KP on Warpcast

Content pfp

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

KP pfp

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.

8 replies

17 recasts

81 reactions

AlleyTac pfp

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)

2 replies

0 recast

2 reactions

KP pfp

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.

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

AlleyTac pfp

Well, it's as 'scientific' as real numbers are, or the concept of infinity, if you want. Not all things are entirely accessible to science... yet! Until then, totally understanding your angle, I agree it's poetry or simple theories. How long is now is undefined, and mathematically, it tends to zero without ever achieving it. It is one of those riddles in which both existence and nonexistence are equally acceptable. 'Now' is a Schrödinger cat scenario that cannot be measured. Aristotle compared the present to a "knife edge without thickness," the thinnest line possible that separates the past and future. It is the only time we know, yet it is also beyond our grasp since, as I said before, we cannot observe and/or measure timelessness. But imo, this is even more amazing than a scientific, accurate depiction of what is now. (1/2)

1 reply

0 recast

1 reaction