An introduction from Mr. Rene Steinhauer

[medicrene]

Hello all,
Thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself to the members of this forum. Medicine is my life, science is my hobby. I work as a registered nurse and paramedic. I specialize in emergency, disaster and combat medicine. I have worked on all seven continents. But it is in those moments when the adrenalin has finally stopped pumping and the all those who need care have been treated, that I find myself in another strange country and thinking about science. Specifically time.
I have read many books and I continue to find myself more and more interest in physics. But at 45 and with a full time job and frequently traveling, returning to school is just not an option. Besides, I cannot get past this one physics problem, and for me, there is no more important question. That is the question of time.
After much research and thought, it has occurred to me that time does not exist. More specifically, time is not a measurable property. I consider time as I consider love. My girlfriend and I can come to an understanding of what we agree love is, but it cannot be measured. It is not a physical property, it is a concept; and we do not measure concepts (we can leave that to the philosophers).
If time does not exist, then basic concepts such as velocity are really unknown, since velocity is equivalent to Time x Distance. If velocity is unknown, then do we really know the speed of light? Do we really know that mass increases with velocity if velocity does not exist? These simple concepts drive me crazy!
So I have joined this forum to explore these ideas with you all. I am here with a specific idea to explore with you all: the concept of a universe without time (no, not philosophy). What I would like to do is to see if you all can work with me to see if we can redefine velocity without the concept of time. Is that even possible?
So hopefully you all do not think I am crazy. I look forward to chatting with you all.
Sincerely,
Mr. Rene Steinhauer RN, NREMT-P

[labelwench]

Welcome to the forum, Rene.

The following from Wiki with the link to the rest of the information.

Time is one of the seven fundamental physical quantities in the International System of Units. Time is used to define other quantities — such as velocity — so defining time in terms of such quantities would result in circularity of definition.[2] An operational definition of time, wherein one says that observing a certain number of repetitions of one or another standard cyclical event (such as the passage of a free-swinging pendulum) constitutes one standard unit such as the second, is highly useful in the conduct of both advanced experiments and everyday affairs of life. The operational definition leaves aside the question whether there is something called time, apart from the counting activity just mentioned, that flows and that can be measured. Investigations of a single continuum called spacetime bring questions about space into questions about time, questions that have their roots in the works of early students of natural philosophy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time

There is much debate about 'time'.

To everything there is a season, though we have yet to know the reason, and in our experiencing of that which we define as 'time', there is much of interest, though no definition, as yet, that is satisfactory to all.

I work four graveyards and two mornings and completely flip my schedule from 'nights' to 'days' and back each week. My sense of 'time' is quite bizarre from this fluctuation of circadian rhythm, and to me , it is always 'now', and I lose track of what day or date it is, as such does not seem relevant as long as I am at the appropriate venue attending to commitments made.

My co-workers, who have all worked graveyards for several years, seem to be likewise afflicted, as they are ever asking me what day and date it is, and then dispute my answer, until I take them to a calendar or computer terminal to verify the data that I have just given them.

These 'numbers' have relevance for some of the documentation we perform. For we who work graveyards, time becomes quite meaningless beyond that. When we are not at work, we are 'elsewhere' and 'elsewhen'.

'Daysiders', as we refer to them, generally don't 'get it'.

An interesting thread start. I'll be interested to follow what others have to say.

Regards,

Labelwench, aka Lorrina, aka Anna, aka LW, aka L. (No. I don't have an identity crisis, lol.... Some of the posters know me by different variations of my name.)

[SteveA]

I replied on your other thread, but I've had similar problems. I do a bit of engineering and enjoy working with detailed properties of systems - trying to understand how things communicate and operate and how to put things together to get some desired result, but in the end, the fact that these things change is inexplicable and nothing that I have any control over - things simply do change and some of the extended properties of these changes can be learned and worked with in a precise logical way, but the source of that change is not something that can be logically explained or controlled.

As a quick analogy, someone could write a program for a computer, but that program is a static thing (unless it's in the process of being written) - the only way it becomes, say a video game in motion, is when the power cord connects somewhere else, and we could try to determine where that "energy" comes from and find it's a power plant ... ah, but where did that power plant acquire this energy - yet from something else, such as oil, which acquired it from the Sun, which acquired it's mass from ... etc. etc. etc. There's no way to encapsulate time or change into a box - it defines what the box looks like.

And it can be an interesting adventure to ask why

Have fun on the site.

[austintorn@aol.com]

How about that time is simply the difference of space.

[labelwench]

How about that time is simply the difference of space.

Aren't they still working on the definition of 'space' also?

Do we agree on what actually constitutes a 'difference' at least?

Varying perspectives may hint at a 'difference' which does not actually exist? The more distant object will 'appear' smaller until actually measured......

[austintorn@aol.com]

Love

Love begins as an objective appreciation of another’s “mind” (via your mind) and/or “body”, or, as in the case of a family relation, “heart” emotion, and “spirit” of being in the same endeavor, if not “mind” as well (may not apply).

A complete life partner may involve all four (the more the better): the appreciation of mind, logically; the romantic heart and the sexual body (chemically); and the bond of spirit for the same purpose and endeavors.

A friend may become of just mind or spirit alone; a close friend of both mind and spirit. Familial love would be of heart and spirit, and optionally, mind, if it applies.

A pure sexual relationship (shallow) could be just body.

A “crush” from afar may be just heart (so far).

A close, almost romantic, but still platonic relationship might be, at best, mind, heart, and spirit.

[austintorn@aol.com]

Time, motion, and change would be of the same category.

There is also psychological time, which is the varying rate at which information, whether external or internal, is assimilated—a kind of frequency at which some succession of events arrives over the horizon of consciousness.

Einstein said that a burn from a hot stove seems to last forever, while time with a pretty girl goes really quick.

I say that time in school almost stops and that time on the internet goes quick.

[medicrene]

How about that time is simply the difference of space.

I'm sorry, but I did not understand your posting. Would you please elaborate?

[austintorn@aol.com]

While space is a summative dimension, time is a difference dimension—of what space (and what's in it) was, is, or will be (predicted)—in other words, relative motion of energy (which may well be curved space). If there's no motion of change, then, no time, such as in the movies when everything stops.

Space is either where energy moves around or it actually is the energy moving around.

You could also view apace as a difference of time.

[SteveA]

Well time, in the context of change, arises from differences. Differences can be only determined at some point of comparison and in this sense, differences are all united by the observations of them.

Growth requires a contrast. If there ever existed some infinite form of growth, then no finite perspective would ever encapsulate it and there would be predetermined to be contrasts by which that finite component continually became something else. That's what I assume is the source/cause of time - that there exists at least one infinite and that the experience of time is a product of seeing an infinite thing from a finite perspective, though I'd also have to assume that the capable to do this would have to be something preexisting experiences within time - you could not, within time, acquire an ability to experience time as it would have already have needed to be present in order for such a change to be experienced. Hence the perception of change would have to exist outside of changes/time.

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With regard to emotions - if we look at all the constructions of science, these were all pursued for various reasons/desires. Notice that in history people will accept as truth, what they desire to be true. It's only when a "slap in the face" disagreement with nature occurs that things change in this respect, but if we were to then ask - "Well, what determines the logic by which nature operates?". If we had to similarly, from a human perspective, look back at what the cause of (or motivation behind) construction of some forms of rules of interaction, it would appear to be due to various desires and using that form of extrapolation would tend to imply that there would similarly be motives for nature being as it/(s)he is, though we could not necessarily, within such a set of natural laws, determine a cause for those. If we see love as holding people together, then we might similarly assume that love holds the universe together - if we made the assumption that there exists some form of individual free will, then it would appear that someone would be here because they wanted or chose to be here (I don't think we can logically prove that free will exists though - logic, in itself doesn't have freedom to randomly become something else - though maybe time even gives logic an ability to change and what is X now, could become Y).

Anyway, it seems like the changes over time are motivated by desires/forces and these aren't simple linear relationships (they may include all forms of relationships - if growth is the foundation, then I wouldn't be surprised to find any and all forms of growth present in some manner, but in order for these to be seen, a common unit by which comparisons can be made needs to exist (otherwise it wouldn't even be chaotic, it would be inexperiencable and incomprehensible) that might be considered a fundamental unit of time/change/difference though, if it's what, at least subjectively, holds everything together then there could be comparisons with emotions - opposites attract, at least in time, because time arises from contrasts, hence time is predetermined to contain such inseparable differences?).