
______________
[25:3] ۣالَّذِیۡ لَہٗ مُلۡکُ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَ الۡاَرۡضِ وَ لَمۡ یَتَّخِذۡ وَلَدًا وَّ لَمۡ یَکُنۡ لَّہٗ شَرِیۡکٌ فِی الۡمُلۡکِ وَ خَلَقَ کُلَّ شَیۡءٍ فَقَدَّرَہٗ تَقۡدِیۡرًا ﴿۳﴾
He to Whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. And He has taken unto Himself no son, and has no partner in the kingdom, and has created everything, and has ordained for it its proper measure.
The Holy Quran - Chapter: 25: Al-Furqan
[6:97] فَالِقُ الۡاِصۡبَاحِ ۚ وَ جَعَلَ الَّیۡلَ سَکَنًا وَّ الشَّمۡسَ وَ الۡقَمَرَ حُسۡبَانًا ؕ ذٰلِکَ تَقۡدِیۡرُ الۡعَزِیۡزِ الۡعَلِیۡمِ ﴿۹۷﴾
He causes the break of day; and He made the night for rest and the sun and the moon for reckoning time. That is the decree of the Mighty, the Wise.
The Holy Quran - Chapter: 6: Al-An`am

 

[Regiomontanus]

I find these questions to hold enormous weight in many other domains of inquiry.

Is time merely an illusion?

Or is temporal passage a reality?

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

There is no single definition of time that everyone agrees on. Many quantum physicists will say it does not exist. But we obviously feel 'the passage of time' and have different ways of measuring 'it'. Many have tried to define it terms of entropy but that has problems.

Here is an interesting book from a couple of years ago. The author is a distinguished experimental physicist. It is titled 'Now':


https://www.amazon.com/Now-Physics-Time-Richard-Muller/dp/0393285235

He proposes his own definition- but I won't give any spoilers. The book has a good review of the history of the (scientific) debate on the nature of time too, for a general audience (this is not a very quantitative presentation).

 

[Wandering Monk]

I find these questions to hold enormous weight in many other domains of inquiry.

Is time merely an illusion?

Or is temporal passage a reality?

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

Time exists because entropy shows it.

 

[PureX]

I find these questions to hold enormous weight in many other domains of inquiry.

Is time merely an illusion?

Or is temporal passage a reality?

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

The relationship between space and motion is a fact of physicality. That we humans perceive this relationship as "time" is a fact of human cognition. Time, therefor, is a cognitive perception based on physical facts. Is it an "illusion"? Yes. Although perhaps it's better described as a cognitive 'reflection'. Is it "real"? It's as real as any reflection is real, given that "reality" is a cognitive reflection of physical existence, that's being generated in the human mind.

Our grasp of truth is relative, and therefor complex, and abstract. So there is no single, absolute answer.

 

[exchemist]

There is no single definition of time that everyone agrees on. Many quantum physicists will say it does not exist. But we obviously feel 'the passage of time' and have different ways of measuring 'it'. Many have tried to define it terms of entropy but that has problems.

Here is an interesting book from a couple of years ago. The author is a distinguished experimental physicist. It is titled 'Now':


https://www.amazon.com/Now-Physics-Time-Richard-Muller/dp/0393285235

He proposes his own definition- but I won't give any spoilers. The book has a good review of the history of the (scientific) debate on the nature of time too, for a general audience (this is not a very quantitative presentation).

Something strange to me here. The mathematics of QM is full of expressions in which time appears. I find it hard to think that any quantum physicist would say time doesn't exist.

What I certainly have heard physicists say is that the idea of a "passage" or "flow" of time is absent from physics. But that is rather different.

 

[Regiomontanus]

Something strange to me here. The mathematics of QM is full of expressions in which time appears. I find it hard to think that any quantum physicist would say time doesn't exist.

What I certainly have heard physicists say is that the idea of a "passage" or "flow" of time is absent from physics. But that is rather different.

Yeah, I don't share their view either. Just sayin. That book I mentioned above has some of those arguments in there.

 

[Quintessence]

Next time my friend is early for work and the other people complain about them standing by the time clock, I will have to suggest to them that they tell everyone that time is just an illusion...

 

[Valjean]

I find these questions to hold enormous weight in many other domains of inquiry.

Is time merely an illusion?

Or is temporal passage a reality?

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

Time is a fact, but it's nothing like we perceive it. In that sense, it's also an illusion.

So without measurement, there is no temporal passage of events?

Not as we perceive it. Past events still exist, and are just as 'real' as those we currently perceive. Moreover, there's nothing in general relativity that prevents time from 'flowing' either way. The "arrow of time" is largely in our heads.

This is an excellent, short, simplified exploration of the concept:

 

[Hermit Philosopher]

I find these questions to hold enormous weight in many other domains of inquiry.

Is time merely an illusion?

Or is temporal passage a reality?

Does a measurement of the intervals between events matter in practice? In life?

Time is the distance between a law and its outcome. Outside the manifestation of hypothesis, there is no time.

Humbly
Hermit

 

[paarsurrey]

Time exists because entropy shows it.

What was before entropy, please?

Regards

 

[Valjean]

Time is the distance between a law and its outcome. Outside the manifestation of hypothesis, there is no time.

Humbly
Hermit

Time is an axis of a four dimensional reality.