Actually, "Time" is like Energy. Intuitively,everybody knows what it does, but the mystery arises when you ask what it is. For scientific purposes, a thing is its substance (material). But for philosophical inquiries a process is what it causes. Like Energy, Time causes Change. But then you'll have to define that term. In the 20th century, Time was defined as the fourth dimension : a way to measure Change. But that still didn't answer what it is. So, to avoid further debate, they agreed on a metaphorical definition : Block Time. Which is equivalent to the ancient philosophical notion of unchanging Eternity. But that is not an answer to what Time consists of. So the mystery remains. Since there are so many partial definitions of Time, perhaps the best policy is : "don't worry about it, it is what it is". :joke:From Plato to Einstein, time has been thought of by many. Everyone knows what time is. That's why I wonder what the big mystery is. — Raymond
perhaps the best policy is : "don't worry about it, it is what it is". :joke:
BTW, what do you think it is? — Gnomon
Einstein made the clock an objectively existing feature of reality. He associated a time axis with the clock. On different points on the axis the clock of an observer in the associated frame shows different values at different points on the axis. Dependendent on his state of motion, the clock of an observer tic-tacs at different rates. Not for the observer but according to someone who sees him moving. For the moving observer, the clock around his hip-hop neck tic-tacs always at the maximum rate. — Raymond
a way to measure Change — Gnomon
It's frustrating if you see so clearly what time is and no one understands what you mean. — Raymond
Everyone knows what time is. — Raymond
Is there any mystery left, when we analyze time? Isn't it perfectly clear? — Raymond
So everyone knows what time is but nobody understands your account of it — Cuthbert
He was not writing it for people who cannot tell the time or who do not know whether they had a shower before or after breakfast. — Cuthbert
Time can't go backwards. — Raymond
I think there are two kinds of times, mutually exclusive. Entropic time and perfect clock time. — Raymond
It's frustrating if you see so clearly what time is and no one understands what you mean — Raymond
Why can't time go backward? Isn't this a mystery? — Metaphysician Undercover
Obviously, you see two mutually exclusive types of time, so you really do not see what time is. — Metaphysician Undercover
In your everyday life, do you recognize a difference between past and future? Can you explain the reason for such a difference — Metaphysician Undercover
Time needs initial conditions. — Raymond
Yes. There is the clock time and entropic time. I understand both. The clock time truly existed before inflation. The state of the universe back then constituted a perfect clock. A perfect periodic state, which has no temporal direction yet. — Raymond
It just fluctuates. — Raymond
Then, when the conditions on the 4D substrate were right, the closed 3D Planck volume, containing virtual particles only (represented by Feynman diagrams of closed propagators, circles with an arrow, so the virtualcparticle rotates in space and time), "bangs" into real existence and the perfect clock is gone, replaced by the irreversible process of entropic time. These processes can be quantified by introducing a clock, which can never be realized, as there are no perfectly periodic reversible processes. — Raymond
Yes. Yes — Raymond
Can you put quantitative parameters on the initial conditions of time? If you can do this in an acceptable way, you might be successful at demystifying time — Metaphysician Undercover
A fluctuation, just like a period, is a directional thing. You cannot have a fluctuation without a direction. — Metaphysician Undercover
Yes. Yes
— Raymond
Is that yes to both questions? If so then start providing your explanation as to why the past is different from the future. Perhaps we can demystify time through this procedure — Metaphysician Undercover
Where could I learn more about it? — pfirefry
Leaves the question: Is there any mystery left, when we analyze time? Isn't it perfectly clear? Critique welcome — Raymond
Yes. There are various ways of measuring the passage or static-state of Time. Entropy measures the dissipation of Potential Time from the beginning of the downhill stream. Clock time measures Time as a metaphorical flow, like a river. Block Time measures Time's dimensions as-if the fluid is frozen into a block of ice. And Space-Time imagines emptiness as-if it's a solid object. But all of those "measurements" are attempts to reify an abstraction via metaphorical pointers to physical things. We don't know Time via our physical senses, but only with our sixth sense of Reason, which relates one thing or state to another. Time is not Real, but Ideal, a metaphor in the mind, not a flowing river or immobile ice-cube out there. There's probably no "perfect" way to measure a shape-shifting ghost. :nerd:I think there are two kinds of times, mutually exclusive. Entropic time and perfect clock time. — Raymond
We don't know Time via our physical senses, but only with our sixth sense of Reason, which relates one thing or state to another. Time is not Real, but Ideal, a metaphor in the mind, not a flowing river or immobile ice-cube out there. — Gnomon
'Time' is a metric of asymmetric change (i.e. physical transformations). In the absence of any asymmetry (i.e. no orientation whatsoever) such as at / below the planck scale, which is also prior to the BB, 'time' is not measurable. — 180 Proof
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