• Agent Smith
    9.5k
    I'm speaking in very general terms here and so if you want to point out exceptions to the two rules I'm going to describe here, it shouldn't matter to the overall essence of my position.

    Time: We want to contract it. Most of our inventions have been designed to reduce the time taken for a given task. (re: WW2, Deutschland's Blitkzreig) The rule of temporal contraction

    Space: We want to expand it. If you go by wars, it's always been about increasing space (indefinitely) for some group (re: WW2, Deutschland's Lebensraum). The rule of spatial expansion
  • EugeneW
    1.7k



    So in principle, the metric of spacetime in special relativity, can be deduced from wars? One's Blitz can be other's Schnecke though...
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    So in principle, the metric of spacetime in special relativity, can be deduced from wars? One's Blitz can be other's Schnecke though...EugeneW

    Omnia possibilia sunt, omnia possibilia sunt, EugeneW
  • EugeneW
    1.7k
    Omnia possibilia sunt, omnia possibilia sunt,Agent Smith

    I thought you would never say, my love! :love:
  • EugeneW
    1.7k
    Time: We want to contract itAgent Smith

    You wanna contract time? By offering it a job? What would its function? Can Time freeze the Mad Hatter? Was time killed during the Blitz? German nightflyers used speed in their nighttime bimbambombings on London:

    Personal report:

    "Der Start war manchmal spät, 10, 11 Uhr Abend's. Wann mann an kam über London es war 1, 2, in der Morgen. Dan war mann natürlich müde. Wann mann das bemärkt hat, und das darf keinenswegs der Fall sein, dann hat mann 1 oder 2 Tablette Pervitin geschluckt, und dann ging's wieder"

    Nazis on speed
  • Metaphysician Undercover
    13.2k
    We want to contract it. Most of our inventions have been designed to reduce the time taken for a given task.Agent Smith

    This is not contracting time, it is expanding it. Think about it. If task A normally takes two hours, and you find a way to make task A take two seconds, you have expanded the time around task A. Task A remains the same. But if you take a period of time called "two hours", in the second instance of task A you have a whole lot of free time left over, which you did not have in the first. Therefore time has been expanded around task A.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    free time left overMetaphysician Undercover

    If I do things faster, I can fit in more activities than before in the same length of time. If you look at individual items in my to-do list, time has contracted, but if I look at the whole list, time has dilated (there are more items now for the same duration).

    I have a box B, and it contains only 1 item snugly. A little later, B can contain n items where n > 1, we could say B has expanded or that the items in question have shrunk.

    Just curious (the question goes to anyone who can answer it), there's speed of motion e.g. 45 km/hr and Einstein's time dilation applies to motion (the faster you travel, the slower your watch ticks).

    There's also speed of chemical reactions, these reactions can be sped up, for example by injecting thermal energy into the system and with the aid of catalysts. Is Einstein's theory of relativity also true for chemistry and by extension biology? Faster the rkn, the slower time elapses?
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