Simplifying Time (killing time)
does anybody really know what time it is?
Visualize a calm pond, you toss a large rock up in the air and as the rock passes through the water's surface a series of concentric waves begin to radiate away from the center of impact. One way to view reality (which is in alignment with the theory of relativity) is to imagine the big bang which is to have occurred 13-15 billion years ago. Visualize the big bang as a central point in which all the known universe started an expansion outward (just like the radial waves in the pond). Einstein stated that it was hard to measure the universe because as soon as you have measured it, it has already expanded some more, and constantly continues to expand. Einstein had a non-linear idea of time but never ventured down the path of trying to understand exactly what "time" as a concept represented. Paul Dirac and most recently John Barbour have attacked "time" at it's very root, attempting to weed out what is real and what is an illusion. Their conclusion is that time could simply be an illusion that is created by man, an attempt to quantify (in a linear way) the expansion of the universe. Using the constant spinning of the earth once every 24 hours as a basis, and to further divide and chop duration into smaller and smaller segments, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, nanoseconds etc. In reality, its like an attempt to measure the sky, there are really no clear edges to measure to if you take the the motion of galaxies, superclusters and the like into consideration.
Now visualize the radial concentric waves on the pond continuing to expand outward. Einstein saw time as non-linear, arising from the initial impulse that set the expansion in motion. Everyone's perceived reality (as viewed in time/space) is in actuality the shared experience of everyone (in unison) experiencing the outermost ripple of the wave at the same moment, which in reality is the outermost edge of the expansion of the universe, the here/now.
The most current version of the edge of the expansion is the here/now. The here/now will ALWAYS be the the current location of the expansion. Any event that has occurred prior to the current position of the edge of the wave is what we call the past (when viewed with time/space coordinates). Non-linear reality is not the straight line of a steady arrow moving in a single absolute direction, but is actually all positions inside the area of the expansion occurring simultaneously. Non-linear dynamics is simply the symmetrical unfolding of all matter and energy in the predesignated order of the universe as a gigantic pattern....it acts independently of time because what the mind perceives as time is only a derivative byproduct of the unfolding process. It is just the compartmentlization of the events of this process as viewed in sequential stages.
I highly recommend reading Julian Barbour's book, "The End of Time". He is far more eloquent than I could ever be, much more intelligent and can bring the concepts home to you as he did with me.
