Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The closer we look at time, the stranger it gets

sciencefocus.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 119 posts

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

#31

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

jrnng wrote: post #22
ricardobeat wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We know empirically that time only flows in one direction, it can’t be described as just a perception. You’d have had at least the tiniest of evidence that time sometimes flows backwards.

What if it's circular, or cyclical? We don't know empirically what came before the beginning.

As we haven't seen any evidence of this, then the effects must be so tiny that we can just ignore that possibility. It's like worrying about the gravitational effects of Russell's Teapot.

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

#32

Post by juleiie »

msuniverse2026 wrote: post #19

In Anthroposophy or Western occult science time runs in reverse in something we call the etheric body. The physical body on the other hand is something that experiences the world through organs that register only the present moment. It can't perceive what no longer physically exists or what has not yet manifested physically. The etheric is a time-body, containing the complete formative record of one's biography and i…

Interesting that this comment appeared precisely when I needed and wanted to see it on the most unlikely of websites.

Thanks for your insights

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

#33

Post by ricardobeat »

slyfox125 wrote: post #18
ricardobeat wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We know empirically that time only flows in one direction, it can’t be described as just a perception. You’d have had at least the tiniest of evidence that time sometimes flows backwards.

How do you know anything outside of your perception is true? All things boil down to a philosophical argument. The simplest answer is that "time" as we imagine it is a product of our interpretation and the true nature of "it" is hidden from us.

This is about time as it relates to our understanding of the physical world through science. You might as well say matter is an illusion, nether is relevant to this discussion.

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

#34

Post by mr_mitm »

jrnng wrote: post #22
ricardobeat wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We know empirically that time only flows in one direction, it can’t be described as just a perception. You’d have had at least the tiniest of evidence that time sometimes flows backwards.

What if it's circular, or cyclical? We don't know empirically what came before the beginning.

Then it'd still have a direction

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

#36

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

thom wrote: post #26

All of this should be familiar to the average programmer. The Creator (I call him Colin), rushed for time and bereft of more elegant ideas, has widely deployed lazy loading as a solution to the finite processing power of the universe. Almost all of physics (the speed of light, the expansion of space, quantum entanglement) is an answer to the question of how the universe (and indeed Colin himself) can avoid doing too…

I bet Colin gets annoyed every time we point a telescope at far away objects as he has to rush around behind the scenes and paint in all the details.

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

#37

Post by msuniverse2026 »

hikingsimulator wrote: post #28
msuniverse2026 wrote: post #19

In Anthroposophy or Western occult science time runs in reverse in something we call the etheric body. The physical body on the other hand is something that experiences the world through organs that register only the present moment. It can't perceive what no longer physically exists or what has not yet manifested physically. The etheric is a time-body, containing the complete formative record of one's biography and i…

Given how "western occult science" is just magical thinking and pseudo babble, it hardly fits on HN. Additionally, "western occult science" typically glosses over its 1920-1940s roots and branches. Wondering why...

Well, Anthroposphy was explicitly targeted by the Nazis.. Rudolf Steiner's first Goetheanum was literally burnt down by them and he had to flee to Switzerland. The 'roots' and branches of 1920s - 1940s Western occultism is largely a Theosophical society thing.

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

#38

Post by MaxikCZ »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #14

This was perhaps my favorite part of Physics 390 ("modern physics") which was about quantum dynamics and relativity. The speed of light is defined in terms of a velocity (~300,000,000 m/s) but if you were traveling at the speed of light time stops (which keeps the rule that its constant in all frames of reference). That and time passes more quickly at higher altitudes and these days we can actually measure that. Wild…

The fact that at speed of light time stops is just so bonkers to me.

A photon is, from its point of reference, at the point of creation and at the point of destination at the same "time". Its literally seeing both parts of the universe at the same time, and since its traveled some distance over that time it cannot perceive, its essentially connecting 2 points in spacetime.

If I understand it correctly, every photon exists, from its point of view, for only infinitely small amount of time (similar to how virtual particles do exist from our point of reference), but for us its so easy to "play" with the photon along its path, giving us plenty of time to even decide what we want to do with it after it has already been created.

Its just so bonkers that time can be perceived such differently depending on frame of reference.

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

#39

Post by card_zero »

ricardobeat wrote: post #13
slyfox125 wrote: post #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.

We know empirically that time only flows in one direction, it can’t be described as just a perception. You’d have had at least the tiniest of evidence that time sometimes flows backwards.

Time doesn't flow at a speed. So, time flows at no speed, so, time doesn't flow. Time doesn't exist within time, so it has to be static. Moments don't change.
Post reply on HN