[mcan]

Originally Posted by FAX

Great post.

I'm sure you know that there are two, more or less, traditional ways to "consider" time, Mr. mcan. One is the Newtonian approach describing time as being like a container in which stuff exists. The other is "experiential" as you say.

Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if time had other fundamental qualities that are yet to be discovered and described. For example, if M-theory (or some variation) proves out, time might be more like an enormous, violent, tempestuous body of water than a string. Water that you could, in fact, traverse if you had the proper sort of conveyance. Einstein's view of an undilutable "space/time fabric" might be well off the mark, in that case. It's not impossible, you know. He was way off on a couple of other "matters".

Personally, I don't think you have to be a wackadoo to imagine such a thing. On the other hand, maybe you do. But, even so, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. Not everyone can think outside the box like you, Mr. mcan. But, those who can have the obligation to do so, in my opinion.

FAX

I've actually never studied "Newtonian" time, nor have I heard of M-Theory. Obviously I know about Newtonian Physics and gravity and all that macro stuff that the people in this movie seem to ignore or dispute or even laugh at indignantly. I do try hard not to be rigid in my world view and give any and all thought an equal opportunity to pass my bull-shit test. My intuition tells me, however, that since time is measured in units that are indistinguishable and undefinable except by movement, that really what we are measuring is movement. When we say someone runs a 4.4 second hundred meter dash, what we really mean is that person goes this distance in the same amount of "time" that a clock's second hand moves that distance. So, we can give the illusion of time travel by manipulating distances, but the "past" and the "future" are nothing but conceptual. In fact, the whole notion of "time" is just a simple way of conceptualizing a ratio of two movements. I secretly laugh inside every time I hear someone conceptualize time with some kind of linear structure.