Support NeoGAF

[ZeroMaverick]

This is the kind of four-dimensional thinking that will finally allow us to ascend. Bravo

 

[YoungHav]

If you think that is trippy, just wait until you start thinking about time not actually being linear and how our perception of time is skewed as all hell.

watchu talking about Willis? Do you mean how someone on top of a mountain and someone down at its base will both experience time differently?

 

[Buttonbasher]

Now is good. Before would have been better, but... before is gone...

 

[Rest]

There is only change, time is movement. This is not weird.

 

[Ampersands]

Well, I'm reading this thread now and it's pretty weird so... I guess you're right OP!

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Light takes time to travel. Your eye collect light for vision, so you'll only ever see the past, never now.

Touch signals take time to reach you brain. You'll never know you're touching something, only that you've touched it before, but never now.

We can't experience now.

If I shoot you and it takes time for your body to register the damage, does that mean you're already dead when you feel the pain?

 

[The Artisan]

Are you high?

was this question ever answered?

 

[blame space]

Is it ever not now?

 

[Anastasia]

It's always now until it's not.

 

[Darksol]

They call 'em fingers, but I never see 'em 'fing'.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

This is the kind of four-dimensional thinking that will finally allow us to ascend. Bravo

Isn't it a bit odd that despite being three-dimensional beings, we can understand the concept of higher-dimensional thinking and perspectives?

Really makes you think.

 

[Scoot2005]

Didn't someone wonder about this same thing last week?

 

[Ayt]

I think the best high a person can achieve is complete awareness of the current moment while not having regrets from the past or hopes for the future intruding on what you are experiencing.

 

[McLovin]

When dinosaurs roamed the Earth it was now. When Columbus discovered America it was now. World War 2 was now. When we landed on the moon: that happened now. The past and future literally don't exist. Even a million years from now will still be now. There is nothing but now; it's all just infinite now'ness.

It's trippy to think about.

Or the past, president, and future all exist at the same time and now is just an illusion caused by our perception of the universe.

 

[0.1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55]

Read the Elegant Universe OP, you've got a long way to go in understanding our perception of time.

Seriously. Fascinating book.

 

[Screaming Meat]

Is it ever not now?

It's always now until it's not.

It's never now.

 

[VanWinkle]

That doesn't seem weird at all to me.

 

[iamblades]

If you really want to blow your mind, just think about the fact that time doesn't even exist, it is just a bias of human perception because of relativity.

There is no now and there is no past or future, there is just space time. It's like a dvd doesn't have a past and a future part of the movie, it contains within it past and present and future, you only perceive the passage of time because the order in which the images are displayed.

Likewise within our physical reality, we are stuck in our perception of time as something real and concrete because of entropy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrqmMoI0wks

 

[lednerg]

I can't remember when it wasn't now.

 

[Rimon-hanit]

Well it isn't, it's always one moment ago.

 

[DarkKyo]

The you that exists now is immortal, its existence stamped onto this point in time and space. Even when a version of you experiences death in the future and there are no longer anymore yous for an eternity to come, you will still be alive now, in the past, forever.

 

[Anjelus_]

Or the past, president, and future all exist at the same time and now is just an illusion caused by our perception of the universe.

Quick get this man out of here, he's talking devil talk!

 

[Kolx]

Now is always now.

 

[Screaming Meat]

Now is always now.

No it's not. It's never now. Measure now right now and you'll see that when you measure now it's already then. Unless you're anticipating now and even then it's not now. By the time you do measure that now, it's then again.

 

[magnetic]

Good to know that asking a basic philosophical question is so out there that 80% of the post derail drug-related maymay nonsense. Asking "isn´t the passing of time odd?" is nowhere near the Jaden Smith level of "how can mirrors be real if our eyes aren´t real".

Anyway -

Daniel Gilbert - "Stumbling on happiness" - easily my favorite book when it comes to how our brains relate to time, perception and expectation, here´s a great talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnsimet3X_c

I´d highly suggest the book "Wisdom Of Insecurity" by Alan Watts, he has many talks on YouTube as well, but I find his books way more concise and this one is particularly good.

Here´s a very short but good one that is particularly fitting:

Music and Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoTmNU_5A0

No it's not. It's never now. Measure now right now and you'll see that when you measure now it's already then. Unless you're anticipating now and even then it's not now. By the time you do measure that now, it's then again.

I think our perception of now is fundamentally different of what "now" is in the sense of what TIME it is, as measured by a clock.

Time is a measure of energy, a measure of motion. And we have agreed internationally on the speed
of the clock. And I want you to think about clocks and watches for a moment. We are of course slaves
to them. And you will notice that your watch is a circle, and that it is calibrated, and that each minute,
or second, is marked by a hairline which is made as narrow as possible, as yet to be consistent with
being visible. And when we think of a moment of time when we think what we mean by the word "now,"
we think of the shortest possible instant that is here and gone, because that corresponds with the hairline
on the watch.

And as a result of this fabulous idea, we are a people who feel that we don't have any
present, because the present is instantly vanishing - it goes so quickly. It is always becoming past.

And we have the sensation, therefore, of our lives as something that is constantly flowing away from
us. We are constantly losing time. And so we have a sense of urgency. Time is not to be wasted.
Time is money. And so because of the tyranny of this thing, we feel that we have a past, and we
know who we are in terms of our past.

Nobody can ever tell you who they are, they can only tell
you who they were. And we think we also have a future. And that is terribly important, because we
have a naive hope that the future is somehow going to supply what we are looking for. You see, if
you live in a present that is so short that it is not really here at all, you will always feel vaguely frustrated.

http://pvtridvs.net/pool/miscbooks/Alan_Watts_-_Time_&_Eternity.htm

Mitch Hedberg was a complete genius and it´s incredible how well this little joke hits the nail on the head. When you try to hold on to the now, it´s already the past.

 

[Shig]

Right now, Ed is playing the piano.

 

[Yaponchik]

How soon is now?

Talking about it, what about that Charmed remake? I need hot witches in my tv schedule!

 

[magnetic]

If you really want to blow your mind, just think about the fact that time doesn't even exist, it is just a bias of human perception because of relativity.

There is no now and there is no past or future, there is just space time. It's like a dvd doesn't have a past and a future part of the movie, it contains within it past and present and future, you only perceive the passage of time because the order in which the images are displayed.

Likewise within our physical reality, we are stuck in our perception of time as something real and concrete because of entropy.

I believe it was Eckhart Tolle who said "the past doesn't exist, only our memory of the past as we remember it right now. The future doesn't exist, only our anticipation or fears right now."

That isn't to say at all that the ideas about the past and the future are not incredibly important, most of our lives and humanity in general are based around the memory of what happened and the hopes and dreams what what might be on the horizon.

But it's also important to remember that the only way to live and do things is right now. That isn't even something you choose - you are always in the "here and now", and it's more a question of how you relate to what's going on right now.

This summer for instance I stood in the ocean with both feet, feeling the water, the sun and the wind, the open sky, and thought "soon I will be at home and think of this moment." It was now, but now it's the past, and I remember myself thinking about this moment when I'm at home, which is now.

It really shows me how we like to think of time as something perfectly linear, but the way we relate to it in our heads can be completely different.

I find this "feeling of time" endlessly fascinating.

 

[Warm Machine]

There is no such thing as time. We live in an ever changing single moment of existence.

 

[d9b]

No, i think he's talking about now.

When he was talking about now is already in the past now. This is now.

We're already dead.

 

[Kas]

Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to be living in the past though.

Also, studies have shown that we treat our future selves as strangers. If you procrastinate today or get completely wasted, you think that your future self will deal with it, but he might not, he might be just as shitty as you are today and hate you. Ignoring the future self and hating your past self, change your present self so you can love all versions of you.

I'm too high for this.

 

[Kolx]

No it's not. It's never now. Measure now right now and you'll see that when you measure now it's already then. Unless you're anticipating now and even then it's not now. By the time you do measure that now, it's then again.

If you think about it as an individual separated dot then yes, but if you think about it as a long series of infinite dots and each one of them represent a single now then you can? because you'll still be able to live now at any given moment. at the end what do you mean by measure now? do you mean like by a clock and every (0.1) to the power infinite of a second counts?

Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to be living in the past though.

Also, studies have shown that we treat our future selves as strangers. If you procrastinate today or get completely wasted, you think that your future self will deal with it, but he might not, he might be just as shitty as you are today and hate you. Ignoring the future self and hating your past self, change your present self so you can love all versions of you.

Are you telling me to give up on the best excuse I've for doing stupid shit? nah man no way.

 

[fizzik]

Nah. Not for you it isn't. You're always a few milliseconds or something in the past.

 

[d9b]

Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to be living in the past though.

Also, studies have shown that we treat our future selves as strangers. If you procrastinate today or get completely wasted, you think that your future self will deal with it, but he might not, he might be just as shitty as you are today and hate you. Ignoring the future self and hating your past self, change your present self so you can love all versions of you.

Note to my future self:

 

[y2dvd]

Do they still make Now and Later?

 

[bggrthnjsus]

time is an illusion brah

 

[Inkvoterad]

This is some deep shit that is making me think.

What framerate is the real world in?

 

[direct_quote]

Isn't it also weird that on forums you are only interacting with people's past selves?

 

[Deleted member 13876]

There was some educational cartoon I can't remember (it had chickens in its cast) where one of the main characters had a "Now Watch". Just a watch that said "Now" on it. For some reason the Mr. Burns-like villain wanted to steal the watch. I kinda want to know the name of the cartoon again now that I think about it.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

This is some deep shit that is making me think.

What framerate is the real world in?

This is actually a legitimate thesis if you take the 'Planck-bit' as your model for time.

It would mean that the smallest amount of space, the Planck length, would also be smallest measure of time. So reconfiguring the question a little to "what is the shortest amount of time possible" the answer is 1.61619926 × 10 ^ -35 meters.

Framerate, with one frame being one bit this would become 1 / 1.61619926 × 10-35 meters = 6.18432 x 10 ^ 34

This 'bit' thing is presented in 'What is the time?', BBC Horizon, presented by Brain Cox. The fabulous one, not the Scotsman.

Now that would be the local time (t), as a certain discussion was not mentioned in that documentary: the non-existence of cosmic time, or 'big T'. For that, there is the book 'A world without time', which also goes into great detail on Kurt Gödel (including the incompleteness theorem) and Albert Einstein and the conditions that brought them to the US.

I still need to read Stephen Hawking's book though. :\

 

[Ganzlinger]

High thread? High thread.

 

[jetjevons]

The very notion of time/space is mind-boggling to me.

It's like our physical universe in on the outside surface of a 4D balloon and it's getting bigger every moment.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

 

[GamerSoul]

well "now" is a moving target. kinda like how we don't really feel it, but we're moving right now. So essentially were just moving along a timeline. The real question is why do we consider now, "now". why not like "now +/- speed of light" or something. (I have no idea what I am saying)

 

[ViewtifulJC]

when I looked at this thread originally back when it first made, it was now

now I'm looking at it again...and its now but also the past. also when I first looked it is now the past although it was now at the time but also past too

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

What framerate is the real world in?

This would be a great question to ask some of those youtube guys like Vsauce.


The framerate of the world (would be the speed of light?) < Because nothing can go faster than the speed of life, so if our eyes could observe at the speed of life, we would have to figure out how fast that would be compared to our current ability- People report that they can see the difference between 60 and 120 fps - I feel like I can, but I wonder if it has to to due with micro stutters and latency.

 

[marrec]

Everything you perceive as "now" is actually in the past as the light that you use to illuminate your world and the sounds you use to fill it and the smells you use to remember it take a specific amount of time to travel to your body and brain.

Now is an illusion.

 

[p_xavier]

This thread is triggering my death anxiety :-S

 

[SalvaPot]

When I press send this post won´t be now anymore =(

 

[dr3upmushroom]

&#127812;&#127812;&#127812;