How do we know we're moving forward in time?

[HZY]

We've talked about changes in time and abstract time, but I don't recall any evidence for time moving forward. Telling me that the entropy is decreasing isn't proof either because maybe it is decreasing while time is moving backward.

So what evidence exists that time is moving forward? I would like to know.

PhilX

Because had you moved backward in time, your question would have been "?emit ni drawrof gnivom er'ew wonk ew od woh"

[Philosophy Explorer]

We've talked about changes in time and abstract time, but I don't recall any evidence for time moving forward. Telling me that the entropy is decreasing isn't proof either because maybe it is decreasing while time is moving backward.

So what evidence exists that time is moving forward? I would like to know.

PhilX

Because had you moved backward in time, your question would have been "?emit ni drawrof gnivom er'ew wonk ew od woh"

I've decided awhile ago that the answer is tied up with the sundial (but history has nothing further to say).

PhilX

PS You made a minor mistake in doing my title backwards. The second to last word should be "ob", not "od". (the same with the third word; still not 100%, but you're working with a limited set of character keys)

[Reactor]

We've talked about changes in time and abstract time, but I don't recall any evidence for time moving forward. Telling me that the entropy is decreasing isn't proof either because maybe it is decreasing while time is moving backward.

So what evidence exists that time is moving forward? I would like to know.

PhilX

There is no evidence. It is a matter of convention. Whether one calls it "forward" or "backward" is set as a matter of cultural choice, after a number of minds have tossed the concepts around for awhile. The phrases, "moving on," or "moving ahead," and "moving forward" are all interpreted as "toward the future" having a general direction of "forward." (Or to the right, if limited to two dimensions.) This is a common leaning in most languages, even in ASL. See an interesting 2011 article by Professor G. Radden, "Spatial time in the West and the East" http://www.uni-hamburg.de/iaa/time_as_space.pdf

[Cogito ergo sum]

The short answer is that we don't know. Time is such a strange thing to try and pin point. For example the universe is maybe 14.5 billion years old so from point A to point B there has been 14.5 billion years. But now if you took each individual person who has ever lived and perceived time individually then we as a collective have perceived more time then there actually is, from a linear point A to point B view. So until we can pinpoint what "time" really is then how could we know if we are moving forward or backwards or up or down?

[Logicus]

We do not move through time. The only time, despite opinions to the contrary, is now. We move through space, and sometimes it takes a lot of now to get there, but we experience only the now. The past is what we remember, the future is what we predict. All of that memory and forward thinking, though, takes place in the now. This begs a question: Is there something out there that proceeds in a perceptible, regular manner that leads us to believe we are travelling through time?

There is: Time's Arrow. Time's Arrow started when the universe started, whenever that was, and will end when the universe ends, if it ever does. That is why Hawking's history of the universe was titled "A Brief History of Time". This real world proceeds according to its own rules, constants, and laws whether or not anyone is here to witness it. The processes we observe go through regular cause and effect sequences we perceive as an orderly passage through time.

Time, as we daily perceive it, is clock time (of the clock, or o'clock). Clock time is a measure of motion: The daily rotation of the Earth, and its yearly revolution about the Sun. It isn't real, it is just a convenient reference.

[Roel]

Time is a human invention and therfore doesn't really exist, why do you think children and animals don't really experience time in the same way.

[Artimas]

We've talked about changes in time and abstract time, but I don't recall any evidence for time moving forward. Telling me that the entropy is decreasing isn't proof either because maybe it is decreasing while time is moving backward.

So what evidence exists that time is moving forward? I would like to know.

PhilX

Because had you moved backward in time, your question would have been "?emit ni drawrof gnivom er'ew wonk ew od woh"

But if we are moving backwards in time and are used to moving backwards in time, what makes you think we would write, talk, communicate and etc, in a way that we don't understand?

-- Updated October 2nd, 2014, 4:15 am to add the following --

Time is a human invention and therfore doesn't really exist, why do you think children and animals don't really experience time in the same way.

I somewhat agree with this.

Personally, I believe time/age just to be a measurement of the physical manifestations of entities or the physical things/reality/world around us. But then again, the mind can evolve over 'time' as well.

[Roel]

(Nested quote removed.)


Because had you moved backward in time, your question would have been "?emit ni drawrof gnivom er'ew wonk ew od woh"

But if we are moving backwards in time and are used to moving backwards in time, what makes you think we would write, talk, communicate and etc, in a way that we don't understand?

-- Updated October 2nd, 2014, 4:15 am to add the following --

Time is a human invention and therfore doesn't really exist, why do you think children and animals don't really experience time in the same way.

I somewhat agree with this.

Personally, I believe time/age just to be a measurement of the physical manifestations of entities or the physical things/reality/world around us. But then again, the mind can evolve over 'time' as well.

This topic makes me think by the way. There is a quantum physician at some university who is trying to accomplish time travel. He succeeded in sending extremely small particles some milliseconds back in time. The result is not very big of course, it's not like he did it with a mouse (fortunately as I 'm personally against using animals in science), but it actually shows and gives proof that time travel is possible, even though he did it with the smallest particles and very little time it was time travel. I don't know anymore which documentary it was unfortunately, maybe it was Morgan Freeman with Through the Wormhole.

[Artimas]

(Nested quote removed.)


But if we are moving backwards in time and are used to moving backwards in time, what makes you think we would write, talk, communicate and etc, in a way that we don't understand?

-- Updated October 2nd, 2014, 4:15 am to add the following --


(Nested quote removed.)


I somewhat agree with this.

Personally, I believe time/age just to be a measurement of the physical manifestations of entities or the physical things/reality/world around us. But then again, the mind can evolve over 'time' as well.

This topic makes me think by the way. There is a quantum physician at some university who is trying to accomplish time travel. He succeeded in sending extremely small particles some milliseconds back in time. The result is not very big of course, it's not like he did it with a mouse (fortunately as I 'm personally against using animals in science), but it actually shows and gives proof that time travel is possible, even though he did it with the smallest particles and very little time it was time travel. I don't know anymore which documentary it was unfortunately, maybe it was Morgan Freeman with Through the Wormhole.

I thought Stephen Hawking said going back in time is not possible due to paradoxes. Time travel into the future is possible by the size of the planet and a decent % of the speed of light. For example, building a train that goes all the way around the globe in one long circle, then travels near the speed of light. Time would slow down for you because you are going so fast, everything on the train would be slower than the outside of it.

This video explains it a lot better, an interesting one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ0gQevrPTo

[Roel]

(Nested quote removed.)


This topic makes me think by the way. There is a quantum physician at some university who is trying to accomplish time travel. He succeeded in sending extremely small particles some milliseconds back in time. The result is not very big of course, it's not like he did it with a mouse (fortunately as I 'm personally against using animals in science), but it actually shows and gives proof that time travel is possible, even though he did it with the smallest particles and very little time it was time travel. I don't know anymore which documentary it was unfortunately, maybe it was Morgan Freeman with Through the Wormhole.

I thought Stephen Hawking said going back in time is not possible due to paradoxes. Time travel into the future is possible by the size of the planet and a decent % of the speed of light. For example, building a train that goes all the way around the globe in one long circle, then travels near the speed of light. Time would slow down for you because you are going so fast, everything on the train would be slower than the outside of it.

This video explains it a lot better, an interesting one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ0gQevrPTo

I couldn't find the physician who could let particles travel back in time but I found this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... -time.html

[Artimas]

In terms of destroying the world/advancement, we pretty much are moving backwards in time. Like I have said.

We can have our technological advance but without proper wisdom and common sense derived out of wisdom, we will not make the right choices with said technology. The right choices being and having a positive ripple effect/affect on the rest of reality/society/world, instead of negative ripples.

It's like giving a fool a laser beam, he won't know how to use that laser beam because he lacks common sense and wisdom. This is the case for the world leaders, we pick the most charismatic instead of the most wise.

Egypt was more advanced than we are.

[Trey]

So what evidence exists that time is moving forward? I would like to know.

Apparently time does not move. We move through spacetime with a space component and a time component that always add up to the speed of light. So the faster we move through space the slower we move through time. Experiment has confirmed this. So the question seems to be, why can we move backwards through the space component but not the time component? I'd like to know, too.

[Present awareness]

So what evidence exists that time is moving forward? I would like to know.

Apparently time does not move. We move through spacetime with a space component and a time component that always add up to the speed of light. So the faster we move through space the slower we move through time. Experiment has confirmed this. So the question seems to be, why can we move backwards through the space component but not the time component? I'd like to know, too.

We may not move backwards in space either. We may only move from where we are, to where we are going, regardless of the direction. No matter where we are or where we are going, we do not leave the present, so we don't travel thru time either.

[Dukedroklar]

We've talked about changes in time and abstract time, but I don't recall any evidence for time moving forward. Telling me that the entropy is decreasing isn't proof either because maybe it is decreasing while time is moving backward.

So what evidence exists that time is moving forward? I would like to know.

PhilX

Doesn't the arrow of time really boil down to cause and effect? I know entropy is often used but entropy adheres to cause and effect as well. As we perceive the flow of time , everything is logically connected and explained with cause preceding effect. If effect were to precede cause then everything we know goes out the window and we become nothing more than victims unable to ever predict or plan for the "future" because all indicators (cause) of the probable course of the future would not become evident until after we experienced the impending near future effects of some distant future cause.

Not only would be blind to the logically probable future we experience now, we would also be helpless to have any effect on the future or our part in it. Since trying to create a "cause" would only be the end action (result) of some effect that already happened to us in our past (if time and therefore cause and effect were reversed) and would have no bearing on what will occur to us in the future. So, in this hypothetical reality, anything we did in the current moment would only be the "why" of things that happened to us in our past.

In this scenario the only way we could overcome this would be to have the ability to bring something into existence (an effect) that had no cause. Then, maybe, the "cause" which wouldn't exist yet (which is what we would normally use to affect the future) may be forced to manifest itself in this weird "reverse time reality" to balance out that effect we somehow were able to generate.

[Artimas]

Time is an illusion, just the measurement of change.