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The closer we look at time, the stranger it gets

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Re: The closer we look at time, the stranger it gets

#5

  > Combining quantum mechanics and General Relativity is all well and good, but there‘s one key mystery it doesn’t address: why does time only seem to flow in one direction?
Could the problem just be with us? When time flows backwards, we lose the ability to perceive the events that came after the "current" event. As it flows forward again, we have more time in our context window. We are able to perceive only those events that have occurred before the current event.

Time still flows and ebbs, we just lack the ability to sense it just like a cork in a river doesn't feel the water flowing past.

Re: The closer we look at time, the stranger it gets

#7

> Combining quantum mechanics and General Relativity is all well and good, but there‘s one key mystery it doesn’t address: why does time only seem to flow in one direction? Could the problem just be with us? When time flows backwards, we lose the ability to perceive the events that came after the "current" event. As it flows forward again, we have more time in our context window. We are able to perceive only those ev…

there is no flow per se, as it’s a subjective experience. it’s just that our current environment (specifically human environment) is predominantly structured in a way that the past makes an imprint on the present (in terms of biological memory, historical records, etc) and the future generally being unpredictable because we kinda don’t want it to be too predictable (eg you don’t want to be too predictable when a tiger is chasing you for example)

but in other environments (talking about same universe here!) the future is more predictable than here on earth, for example motions of planetary bodies can be predicted way in advance within error bars as in the past, and when you have that kind of relatively symmetrical system, any subjective experiences within those systems would be much less inclined to feel that time flows on way or the other. (of course, the only kind of subjective experiencers we know are made of biological stuff which structurally remembers the past and leaves the future open as form of evolved ability, so this timelessness experience may be harder to imagine for us)

Re: The closer we look at time, the stranger it gets

#8
post #7

> Combining quantum mechanics and General Relativity is all well and good, but there‘s one key mystery it doesn’t address: why does time only seem to flow in one direction? Could the problem just be with us? When time flows backwards, we lose the ability to perceive the events that came after the "current" event. As it flows forward again, we have more time in our context window. We are able to perceive only those ev…

there is no flow per se, as it’s a subjective experience. it’s just that our current environment (specifically human environment) is predominantly structured in a way that the past makes an imprint on the present (in terms of biological memory, historical records, etc) and the future generally being unpredictable because we kinda don’t want it to be too predictable (eg you don’t want to be too predictable when a tige…

"Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so"

Re: The closer we look at time, the stranger it gets

#9
We understand "time" in the context that we must: to subsist in order to procreate. The extent it exists outside of our own perception as we imagine it does, is debatable. Ultimately, time is our sensory interpretation of the world around us to facilitate our survival and thus, we may never make sense of it outside the constraints it exists within.

Re: The closer we look at time, the stranger it gets

#10
post #8
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there is no flow per se, as it’s a subjective experience. it’s just that our current environment (specifically human environment) is predominantly structured in a way that the past makes an imprint on the present (in terms of biological memory, historical records, etc) and the future generally being unpredictable because we kinda don’t want it to be too predictable (eg you don’t want to be too predictable when a tige…

"Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so"

"Ohh, time flows _that_ way for you."
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