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KP
@kpx
Is it just because of the language that we inherited the idea - Time flows. Time obviously does not flow. But thinking otherwise is so damn difficult. Is 'Live in the present', which is a poetic expression, responsible for it? Seeing time as a line, where past is on left and future is on right, is such a common mental model when we think of 'passing' of time.
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AlleyTac
@alleytac
Let's resume to the facts, shall we? No one can live in the past because the past does not exist. It exist-ed, not anymore. We can remember the past, but that's different than living in it. No one can live in the future because the future does not exist... yet. We can anticipate the future, but that's different than living in it. What we can only experience is the present. We can't live otherwise than in the present, can we? Thus, this is not a poetic expression but the only aspect of time we can experience directly as a reality. Poetic expressions are more likely 'living in the past' or 'living in the future'. Time is a mental construct invented since antiquity to help our minds understand the physical world. But the only part of the time concept that exists as a fact is 'now'. Everything else about time is poetry. (1/2)
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AlleyTac
@alleytac
(2/2) However, what is the nature of time? It is a useless question! Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity explains time until the limit of a black hole. There is the place where timelessness is and time is no longer. But exactly here is the problem we face. It is in the very nature of the human mind to not be able to fully comprehend a thing without understanding the opposite of that thing. And we cannot understand, as a fact, timelessness because no human ever experienced it. Therefore, maybe the most accurate affirmation about time is the one offered by St. Augustine (around 400 AD): ‘Provided that no one asks me (what is time), I know. If I want to explain it to an inquirer, I do not know.’
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@kpx
The reason I think 'present' is poetic is because it is not well defined. How long is the present? Is it 1 second, 1 minute, 1 hour or a day. The last minute passed should be past as we are not living at the last minute. The last second should be past too. So 'living in the present' can't be scientific ig.
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