| The Origin Of Whole / (Perceptions of time ) | <Back> <Home> <Join our Forum> <Close this window> |
| Written by Ryo Kawasaki in January 2000 | Edited by Robert J. Baumann |
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| 1) What is Time ? [Top] The fundamental description of time is that it's functionality exists as a measure to display the distance between the events taking places along a T axis (time axis). The standard 3 dimensional axis is often displayed with an X, Y and Z axis (geometric axis) to measure the size and shape of given object or space. These objects have weight (mass) and various other parameters to determine it's appearance and characteristics. Given all these factors we're able to present a precise description of a given object. Similarly, time is able to present a description of a development or a relationship between different events or any given objects existing along T axis in association with their existence in geometric dimension. Is time independent from space? Personally, I feel much more comfortable to say that time is a 4th axis of existing space. In other words, time is a part of space instead of saying that Time and Space are two separate entities. All of these four dimensions (or axes) are supporting any matter that exists. Nothing could exist unless time was integrated within space so as to become true space. Three dimensional space without time could be presented as a mere base without any contents, activity or value. It is the same as non-existence, but time enables the formation of various objects and events to exist. In this manner three dimensional space can be experienced, observed or developed as well as become a tangible, measurable and valuable geometric part of space. The most simplified analogy to this would be to imagine how our pets would benefit from money without humanity. In this instance, money is space and humanity is time. Only with humanity, money becomes a way for pets to obtain their food. In other words, money (space) becomes a functional and valuable entity when the existence of humanity (time) is integrated. [Top]We perceive time through many different experiences and observations. It is likely that the invention of the clock and calendar were to organize different activities as well as to record important historical events. The base of these measurements were presented by observing the patterns being generated between Sun, Earth and Moon. The changes in these discernible objects made it easier to be incorporate them into our natural life patterns. Our pattern of life, governed by the relationship between these objects, made for a natural result in the development of periods for the cycles of a day, month and year. This type of measurement of time could be called cyclic time. However, there is a doubt about how accurate or consistent this cyclic time is. It depends on the calculations based on our observation of these celestial objects. How might we know if the Earth's rotation and revolution or those of other planets are gradually changing? What if this was 1/1,000,000 % faster every year? (In reality, the rotation is irregular. It has also slowed down. This was noted during this century.) Then a year becomes shorter and all the respective marks become shorter accordingly. We also use different methods to calculate time. We observe quartz crystal oscillation, radioactivity of isotopes or an atomic clock to measure time, but still these phenomena are observed within an environment which is governed by the same units of measurement. Other types of time are absolute time, relative time, and biological time. Absolute time is totally independent from any observation and it should be consistent. It was introduced by Sir Issac Newton and it makes sense as a theory, but it lacks substance with existing phenomena. Relative time or biological time are based on our experience of how such time elapses for different events. Some examples: If we're waiting for something, time elapses slowly. If we're having a good time, time elapses quite fast. Older people experience the passage of time differently than when they were young. This can be attributed to that fact that the life expectancy of a person has relative value to what he/she already has experienced. Music provides a nice experience for the listener. It incorporates sound, structure and melody. It's beat progresses along a time line. It is entertaining to people and even animals. [Top]Time could be the same as Change. Does time create change or change create/discover time? If we detect or observe motion, we discover time. Is it possible to view the completely still world without change or motion? What do we observe when the pause button on movie projector is pressed? The answer is very unlikely because as mentioned above our existence is supported by 4 dimensional parameters including time. Time does not exist without change or motion, therefore such a hypothetical world would never exist. Even if we're able to view such a world, our heart must still pump blood to our brain in order to perceive such view, thus there is existence of change and motion over time. Time and Change seem to have a very close relationship to each other. We invent technology to slow down the process of change in certain objects but all we can do is slow it down, not stop it. Do we exist in a time axis, traveling within, or does time pass by us changing us as if by a magic wand? Is it so, or do we change ourselves unconsciously, which in turn generates time? How we might we decide the passing of time when cyclic motion completes it's cycle? We observe changes in each object during the cycle of events. The most obvious events are on our own earth, then moon or sun respectively. We observe natural changes: the death of a pet or the additional growth of gray hairs as we age. Why can't we simply say that change has occurred instead of saying time has elapsed? Maybe time is our own invention so that our lives can be organized better through use of a calendar or a clock. Could it be true? What if we delete the concept of time from our lives and focus on the changes and motions of each event only. Do we still have to acknowledge the existence of time? It is impossible in reality, since we're so accustomed to the use of time in dealing with other people or events. What is actually happening is that we are observing changes and motion which are converted to some numerical expression called time. It might be possible that we perceive these constant changes and motions as information through our senses as an input and recognize the existence of time. Could we still sense the existence of time even if we receive no information at all, including our own thoughts or physical sensations? It would be like a deep sleep without any dream. Subjectively, the answer "no", but objectively it is "yes", which means that time may only exist when there are objects to be observed. [Top]As a reality, we're actually traveling in time to the future every moment of our life! We just don't have as much control over it as we wish to. At least we accomplish the fundamental task of time travel since we exist. As a matter of fact, our present is the mixture of past and future to begin with. While we're time traveling to the future with a given constant rate if we look at the stars, what we're actually observing is nothing but past. There are many varieties of the past we see and most of these are millions of light years away. This means that we're looking at light from a time long before humans, or even this solar system, existed. In other words, we're observing the past history of millions of objects all over in the sky. Many of these may no longer exist, but we have no way of knowing it. There are probably more black holes in existence than we could imagine. This may be so because we are limited by our perception of things that are millions of years old. How many births and deaths are there that we're unable to observe or detect? Here, I present the simplest model of Space-time travel incorporating Lorentz Factor from the theory of Special relativity by Einstein. The formula is presented as the following : ts = te(1 - v 2 /c 2 ) 1/2 This is a simplified version without variables such as motion of earth which is relatively slow compared to the speed of the ship as well as acceleration and retardation of ship's speed required for realistic traveling. ts is the time that passes for the ship and it's crew; te is the time that passes on earth upon and after the ship's departure; v is the ship's traveling speed and c is speed of light. This formula basically calculates the passage of time on a moving object. As you may already have noticed, if the speed of a moving object reaches the speed of light, time will stand still in the ship(ts=0). In this illustrated model below we have used 80% of speed of light for the average traveling speed of ship. Also it will take 10 years of earth time away from the earth to reach the destination for the result. As a consequence the ship reached a location of 8 light years from the earth in 10 earth years' time of traveling, but the ship aged 6 years instead of 10 years during this travel. Another interesting fact is that if the ship observed the earth using powerful telescope, they would see life in year 2002 on earth since it takes 8 years for the light to reach them from earth. However, all the remaining years (2003-2010) of life on earth are exist within 8 light years from the ship's location as real events, however there is no way to observe or communicate with these events from the ship at the given moment (2006 ship time), so they have yet to occur as far as those on the ship can perceive. Even this simple model reveals many interesting possibilities of this spce-time dimension. It not only proves the possibility of existing parallel worlds, but it also implies that there would be countless varieties of time (calculated by their passing speed) being shared in this space-time dimension. However the living in each different time speed would not notice anything unusual until they actually experience the difference when their ship returns to the earth. Consider using the same method as before, which results in a total of 12 years round trip for the ship time. The crew will face an earth that is 8 years older. In other words, a wife who is 4 years the junior of her husband will become 4 years his senior upon his return. As you may already have realized, the high speed motion of a given object is not necessarily linear motion as presented in this example of space-time travel. The same effect could be achieved through high speed spin or vibration of the object without traveling to a far distance. There are many more fascinating methods and theories to describe the possibilities of time travel and each subject could easily occupy the pages of entire book. One such theory is General Relativity, which explains about the relationships between a gravitational field, light and time. Also, there are Multiverse, Wormholes, cosmic strings, blackholes, tunnel effect etc., and they're beyond the scope of this short essay. There already is a device using time-warped fields that has been successful in performing time rate acceleration and retardation within very small region. This can be used as a container within this field to preserve living organs before they are transplanted. It also has other medical applications. Another use would be to slow down our metabolism like hibernation in order to skip certain periods of time without aging. We can then be relatively able to travel to the future beyond the life span of an average person.
If we had a device that could store each and every bit of current information about the world (including the thoughts and physical conditions of each and every intelligent being), it might be possible to predict the future. The predictions would be close to what would happen as long as the information was updated according by the progress of each event. The only reason we can not predict the future is that we don't posses such information thoroughly. Weather forecasting is a primitive, but good example of how we could predict the future based on limited information. Also, we could easily predict the future location or behavior of any cyclic event. For example, can we tell the location of earth against the sun exactly one year from now? We can since the answer would be the same location as of now and it is quite a reliable prediction unless the solar system was destroyed for some reason within the next year. [Top]How did it all begin? The Big Bang theory is probably the most supported example of how everything has begun. However, if we're able to reverse everything back to that point, then question arises, what will happen after? We're so used to thinking or looking at matters from a 3 dimensional perception, and it is almost impossible to imagine another type of existence. The 3 dimensional world always represents an object with a recognizable shape, regardless of size. If we look at this from another angle, 3 dimensional space could be a manifestation of different matter (such as pure mass or gravity) which may be able to exist without a physical size or shape. No one has suggested that everything requires a size or shape to exist or be recognized. Even our thoughts themselves may not have any measurable size or shape as an object, yet they have the power to produce something tangible with visible results by utilizing the given power to perform such tasks. The same idea could apply to this universe. It did not exist with any particular size, shape or dimension attached to it in the beginning. It was not even a form of gas as some theories try to explain. Couldn't we possibly say that there was only some form of thought with massive power to create this wonderful manifestation based on it's own idea. Maybe, this singular idea without size or shape could have been the origin of whole. [Top]After the brief tour through Time and Space-time related topics, it appears that what we actually perceive as realities in this world are nothing but mere shadows of Space-time phenomena. These are projected onto this three dimensional geometric canvas called space. Even though certain objects and events are tangible and measurable in this three dimensional world, it does not necessarily mean that they represent the true nature of that matter. It is just like trying to measure the length of a shadow that has been projected on 2 dimensional surface. It would not represent the actual size, shape and nature of the 3 dimensional object. As a conclusion, it is all up to each one of us to use and develop new methodologies. These tools will enable us to realize oneness with this space-time. This oneness will lead to a greater realization of the true meaning and state of our existence. (c)(p)2000 Ryo Kawasaki / all rights reserved --------------------------- Below are useful links for Time Travel, Cosmology, Space Arts, Space Science and Physics : [Top]
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