Space can be divided into units like inches, miles etc but only consciousness divides it into
here and
there. Time can be divided into seconds, millennia etc but only consciousness divides it into past, present and future. Every moment is "now" to any organisms that are conscious in that moment. Thus, the present is not a moment or temporal point moving from the past into the future. There is a widespread illusion that we are moving through time at the rate of sixty minutes per hour. We do sometimes drive through three-dimensional space at the rate of sixty miles per hour but we can accelerate to seventy or decelerate to thirty whereas we cannot accelerate to seventy minutes per hour or decelerate to thirty minutes. Sixty minutes
are an hour. Velocity is a relationship between two sets of units. If two of Poul Anderson's mutant time travellers travel from a particular date and time in 2001 to the corresponding date and time in 3000, then they will arrive simultaneously even if one has subjectively travelled more rapidly than the other.
I am just about to travel to a Christmas Fair so I will be back here maybe some time tomorrow.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And only a conscious mind can even think of measuring spaces and velocities. A lion hunting its prey can, in an unverbalized way, estimate how fast/far it needs to go before (hopefully) catching its next meal. But the lion doesn't think in terms of inches/feet or MPH.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Correct. However, the distances that we call inches, feet etc would exist even if there were no consciousness whereas there would be no "present" without consciousness.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree. And I don't think the lion is aware that it's aware.
Ad astra! Sean
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