Does time exist?

[Dash87]

Does time actually exist, or is it nothing more than an illusion caused by the elements? Is time a human construct created by our obsession with metrics and structure?

As I'm typing this, is time actually progressing? The clock next to me says so, but in reality, it's just a precise device with two arms powered by a battery that is synchronized with the earth's day/night and sun-orbit cycles.

Are we sitting on a still, timeless plane that has various elements that give the illusion of time, or is it actually real?

[ZombieHorde]

1. Yes, time exists, and it is affected by gravity. nt

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. but, is it stringy or loopy?

[ZombieHorde]

4. I have no idea, but that was pretty funny. nt

[rhett o rick]

7. I am a big bang fan. The TV show not the event. I could take the

real Big Bang or leave it. i suppose I could take it's existence on faith. Ooops, can you say the f-word in a philosophy group?

[rrneck]

10. I'm going straight to ATA with this.

"Hey Skinner! I want sound on DU. I want to post a snort of derision smiley!"

[Tuesday Afternoon]

11. lol

*snort*

[ElboRuum]

2. Time is real...

...in the sense that we perceive it. The passage of time seems to be perception relative to the observation of cause and effect. We see something happen which affects other things as a direct result. This, by reason of our perception, does not appear to us as simultaneous, therefore we see a then and a now.

By using the word synchronized, you imply time as extant for the reasons mentioned. The earth is here in its orbit, and over there, but never at what appears to be the same moment. A clock is a measuring device which allows us to mark time meaningfully, however, it isn't time itself. Time is perceptual and measurable if only to quantify the basic principle of cause and effect.

In fact, time is very fluid in our perception, being compressed and stretched whether we are paying attention to it or not. We do something that we dislike and time drags. We do something we love and look up and hours have passed. Time? Real, I would say, since cause and effect are real, that's just a word we use to quantify the perception, that which we are quantifying is a real phenomenon. We can do things and things happen as a result in predictable ways. Whether the universe requires time as something that can be reliably measured, as a part of its natural operation, is debatable, but time is real in the sense that not everything in the universe happens all at once, nor apparently can it.

[Festivito]

5. Do existing, sameness and difference exist?

If so, so must time.

[Dash87]

15. How do you know that time isn't just a way to quantify those three qualities,

created by humanity?

Yeah, difference can be said to be proof of time, but what if we only invented time because there was a need to quantify difference?

If you think about it, what does time actually do (I mean, in itself, unrelated to anything else)? Is it anything more than a measurement?

[Festivito]

17. Time exists to quantify those interrelated qualities of sameness and difference.

Time as the next dimension beyond 3D space exists as more than just a measurement. Its measure is an egocentric(created by humanity) choice of quantity describing our feeling for the relative quantities of the two qualities of sameness and difference.

PS The cat wanted to add plus signs into the above thoughts. Since we're limiting this to humanity, i deleted them. The cat is away now, pouting. The pout will be the same pout until a thought of the food dish elicits a difference that in turn will also remain the same until about three crunches of dry food when another difference leads to watching out a window. Her measurement of time will be different from mine. Yet, I'd like to think we share the same singular reality although that is not necessary since transitions are so smooth so as to make such a multi-dimensional time-reality appear as one anyway where my egocentric view just says to keep it simple.

[rhett o rick]

6. I am alerting. this is off topic.

I think. Wait, what is the topic. Maybe I'm off topic. Who's on first? Oops, that definitely is off topic.

[ismnotwasm]

8. Sure

In a subjective kind of way. Even if the infinite universe actually exists, my time is limited.

[billh58]

9. Time keeps

everything from happening simultaneously.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

12. it's all happening

[Dash87]

16. Are you sure that's not just a property of the universe completely separate from time?

Time could be one of these (and maybe other things I'm not thinking of):

A - Real, and stops things from happening simultaneously

B - A measurement humans created to measure difference because things don't happen simultaneously.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

13. All of the four dimensions...

...are perceptions of physical reality. Relativity plays a role in the perceiving them.

[velvet]

14. I don't think time exists

I think existence is a sequence of events. Time is a system of measurement we've created to help us describe and categorise those events and the order in which they occur. And very useful it is too. Imagine language devoid of all references to time.

For instance I could say "Time heals all wounds". Or I could say "As you go on living events will occur that will, in various ways, mitigate, alter and possibly diminish the pain you are feeling."

And that's all I have time to write just now.

[WheelWalker]

18. If I understand what you're saying, time has no independent, objective existence; but,

rather, time is the perceived sequence of events. Time is therefore a relational quality between two or more states of being?

[WheelWalker]

19. Clocks, it is said,

run slow or fast; yet time, itself, can stand still. Does that happen only when the clock has stopped; or, is it just that it probably will?

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

20. Time is the thing...

...that keeps everything from going wrong all at once.

[rrneck]

21. Yes.

As long as one thing happens after another without our intervention it can be said to exist.