What then is time?

**dr wu23** · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 2297 Location: Indiana

I always thought time was just an illusion and an artifact of our consciousness;
well at least it will take billions of years....we'll be long gone.
_________________
"Some say the valley has always been haunted ever since River ran.
The rippling waters fast as the colors conceal the Green Man."
Roy Harpur from The Green Man

graylien · Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 174 Location: UK

Exactly why do you believe time is an illusion? An illusion created by what? And experienced by what? And if time is the illusion, what is the reality?
_________________
Gef - the Eighth Wonder of the World

**Skeptical** · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 12:26 pm Post subject:

My personal theory (and the subject of a failed novel) is that all moments of time co-exist. Time proceeds along an axis just like width, height and depth. The problem (or at least the limitation) is that the human brain is like the shutter of a movie projector. It can only view one frame (or moment) at a time. The trick is for someone to determine how to pick up the needle and move it to another part of the record.

I've also come to the come to the conclusion that, if time does have an axis, it is not a straight line. I think it is more like a Spirograph (with any number of nearly intersecting lines). I've always thought that some ghostly apparitions were actually convergences of the timeline.

I also feel that somehow time is entangled with space. For example, you have an old house in which an apparition is seen to do approximately the same thing (descend a staircase or whatever). If the physical space is significantly altered, most time the apparitions will stop.

I will be quite interested to see how we proceed with research into this dimension.

S
_________________
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." -- Thomas Jefferson

**dr wu23** · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 2297 Location: Indiana