Misunderstanding time -- Ben's Message Board

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Subject: Misunderstanding time

Author:
Ben

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Date Posted: 01/18/04 5:06pm
In reply to: Wade A. Tisthammer 's message, "More math stuff" on 01/18/04 2:54pm

>What day did he write about last
>year? This wouldn't even be a point in the sense of
>having no "thickness," it has a temporal "thickness"
>of 24 hours. Yesterday is a point in time in that
>sense, to say that yesterday is meaningless will not
>help matters.

Again, time doesn't "exist" any more than an inch "exists." Inches are just ways that we measure things, and time is only useful in this sense. You can say "yesterday," but what you really mean is, "a certain succession of events prior to now, in this case involving the apparent rising and setting of the Sun."

What we call "time" is just our perception of events that go one after another. It isn't something that can be "existed outside of," because it isn't something real. It's relative to the observer, which in itself shows that it isn't useful to try to do what you're doing with it.

This is why your paradox isn't really a paradox in _real life_. You can create any kind of paradox using words and ideas, but a paradox is only truly useful to me if it represents an actual real-world problem.

Ben

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Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Understanding time	QUITTNER	01/20/04 11:54am
Supporting my point -- Ben, 01/20/04 10:05pm
Paradox... hm.	Duane	02/11/04 9:54am