Einstein and Time (Humans)

by dhw, Monday, February 13, 2012, 16:48 (4449 days ago) @ David Turell

Dhw: On the understanding that we cannot "know" any ultimate, objective truth, I firmly believe (David will be amazed at such commitment!) that even if there were no humans, there would still be events going on in the universe, via a process of cause and effect, which would pass from a non-existent future through a present and into a non-existent past (e.g. the birth and death of stars). Do you or do you not share my belief? If you do, you believe in the reality of clockless time as I have defined it. That is as far as any of us can go.-DAVID: Congratulations!! Your continuum goes back to First Cause!!! Or is there an infinity back there, infinite regression? Not possible if we rule out Multiverse. The Big Bang is an origin, as I believe Alex Vilenkin just told us that at Hawking's 70 B'day party. So get off your fence and recognize FC, thanks to Aristotle, refined by St. Tom.-Ah, you never miss a trick, do you? But 1) if you believe in a First Cause, you have no choice other than to accept that time as I have defined it is a reality. 2) Big Bang is still just a theory, and we still need to know what went bang. 3) Big Bounce seems just as feasible to this layman. And 4) an endless series of mindless bouncing universes or, for that matter, mindless universes that go bang in the blank of nothingness, seems no less and no more incredible than an endless intelligence that just sort of happens to be there. Come and join me on my clockless fence.-Matt, this correspondence has already reached "book-length", and I wonder how productive a "book-length reply" would be for either of us. I feel guilty already at subjecting you to so many unreal, earthtime hours of writing and research when for us subjective earthlings the question of time's reality is ultimately one of definition, philosophical criteria, and personal belief. The only way you and I might possibly find out the objective truth about anything will be if there's an afterlife, so as far as the subject of time is concerned, are you sure you don't want to leave it till then? (Yeah, "till then" implies there's a difference between now and then, present and future, in a continuum. Sorry. LOL.)