An unanswerable question

[Smapla]

i guess you could argue that at the event horizon of a singularity since time ceases to progress in an outsider's frame of reference, time does not exist. if anything were at the event horizon it would be there forever (again, in outsider's perspective)

[EdgedThesis]

A lot of you seem sure it exists. What evidence do you have, beyond the fact that we quantify it and perceive it?

 

 

 

By that logic, nothing exists. We might as well say houses don't exist either.

 

 

 

Different kind of existence though. Houses have spatial existence, time is different. The laws of physics are certainly spatially determinant, but some think that quantum laws take their true form when expressed in timeless configuration states, where every single instant of "now" is expressed simultaneously.

 

 

 

Essentially it's an empircal question. Of course we perceive the flow of time, but our intuition about the world doesn't correlate to its correctness. When/if the fundamental laws of physics are found, their dependence on time might help shed some light on its existence.

 

 

 

Well, it may be that time is indeed just a whole dimension, where every now is taking place simultaneously--just like in our spatial dimension how multiple planes are existing simultaneously. It's just that we can only perceive certain portions at once, right? Like how a two dimensional creature only experiences certain planes at once, we can only move through time in frame-by-frame shots of the 3-D world around us.

 

 

 

This topic is so interesting.

[JeremyM]

Does time exist?

 

Obviously.

[Resonae]

No, time does not exist.

 

But it doesn't not exist either.

 

Time is. Time was. Time will be. That is so because if time was not, is not, or will not be, then nothing would have a was/is/will be between them.

 

 

 

Hence, if time "did not exist" as you put it, neither would anything else. Because to exist is to be, and to be is having a was/is and maybe even a will be.

[saif]

time is there... just not physically :thumbup:

[purfishx]

time is there... just not physically :thumbup:

 

 

 

wow, that was deep.

[jokemaster]

What will happen if you fall in love with me after your birthday?

 

 

 

Cookie if you can answer that!

[Resonae]

What will happen if you fall in love with me after your birthday?

 

 

 

Cookie if you can answer that!

 

 

 

I will fall in love with you after my birthday.

 

WHERE MY COOKIE!?!?!

[doomy]

How can time not exist?

 

If time didn't exist wouldn't everything have to occur at once?

 

If time doesn't exist nothing exists, because nothing would ever have had the chance to happen.

 

 

 

Or everything would have happened 1/infinity of a second.

[Nenga]

How can time not exist?

 

If time didn't exist wouldn't everything have to occur at once?

 

If time doesn't exist nothing exists, because nothing would ever have had the chance to happen.

 

 

 

Or everything would have happened 1/infinity of a second.

 

Prove to me everything doesn't happen all at once. It could just be our brain seperating out those events so it can take in the information and for all you know you have already been born and died. Ever see The i Inside? It could be like that. You never know.

[doomy]

How can time not exist?

 

If time didn't exist wouldn't everything have to occur at once?

 

If time doesn't exist nothing exists, because nothing would ever have had the chance to happen.

 

 

 

Or everything would have happened 1/infinity of a second.

 

Prove to me everything doesn't happen all at once. It could just be our brain seperating out those events so it can take in the information and for all you know you have already been born and died. Ever see The i Inside? It could be like that. You never know.

 

How exactly do you seperate something that happens at once?

 

At once meaning everything happens at the same time, with no interval between events, so how can it be split?

[Nenga]

How can time not exist?

 

If time didn't exist wouldn't everything have to occur at once?

 

If time doesn't exist nothing exists, because nothing would ever have had the chance to happen.

 

 

 

Or everything would have happened 1/infinity of a second.

 

Prove to me everything doesn't happen all at once. It could just be our brain seperating out those events so it can take in the information and for all you know you have already been born and died. Ever see The i Inside? It could be like that. You never know.

 

How exactly do you seperate something that happens at once?

 

At once meaning everything happens at the same time, with no interval between events, so how can it be split?

Well your brain would put them in some sort of order to better understand them. If your brain has control over what you remember whose to say it can't rearrange the order of them?

[doomy]

How can time not exist?

 

If time didn't exist wouldn't everything have to occur at once?

 

If time doesn't exist nothing exists, because nothing would ever have had the chance to happen.

 

 

 

Or everything would have happened 1/infinity of a second.

 

Prove to me everything doesn't happen all at once. It could just be our brain seperating out those events so it can take in the information and for all you know you have already been born and died. Ever see The i Inside? It could be like that. You never know.

 

How exactly do you seperate something that happens at once?

 

At once meaning everything happens at the same time, with no interval between events, so how can it be split?

Well your brain would put them in some sort of order to better understand them. If your brain has control over what you remember whose to say it can't rearrange the order of them?

 

Ehh I don't really understand your post.

 

I was saying that how can it be possible to split the events if they all happened at the same time, I wasn't really talking about the ordering.

 

Without time every event would happen in 1/infinity seconds? Which is 0 according to that law that I can't remember.

 

What I meant is how can you split that 0 into all the events that happened?

 

 

 

I get what you mean by the ordering but how can you order 2 things that happened at the same time?

 

^^Oh actually typing that made me understand what you mean.

[greene8535]

This thread has gotten sort of off topic seroiusly.... We don't need to bring in religion into this... (I don't want to get started making my 3 paragraph points)

 

 

 

You can't prove time, but it does exist... for starters, science CAN'T prove anything...

 

Emotions exist, feelings exist... ect...

[Flamewhisker]

If time doesn't exist, then how do I know when my birthday is?

[magmaguard3]

I literally am getting a headache from reading this thread. :wall:

[l0rd]

Time is a concept manifested by humans used to measure the duration of things.

 

 

 

By the definition of "exist", time does exist, as it is real to the ones who defined it - humans.

[Shinjula]

By the definition of "exist", time does exist, as it is real to the ones who defined it - humans.

 

Thats an interesting counter to the point of humans created time, humans also created the concept of non-existence, you cant consider time not to exist since non-existance is just as much dependant on humans as time.

[Igor]

Pretty much what l0rd said.

 

 

 

Since huamsn invented the term 'time', we understand what it is. Therefore, it does.

 

 

 

Not that deep ,but what the hell :geek:

[dragoonson]

I did some intense research on the subject because you asked.I have come up with the answer 42.Also,with additional research into the matter I found that 42 seems to be the answer to life,the Universe and everything.

[Zierro]

I did some intense research on the subject because you asked.I have come up with the answer 42.Also,with additional research into the matter I found that 42 seems to be the answer to life,the Universe and everything.

 

 

 

43 > 42 8-)

[Ouchy]

If time didn't exist, then neither would the whole universe. None of what we have today would exist, and we would all probably be stationary dark matter (Maybe, I don't know much about Astronomy).

[NorthernHero]

[bleep]ing hell 7 pages.. Not gonna read them all now but just gonna put my opinionion if maybe someone might be intrested.

 

 

 

Time is only a consept: a tool to measure things like someone said earlier. I could say there is time, but by that I would mean there is only "one time". Previours centuries don't exist, neither do the centuries to come. Only time that exists is the time "now", future and past are just consepts made by humans. Do atoms age? Does the materia of which the universe is constructed have a lifespan? I remember it is so that everything is energy and energy cannot be destroyed: it always is.

 

 

 

Now, everything is always at changing state, the world changes its form all the time, right? Does that mean there is a "timeline" (timeline being simplified word) and that history books and memories are the proof of time existing? Not really no. Memories and history books are proof that change exists. Not time!

 

 

 

I like to think the universe as one big boiling mess. Big bang and expanding universe aside, everything is at changing state, everywhere, at the same "time". It must look incredible outside! ... But universe is all there is so you can't really "look it from the outside". Clocks (atleast quartz ones) (if I remember right) work because there is a quartz crystal in the clock is vibration on a certain frequency. The pointer in the clock moves onward and you in your mind know that it used to be on the "5" just five seconds ago and now its in the "10". Does that make you think there is time? Because you have it in your brain that there is a thing called past? But past is an illusion! The time that the second pointer was on "5" doesnt exist, it isn't anywhere. Or actually it is, but not in some another dimension or anything, it's the exact same thing! Just in a different formation.

 

 

 

Well, I bet most of you didin't get what i'm trying to say. For those who are still trying to figure: I'm trying to state (badly) that there is one thing (universe) that is changing. But time as in (past -> now -> future) are mere consepts. Only the now is real, everything else is just imaginary. Or then everything is imaginary. But thats another subject i quess :P

[Shinjula]

NorthernHero - I get what your saying, but why do you state it with such certainty? Sure the case is that we cannot know whether or not it exists, why assert with such certainty what is not known?

 

 

 

The idea that the past doesnt exist, only our memories of it do, is also no different to the idea that a chair doesnt exist only our perceptions of it do. Yet we still sit on the chair and we still remember the past, and in the case of time its quite easy to use our memories to construct stuff like newtons laws of motion and other physical laws which then allow us to extrapolate and formulate and eventually come up with things like the computer you are sat at.

 

If you assume that because we cannot go back to the past it doesnt exist you can't do any of that and it drives us into a world of no innovation.

[dragoonson]

I did some intense research on the subject because you asked.I have come up with the answer 42.Also,with additional research into the matter I found that 42 seems to be the answer to life,the Universe and everything.

 

 

 

43 > 42 8-)

 

 

 

Yo've not read Hitchhiker's Guide,have you? #-o