[math-fun] The moving now (was: Messages in pi)
That's probably my preferred view, but there are problems reconciling it with everyday experience. It would mean that all ages t of (say) me are living their lives equally, in some sense of equally. But how does that explain the experience we have of living our lives in the order of the real numbers, and the fact that it keeps getting later? —Dan Mike Stay writes: ----- Just as [I wrote] below:
Another possibility is that our lives are being lived from start to finish, unchangingly. The parts we have already lived as well as the parts we have yet to live, just like the present moment, all entirely as equals. This just leaves unexplained how we can then experience a moment as separate from other moments.
I don't see what the problem is. Plug in t, get the experience at t. -----
On Wed, Nov 28, 2018 at 1:47 PM Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net> wrote:
That's probably my preferred view, but there are problems reconciling it with everyday experience. It would mean that all ages t of (say) me are living their lives equally, in some sense of equally.
But how does that explain the experience we have of living our lives in the order of the real numbers, and the fact that it keeps getting later?
A too-cute answer is, "Because the arrow of time points in the direction of increasing entropy." More carefully, how could you distinguish the experience of living the events out of order from living them in order, or from living them simultaneously? All you have is the state of your brain at that given point in time. -- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://math.ucr.edu/~mike https://reperiendi.wordpress.com
All you have is the state of your brain at that given point in time.
An interesting exploration of time and how we experience it is found in the recent book "Your brain is a time machine, the neuroscience and physics of time" by UCLA neuroscientist Dean Buonomano. This book has been praised by Carlo Rovelli who (with others) is trying to build models of the universe which include quantum mechanics and gravity in which time (and perhaps now) is an emergent phenomenon. According to Buonomano our brains construct our reality by sampling a "temporal window of intergration" of about 100 millisecond (more or less) (See page 219 of the book at "look inside" here.) <https://www.amazon.com/Your-Brain-Time-Machine-Neuroscience/dp/0393355608/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543444355&sr=8-1&keywords=your+brain+is+a+time+machine> Search inside the book for "temporal window of integration". This brings up an interesting question: did "now "exist before our brains existed in order "to construct it"... But this doesn't make sense if we live in a block universe? A talk on the book by Dean Buonomano at Google: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqwJHasGT9w> Wikipedia discussion of the block universe: The block universe aka Eternalism_(philosophy_of_time) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternalism_(philosophy_of_time)> Opposing the block universe is presentism <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_presentism> A video argument for the block universe: Space Time Video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO_Q_f1WgQI> A few more recent books on time (but Buonomano's is my favorite) Now: The Physics of Time Sep 19, 2017 by Richard A. Muller
From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time Feb 5, 2010 by Sean Carroll and Erik Synnestvedt
The Order of Time May 8, 2018 by Carlo Rovelli Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation Jan 24, 2017 by Alan Burdick For those who may be interested there is also the International society for the study of time <http://www.studyoftime.org/> which has put out 15 volumes of selected works for the 15 triennial conferences held by the society since it began in 1966. On Wed, Nov 28, 2018 at 4:03 PM Mike Stay <metaweta@gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Nov 28, 2018 at 1:47 PM Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net> wrote:
That's probably my preferred view, but there are problems reconciling it
with
everyday experience. It would mean that all ages t of (say) me are living their lives equally, in some sense of equally.
But how does that explain the experience we have of living our lives in the order of the real numbers, and the fact that it keeps getting later?
A too-cute answer is, "Because the arrow of time points in the direction of increasing entropy." More carefully, how could you distinguish the experience of living the events out of order from living them in order, or from living them simultaneously? All you have is the state of your brain at that given point in time. -- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://math.ucr.edu/~mike https://reperiendi.wordpress.com
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Bertrand Russell observed that our sense of time is not of isolated "events" but of small intervals which by overlapping provide a sequence and by having invoking memories provide a direction. This comports with the fact that the brain is a kind of amalgam of different modules. It can be shown experimentally that your brain combines auditory and visual sensations while correcting for the longer signal processing time required by the visual. So your brain is constructing your impression of the world not only in space but in time also. Brent On 11/28/2018 1:03 PM, Mike Stay wrote:
On Wed, Nov 28, 2018 at 1:47 PM Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net> wrote:
That's probably my preferred view, but there are problems reconciling it with everyday experience. It would mean that all ages t of (say) me are living their lives equally, in some sense of equally.
But how does that explain the experience we have of living our lives in the order of the real numbers, and the fact that it keeps getting later? A too-cute answer is, "Because the arrow of time points in the direction of increasing entropy." More carefully, how could you distinguish the experience of living the events out of order from living them in order, or from living them simultaneously? All you have is the state of your brain at that given point in time.
That's the problem I've always had with the static universe idea, with past, present and future universe existing all at once. I can't see how it could account for our consciousness moving through it.
participants (5)
-
Brent Meeker -
Dan Asimov -
David Wilson -
Mike Stay -
W. Edwin Clark