What Is Time?
June 7, 2020 7:54 AM Subscribe
Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.
posted by SansPoint at 8:54 AM on June 7, 2020 [15 favorites]
posted by SansPoint at 8:54 AM on June 7, 2020 [15 favorites]
2014: Philomena Cunk asks “What is clocks?”
posted by oulipian at 9:23 AM on June 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by oulipian at 9:23 AM on June 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
Baby don't hurt me.
posted by Foosnark at 9:24 AM on June 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Foosnark at 9:24 AM on June 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time is probably the best science writing on the topic, from an actual TimeLord practicing Theoretical Physicist.
(oh and more Time is Tight the original cut)
posted by sammyo at 9:31 AM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
(oh and more Time is Tight the original cut)
posted by sammyo at 9:31 AM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
It helps us make pizza! It keeps things in line!
Seriously, though, I appreciate this. I have been thinking heavily on this topic lately, but I don't generally share that fact because, without any scientific or philosophical reason to do so, someone who says they have been thinking about Time sounds like they are a) a stoner, b) suffering from incipient mental illness, or c) a garden-variety crank.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:40 AM on June 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
Seriously, though, I appreciate this. I have been thinking heavily on this topic lately, but I don't generally share that fact because, without any scientific or philosophical reason to do so, someone who says they have been thinking about Time sounds like they are a) a stoner, b) suffering from incipient mental illness, or c) a garden-variety crank.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:40 AM on June 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
Time is the concept that throws the Dunning-Kruger effect into the sharpest possible relief. Nobody has a clue, and being convinced that you're the exception is proof positive that you actually have no idea how you'd go about getting one.
posted by flabdablet at 9:40 AM on June 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 9:40 AM on June 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
> This timeline traces our evolving understanding of time
got my eyes on you ...
posted by user92371 at 9:41 AM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
got my eyes on you ...
posted by user92371 at 9:41 AM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Does anybody really know what time it is?
posted by Thorzdad at 10:10 AM on June 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 10:10 AM on June 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
Time is what prevents everything happening at once - John Wheeler
posted by crocomancer at 10:39 AM on June 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by crocomancer at 10:39 AM on June 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.
Time is an illusion caused by the passage of history; and history is an illusion caused by the passage of time.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:01 AM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
Time is an illusion caused by the passage of history; and history is an illusion caused by the passage of time.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:01 AM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
I have been thinking heavily on this topic lately, but I don't generally share that fact because, without any scientific or philosophical reason to do so, someone who says they have been thinking about Time sounds like they are a) a stoner, b) suffering from incipient mental illness, or c) a garden-variety crank.
It's Time for you to stop giving a shit about what those Squares think.
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:31 AM on June 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
It's Time for you to stop giving a shit about what those Squares think.
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:31 AM on June 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
“Time is the moving image of eternity.”
― Plato
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:32 AM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
― Plato
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:32 AM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Thanks for this. That free-running dilation that occurs when people don't have any cues is fascinating.
One of the few things I've read that made time mean anything was Kevin Lynch’s What Time Is This Place?, it gets well into the sense of time, not clock time, but the real time of a space: biological time; earth time; human time…
posted by unearthed at 11:48 AM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
One of the few things I've read that made time mean anything was Kevin Lynch’s What Time Is This Place?, it gets well into the sense of time, not clock time, but the real time of a space: biological time; earth time; human time…
posted by unearthed at 11:48 AM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
"he calculable measure of motion with respect to before and afterness.”
so that's 350 bce, around the time the nilometer was first used.
posted by clavdivs at 12:44 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
so that's 350 bce, around the time the nilometer was first used.
posted by clavdivs at 12:44 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
"...St Augustine, restating an observation by Plotinus, wrote:
‘So what is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I seek to explain it, I do not’)"
posted by clavdivs at 12:51 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
‘So what is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I seek to explain it, I do not’)"
posted by clavdivs at 12:51 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
"The second was officially redefined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 vibrations of a particular isotope of cesium." As long as it isn't a peculiar isotope of cesium.
posted by Oyéah at 1:13 PM on June 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 1:13 PM on June 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
Incidentally, "vibrations of a peculiar isotope of cesium" is my new sockpuppet name.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:19 PM on June 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:19 PM on June 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
it's 420
posted by clavdivs at 1:22 PM on June 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 1:22 PM on June 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
"The Maya saw time as organic and believed that humanity was intimately involved with time’s passage. Keeping time on its course was seen as a communal responsibility."
I'd not read or heard this before. "Keeping time on its course" is a fascinating concept of having agency on time itself.
Very interesting read, thanks for posting.
posted by slimepuppy at 2:26 PM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
I'd not read or heard this before. "Keeping time on its course" is a fascinating concept of having agency on time itself.
Very interesting read, thanks for posting.
posted by slimepuppy at 2:26 PM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
"Keeping time on its course" is a fascinating concept of having agency on time itself.
That's why it slips past you when you're not paying attention.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:46 PM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
That's why it slips past you when you're not paying attention.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:46 PM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
Does anybody really know what time it is?
25 or 6 to 4.
I agree with several of the above comments. At one time (heh) in my life I tried my best to think about its nature, but evermore came out by the same door as in I went. I do recall getting some insight from a book by Robert Grudin called Time and the Art of Living, although I haven’t read it in some thirty years. Anyone else know it?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:02 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
25 or 6 to 4.
I agree with several of the above comments. At one time (heh) in my life I tried my best to think about its nature, but evermore came out by the same door as in I went. I do recall getting some insight from a book by Robert Grudin called Time and the Art of Living, although I haven’t read it in some thirty years. Anyone else know it?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:02 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
"Maybe it is just as well if we face the fact that time is one of the things we probably cannot define (in the dictionary sense), and just say that it is what we already know it to be: it is how long we wait!"
Richard Feynman -- The Feynman Lectures on Physics
posted by TwoToneRow at 3:15 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Richard Feynman -- The Feynman Lectures on Physics
posted by TwoToneRow at 3:15 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Time has come today.
posted by Fuzzypumper at 5:31 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Fuzzypumper at 5:31 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Distance over velocity?
posted by delicious-luncheon at 6:46 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by delicious-luncheon at 6:46 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Time is just one damn thing after another.
posted by Pouteria at 7:34 PM on June 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Pouteria at 7:34 PM on June 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
"Time present and time past. Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present."
FANKS TOM.
posted by clavdivs at 7:44 PM on June 7, 2020
FANKS TOM.
posted by clavdivs at 7:44 PM on June 7, 2020
chronology to time is like a barn to a horse.
posted by clavdivs at 7:47 PM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 7:47 PM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
time to get a new watch
posted by not_on_display at 8:36 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by not_on_display at 8:36 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Just ordered this. Anybody know whether it will be a keeper or a drowner?
posted by flabdablet at 10:23 PM on June 7, 2020
posted by flabdablet at 10:23 PM on June 7, 2020
Does anybody really know what time it is?
You do if you have only 1 clock. If you have 2 you are not so sure....
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:32 AM on June 8, 2020
You do if you have only 1 clock. If you have 2 you are not so sure....
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:32 AM on June 8, 2020
Time is what prevents everything happening at once
Space is what prevents everything from happening to me.
Neither has been working very well lately.
posted by straight at 5:52 PM on June 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
Space is what prevents everything from happening to me.
Neither has been working very well lately.
posted by straight at 5:52 PM on June 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
Surprised nobody has mentioned the heady musings of Time Is.
posted by cult_url_bias at 10:21 PM on June 8, 2020
posted by cult_url_bias at 10:21 PM on June 8, 2020
Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future.
posted by otherchaz at 4:21 AM on June 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by otherchaz at 4:21 AM on June 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
One of the crazier ideas I've encountered with regards to time is the very real possibility that for those of us with a relatively constant internal temperature our internal chemical reactions and therefor our sense of time takes place at a predictable rate. How fast a retinal cone or nerve cell can fire is a relatively fixed value. However for animals with no fixed temperature their internal chemical reactions take place at variable rate dependent on temperature. So from their perspective it is quite possible that they see the world as speeding up when they are cold and slowing down when they are warm. So yes it is harder to swat a fly when it is warm because from my perspective it is quicker but from the fly's perspective it is easier to dodge me as I have become slower along with the rest of the world.
posted by The Violet Cypher at 10:54 AM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by The Violet Cypher at 10:54 AM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No-one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun
But it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older
Shorter of breath
And one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught
Or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone
The song is over
Thought I'd something more to say
posted by flabdablet at 6:35 AM on June 10, 2020
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No-one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun
But it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older
Shorter of breath
And one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught
Or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone
The song is over
Thought I'd something more to say
posted by flabdablet at 6:35 AM on June 10, 2020
When playing chess online, sometimes the opponent has a clearly right move, but still it takes some time to find, and you have to think about it while waiting for them to move. Then when you see the right move, suddenly, within a second or so, the other person makes that move. It's like there's a kind of synchronization in the time it takes for the both of you to arrive at the same thought.
It makes me wonder about thought and time, and whether there's a shortest thought you can have, and whether it's possible for a thought to develop over decades or centuries. Perhaps that's what happens when something suddenly seems apparent to a lot of people at the same time, as if it was obvious all along.
posted by dmh at 8:22 AM on June 10, 2020
It makes me wonder about thought and time, and whether there's a shortest thought you can have, and whether it's possible for a thought to develop over decades or centuries. Perhaps that's what happens when something suddenly seems apparent to a lot of people at the same time, as if it was obvious all along.
posted by dmh at 8:22 AM on June 10, 2020
The Onion's take on that Wheeler quote
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:15 AM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:15 AM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by zinful at 8:52 AM on June 7, 2020 [3 favorites]