If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

- George Washington

Monday 26 November 2012

Time

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last couple of weeks.  All is well, but both the desire and the opportunity to blog stuff have been lacking.  More on that another time.

Anyways ...

Found this on Reddit and thought I would share.

Time doesn't exist. Clocks exist. Time is just an agreed construct. We have taken distance (one rotation of the earth, and one orbit of the sun), divided it up into segments, and given those segments labels. While it has its uses, we have been programmed to live our lives by this construct as if it were real. We have confused our shared construct with something that is tangible and have thus become its slave. 

I have taken to leaving my watch on the bedside table recently.  If I need to know the exact time (for getting to work on time, mainly), I look for a clock. But for most of the day, and night, I seem to get by quite well without knowing exactly how many minutes before or after the hour it is. I eat, I sleep, I work, and so far the world hasn't ended. Time can be a tyrant.

11 comments:

  1. Thankfully you're still alive! I was beginning to worry that you'd got "Bloggers' Boredom".

    For the past fortnight, I've kept looking at my watch, thinking 'any moment now, there'll be another GFGN posting'.

    So, you can do without a watch, but you'd need a pretty-reliable body-clock to wake-up in time (OK, OK) to get to work at the correct hour.

    Welcome back Richard.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to hear you are still around. I think we've all ran into the blogging blahs at one time or another.

    I read that little blurb on time on facebook last week and thought it very appropriate. Funny how time rules our world. I haven't worn a watch in 10 years since the battery died but I do still use my alarm clock and other clocks around the house when needed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Phew, yes I admit I was getting worried about you.

    Being a contrary beggar I have recently started wearing a watch again after a year or so of not doing so. however I find I hardly look at it and if needed still pull out my phone for the time.

    Welcome back!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Einstein realized that we are always traveling through 4-dimensional spacetime, at a constant speed. Any movement in one of the three spatial dimensions therefore reduces our speed through the time dimension.

    In a two-dimensional analogy, it's like two bikes, both doing exactly 50mph down a wide road. If one is zigzagging from side to side, the other will get to the end of the road first.

    This relativity thing explains the instinct to travel, preferably fast. It slows time, and thus prolongs our lives.

    As an extreme case; at the speed of light, time stops completely. Photons travel at the speed of light from creation to impact. Thus photons exist for precisely zero seconds, even those which come from the edge of the observable universe. Those that avoid hitting anything will exist forever, without getting any older.

    Is anyone still reading this? Why? :-)

    Welcome back, Richard.

    Zaphod

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But how does it effect the price of biscuits?

      Delete
  5. Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so (Richard Adams)

    Zaphod - you are presuming that light is the fastest thing in the universe, and I don't believe that this can be proved. We may have simply not found the fastest thing yet.

    Richard - Good you're still OK.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nothing can be "proved", except maths, and "I think, therefore I am."

    We have to make do with that which has not yet been falsified.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have numerous timepieces, and they all generally serve the same purpose of telling me exactly how late at any given time. It's not necessarily something I'm proud of, but punctuality is pretty much something that happens to other people.

    Anyway, welcome back Rich, was just on the verge* of e-mailing to find out if you were OK.

    * With reference to the above lack of timekeeping ability, anyone else might have done this two weeks ago...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Reminds me of my favourite time quote: "A man with one clock knows what time it is. A man with two clocks is never sure." Even though I'm (more or less) retired and therefore with no figurative clock to punch I still feel myself to be naked without a wristwatch. Not sure I could ever train myself to not be time-focused.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for the nice noises, everyone. I have a couple of posts in draft, so there should be some more nonsense here before too long.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hurray, Richard is back bloggin'.

    I don't wear a watch but my life is still ruled by 'time' - and quite often by other people's marks in it.

    My father reckoned that one of the best feelings in a long and varied life was smashing his alarm clock when he retired. He often still got up at the same time he did when he was working - but because that is what he felt like doing.

    I wonder if Bill and Melinda use an alarm clock.....

    ReplyDelete

Comment is free, according to C P Scott, so go for it. Word verification is turned off for the time being. Play nicely.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...