Scientists say that the direction of time is controlled by gravity. Why Does Time Move Forward, Not Backward? I'm not sure I really understand it, but apparently this is something new and interesting. Now gravity might be useful for something extra besides sticking your feet to the ground and dropping apples on your head.
For us, Time is the measurement between now and some future moment, when things can be seen to have changed. We are contemplating the moment as if trapped inside the Frame of the moment, but see that Frame replaced by the next Frame of Reality. The changes we notice between these two frames is a measurement of Time for us. Our perception allows changes to be noticed Frame by Frame, much the same way as TV or Movies use Frames, 20-60 per second between them.
I don't agree with this, your OP I mean. Time is an illusion, it's strictly a human construct used to define entropy. What gravity helps create is increasing entropy. - - - Updated - - - That is correct, time is strictly a measurement of change...it's not "real" it's a human construct.
Ah, but we remember the past but not the future. So there must be an Arrow of Time. There's got to be some kind of event horizon that obscures our view of the future, but we eventually pass the tipping point and can take it in as a memory.
No matter how many times I've heard it explained its still a mystery to me...maybe a few dozen more attempts and I'll experience the ah ha! moment when I finally get it...it probably doesn't help that I dont attach much importance in understanding it, it's interesting but at same time kind of pointless...
So they say that the complexity of order in the universe is growing. But this seems counter to the second law of thermodynamics, which basically says that entropy always increases. (but then again, the second law of thermodynamics in really a statistical generalization, not a fundamental law) Perhaps they need to develop a better mathematical explanation to explain why order tends to increase.
I don't know if I could disagree (with the new found evidence gravity influences time). For some time I have owned a gut feeling that time and gravity somehow influences one another. Space and time are woven together, why not weave in gravity? There are interesting associations. Time ceases to exist when one passes the imaginary line called the event horizon due to the infinite gravity of a black hole. If one could accelerate a spacecraft to light speed its mass increases to infinity as it attains light speed, so I assume it would create gravity in relation to its mass. Then there is time dilation where the arrow of time gets confused! But I will not go there ... yet. Our physics tells us tells us a drinking glass should 'unbreak' as easily and as often is it breaks. However the arrow of time ensures us that we only observe a glass breaking. All the paradoxes and such in our universe convinces me that we are missing some fundamental truth. I can't wait until we find it. reva
Again its true that complexity is increasing even though it violates the second law it's another paradox isn't it? That bit of discussion reminded me of the dark stuff in our universe, dark energy and dark matter. Dark matter or something is pushing the universe instead of pulling the universe back towards the initial big bang event. The universe is speeding up not slowing in its expansion. Ok add reverse gravity to reverse entropy ie (complexity if organized)....man its getting weird and weirder' lol. Its a good time to be an astronomer, a better time to be a cosmologist, and the best time to be a theoretical (astro) physicist! reva
One man spent 36 years looking for a satisfying explanation of time (Burbough, or something like that, I don't have the reference with me here). Present reality is like a page in a book, but none of the pages are numbered or bound together like in a book. The next page is simply whichever one matches the changes. There is no past or future, just the present page. Going from one page to the next gives the illusion of sequential time. The analogy of scattered pages might be useful in trying to contemplate the idea of concurrent time. His explanation for instant access to the next page rested on the assumption that all possible pages already exist. That's tantamount to the many worlds theory, an assumption of unlimited resources. The multiverse concept of actualized and unactualized possible/probable realities could be the case instead. The data of actualized past realities, if recorded, could constitute the so-called Akashic Records.
There you go. I believe we have a forest/trees thing goin' on, and all we're seeing now are the trees. I don't have much confidence that we are capable of figuring it all out.
Seems to me that scientists have to figure out gravity before they say it controls time. I think all they have now is that gravity is a function of mass. It could be that gravity and time are both functions of mass, but what do they consist of? And WHY is gravity a function of mass? I can't be just one of those "it just is" types of things.
I have been told that time is simply movement. The frequencies transmitted by particles, the waves, that movement is time. The second is recorded in Atomic clocks by so many periods of radiation happening a predefined number of times that makes up a second. Now it seems like the movement, the direction of time is determined by gravity. OR at least that's what the article scientists seem to think.
If not for the existence of memory, we would not even have the term time. That might be a good place to start in trying to figure out what it is. But it does seem to me that time as an idea, arises when consciousness splits itself into the duality that we all perceive. The observer, and the observed. As soon as consciousness separates itself from the WHOLE that we are in, time is created. Consciousness, a nonduality at its primordial level, may actually be something that is timeless, not subject to time. But when it splits itself, into the observer and the observed, time is manifested, as an idea. And it then appears that the observed is movement, which implies time. While consciousness itself, in its nondual state is not moving, and so not in time. But since our perception is grounded in a duality, the me, the not me, the inner, the outer, the thinker, the thought, we also sense time. So, it very well could be an illusion. An illusion created when consciousness splits itself, and is no longer singular.
If we are outside of the Universe, looking down on the whole ball of wax, we would know that from the 'beginning' until now is about 13.8 billion years. And the Universe is expanding and growing older by the day. Earth did not exist all of this time but only for about 4.5 billion years which means there are approximately 9.3 billion years of time (minus the Universe date when Earth was created) of 'known time' in our future...plus more for each day the Universe grows older. Back outside of the Universe for a moment...if the Universe can continue to grow older, then there must be another scale of time which goes on forever. If it does not go on forever, when we use up our time, we are done. Another thing I'm thinking is that 'Earth years' have no meaning when we are looking down on the Universe...there would be some other scale of time needed as we observe the Universe growing older. All of this is way beyond my pay scale...
The arrow of time that we relate to in the here and now is within the context of our existing universe. Step outside that, and the scope entails more. The arrow of time flows from the inception of the big bang and continues on through inflation and expansion. Time stops when expansion ends and entropy is maximum. Quantum mechanics says that the maximum possible entropy is produced by space-time being expanded maximally by dark energy. That would be an immense field of empty, flat space-time. However, the vacuum of empty space is not totally empty. According to quantum theory, it is rich in virtual particles popping in and out of existence without violating the uncertainty principle. Thus it has in effect a residual background energy that can serve as a cosmological constant, but the calculated value was too high to fit into the scheme of proper creation. Feinberg(?), making good use of the Anthropic principle, calculated the desired upper limit. With the later discovery of dark energy and how it could be fitted into the scheme, this obstacle disappeared. Quantum mechanics states that any field is subject to random fluctuations. Given a big enough spike, the false vacuum of quantum inflation makes a phase transition to a true vacuum, releasing enormous amounts of energy and forming a tiny region where baby universes are born in states of low entropy and future prospects of inflation etc., each with its own arrow of time. Don't ask me to make real sense of this; I can't, and I'm not about to dive into quantum field theory for a better understanding. With baby universes being born in all directions, there is no net arrow of time. Hence this is a multiverse of eternal inflation with no distinction between past and future, i.e. timeless. Want to forget about all this? Consider instead big bangs being sparked by points of contact between two membranes (Brane Theory).
Sure, gravity exists! Does Time Really Exist or is it a Man Made concept foisted on the Universe? I am not convinced Time exists outside of PeopleKind. Moi r > g View attachment 32187 Oppose Ottawa's subjugation of the provinces once Free and autonomous.
In native American culture there was no concept of time, just another day that something different happened. In my twenties I used to enjoy the weekends by turning over every clock and just live by the day. It drove anyone nuts that came over as we are so tied to the clock (this was before cell phones).
If you are relating time to expansion, then what happens to time during contraction? Again, placing ourselves outside of the Universe, seems no matter if we are watching expansion or contraction 'our' time would continue to move forward or we would cease to exist. Considering multiple universes, when we can observe more than one universe, 'our' time continues to move forward no matter what each universe might be doing, i.e. expansion or contraction. So it seems to me that 'time' is sort of a local unit of measure similar to a local language...5PM on Earth has no meaning on Jupiter or Alpha Centauri, etc. If there was an interplanetary spacecraft and they called both Earth and Jupiter to get the time, they would receive two totally different times...so what time would it actually be on that spacecraft? Because of this it's not intuitive to me that time is associated with gravity...
Long into my retirement I could give a crap what day of the week it might be and stopped checking clocks about 20 years ago...I love this freedom! But I do catch hell for missing birthdays, anniversaries, etc...
I am not convinced there is time without consciousness. Not a particular consciousness, just a cosmic consciousness. In fact, I kinda think, time is consciousness, that began when consciousness manifested time/space, matter, energy. So you cannot separate time from space, matter, energy. With one, you get all of them. They have to all arise together, and one implies the others. So, no matter without time, no energy without time, no space without time. And, no time without, matter, energy, space. They are one whole, that we fragment into fragments, in order for the brain to try to get a handle on it.
I am not convinced there is time without consciousness. There is No Consciousness without Moi. Sans Moi, Yes the universe has gravity. No the universe does NOT know / have time without Moi, just on its' own, like gravity. Moi When I No Longer Think Are YOU still am / is of blink out too? r > g View attachment 32231
I always missed those before the iPhone because I have a very bad memory for things like time. Great memory for fixing stuff but bad with esoteric things like time.
Without motion, time would be irrelevant. Time is a measurement of motion just as distance is. I believe that time and the observation of a time lapse by an intelligent entity are two different things. Many here are discussing time when referring to their own observation of (and memories of) movement through time.
Yes, people are discussing from their own frame of reference because that's the best known aspect of time. Of course time as motion is less clear and it makes me wonder what exactly a reverse in the direction of motion would mean. I'm not qualified to answer that question.
