Saturday, July 6, 2013

Time: Perceived Reality

    Time is a concept that can be defined in different ways. It is one of the few relative concepts that exists. At this point, anyone holding to any type of relativistic beliefs is probably becoming a little offended. I have argued a great deal in the past concerning the foolishness of relativism. But that is not my intention here. Time is broadly relative. In fact, I submit that time as measured through chronology is a figment of imagination. A perceived reality. An idea that exists because it is an idea--that is it exists because we believe it exists. A unit of measure invented to accommodate feeble human minds. 
    Chronological time (as measured by Terrestrial day/night cycles) only exists as such on this planet, and is dependent on different variables such as distance from the star, direction and speed of rotation, atmospheric composition, etc. Time with these particular parameters doesn't necessarily exist anywhere else in the universe. Our apparent progression throughout the aeons is governed by our perception of those Terrestrial variables. How we exist in "time" has been determined by how we view our environment. Take away our means of measuring time, and we no longer perceive time. It ceases to exist because we cease to perceive it.
    Time as measured by entropy (aging, deterioration, decay, etc.) is also governed by the environment. As far as we know, deterioration occurs, and will always occur. It has become  scientific law and therefore can not be viewed relatively in the same way that the previously discussed "time" can be viewed. However, the rate of decay is based on a multitude of variables. Terrestrially, variables ranging from Solar radiation to the occurrence of various elements within our environment effect the rate of decay, if not decay itself (Causality). Probability tells us that there could exist a place in the universe in which none of the variables that cause "time" exist.
    And these are the musings of a bored mind... I hope this was as amusing to you as it was to me.
   

   "Time and space are not conditions in which we live, but modes by which we think." ~Albert Einstein