• EugeneW
    1.7k
    Why can't the top and bottom of the wheel roll in the same direction simultaneously?Cuthbert

    Then it's slipping.

    On the other hand, time evolving to lower entropy is still time. Maybe the question is ill-stated. Time doesn't move forward or backward. Time just moves. The hand on the clock, that is. Or better, the pendulum. Why don't processes move opposite to the motion the actually have? It would still be time. The clock could still keep time. We wouldn't be constructing clocks but rather deconstructing them. Effects in the current universe would become causes.
  • Gregory A
    96
    There is 'time' and there is 'Time', the former a measure of the rate of motion, the latter directionality, a contentious issue. A clock's hand moves (x2) in direct relation to the rotation of the earth. The earth never stops turning, night and day and the sleep cycle give us the 'concept' of days going by.
  • Gregory A
    96
    Isn't it that it's the conceptional nature of all things that allows for cause and effect. A firecracker can explode, but not un-explode. But a firecracker is a concept, no two firecrackers the same. The manufacturing event unique too, and provides us an 'effect to cause' aspect. Our voice the 'effect to cause' sounds going out, sounds coming into our ears.
  • EugeneW
    1.7k
    Imagine the universe, just for the sake of simplicity, an expanding cloud of gas particles which occupied a small volume initially. The small volume is the begin state. The second law of TD is a time asymmetrical law. It states that the gas spreads over the volume of space, because there are way more possibilities for gas to exist in a large volume than in a small volume, given the speed distribution of the gas corpuscules. If we reverse the velocity of each corpuscule though, the gas evolves towards smaller volumes, i.e. time will be reversed. It might be clear that the gas cannot stand still in space, unless all particles have zero velocity. So time's arrow could have forward direction, after being shot from the bow, as well as backward direction, the arrow flying back to the bow (Stephen Hawking once erroneously suggested that when the expansion of the universe turns to implosion, the arrow would be send back to the bow). Experience tells us that the arrow flies forwards though. But why? Because it does and it can't be otherwise for us to exist? Is it the miraculously fine fine-tuning required?
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    Time has an odd geometry: it's linear & circular. If it's 5:00 PM today, it's again 5:00 PM (circular), but tomorrow (linear). Line + Circle = Sine wave (?)
  • EugeneW
    1.7k
    Time has an odd geometry: it's linear & circular. If it's 5:00 PM today, it's again 5:00 PM (circular), but tomorrow (linear). Line + Circle = Sine wave (?)Agent Smith

    Wise words, comrad Philos Agentus. Seems time starts all over again every mornig. To pbrase the wise words of comrad @butimfeeling2022, "over and over again". Being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, , linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, , linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward, being born, linear progress, sleep, fast regress, awaking, linear progress, death, fast forward, fast reset, fast toward... etcetera. I think you get my point made. Maybe I understand hyperclocking now!
  • EugeneW
    1.7k
    Line + Circle = Sine wave (?)Agent Smith

    Wheels of a car moving?
  • Hillary
    1.9k
    Time moves forward because our faces are not on the backs of our heads.whollyrolling


    What if our faces were on our back? Would time move backward then? We would see what we did only after we had done things, after turning around. We could wear a mirror device on our heads to look forward, like we can to look backward only. What if our whole front was on our back. Doesn't time move forwards because it was set in motion forwards? Time could have run backwards. If the begin situation was right...
  • Corvus
    2.7k
    Time doesn't exist. It is just human psychological awareness of intervals on durations and moments in memories. No humans, no time.
  • Hillary
    1.9k
    Time doesn't exist. It is just human psychological awareness of intervals on durations and moments in memories. No humans, no time.Corvus

    But how then can particles move towards each other or repulse each other. If there is no time they can't move.
  • jgill
    3.5k
    What if our faces were on our back?Hillary

    Scientific speculation, philosophical even, is always welcome. My own suspicion is that time moves obliquely according to a functional operator and we experience only a projection of it in our spacetime geometry. By generating a computer time-field it may be possible to break through.

    Time dilation might be explained by a shift in the time-angle created by velocity.
  • Corvus
    2.7k
    But how then can particles move towards each other or repulse each other. If there is no time they can't move.Hillary

    I don't see any logical connection between time and particles or whatever moving. What is your basis for the postulation on the two? Things used to move without your imagination or postulation of time when you were a child, do you recall that? Now you are postulating time for the movement, because you have read something on time, and imagining that it is flowing or moving forward.
  • Hillary
    1.9k
    Now you are postulating time for the movement, because you have read something on time, and imagining that it is flowing or moving forward.Corvus

    I dont think time is flowing. The hands of the clock move though. So motion is time. Periodic motion is the clock, irreversible motion what it measures and quantifies.
  • noAxioms
    1.3k
    Doesn't time move forwards because it was set in motion forwards? Time could have run backwards.Hillary
    I dont think time is flowing.Hillary
    You seem to contradict yourself. Is time something that flows/moves or not? If it is, then it isn't what clocks measure since two clocks can measure different durations between the same two events.
    The topic title obviously presumes the former, since it asks why it moves, and not if it moves.
    motion is time.Hillary
    Different interpretations of time both define motion as change in location over time, so this doesn't really distinguish which interpretation you're suggesting, or whether 'time is real' or not. I forget which interpretation is associated with 'time is real' since it seems quite real either way despite being a very different thing.
  • Hillary
    1.9k
    You seem to contradict yourselfnoAxioms

    Who doesn't? The hands of the clock always move. Thermodynamic emergent time cannot stop. But a clock can stay put or move. So it can be that time moves while standing still. A clock is a periodic process in eternal motion. Before the emergence of one-directional TD time, there was a perfectly periodic time, still existent in the vacuum. The question is though why things don't move in the opposite direction, i.e., why time goes forward. Things could have moved that way. So the universe starting at its end, backwards to zero, and again backwards, and again, etc. So instead of eternal big bangs, eternal crunches.Entropy always getting smaller. You could say that's because the laws of chance but thats not sufficient. The laws of chance operate once the initial conditions are set. And that begs the question.
  • Nickolasgaspar
    1k
    Why isn't it happening the other way round though? Why isn't all that happens running the other way round? Why isn't the universe collapsing, Sunlight moving towards the Sun, or the rain falling up? Why don't my thoughts run backwards, do I hear things after which sound leaves my ear? Why doesn't cause precede effect? Wouldn't it be easy for a god to precisely arrange for it?EugeneW

    -Why? Are you asking a "why" question about a natural phenomenon....like "why little John eat all the cake" type of questions?
    In nature we observe phenomena and we explain what empirical regularities force specific rules to emerge. We don't assume teleology as if it was a matter of choice. Processes unroll and cause other processes to emerge. There is no place for "why" questions of that short.
    Now if you choose to respond to my post......it WILL be the cause for your reply.
    So the answer for "why" things happen the way they do in nature...is ...because they do. Causes kick start effects and so on...
  • Cuthbert
    1.1k
    So the answer for "why" things happen the way they do in nature...is ...because they do.Nickolasgaspar

    That was Aristotle's answer to the question 'Why do stones fall downwards rather than upwards?" It's their nature. They are heavy. That's what heavy things do. But it turned out that there are better answers and that it's not such a dumb question. On the other hand, there are dumb questions. Sorting out the insightful from the fatuous is not so easy and cannot be done with a broad sweep of response.
  • Nickolasgaspar
    1k
    Yes!....and this is why Aristotle is know for his work on Systematizing Logic and Philosophy...not for his philosophical ideas lol.!
    A better questions would be what makes processes unroll at a specific direction or stones fall downwards.
    In Aristotle's case we know how detrimental this "why" question was for his philosophy. He was guided by a teleological fallacy by assuming purpose and intention in natural processes.
  • Hillary
    1.9k
    A better questions would be what makes processes unroll at a specific direction or stones fall downwards.Nickolasgaspar

    But the point is that all motion in the universe could be opposite to the motion we observe. Why is the begin situation situated at the begin instead of at the end? Particles will experience the same forces, the universe shrinks, and wavefunction collapses are reversed. Litterally all motion could happen in opposite direction. But it doesn't. Saying that there is no place for questioning why this is the case closes the road to comprehension.
  • Nickolasgaspar
    1k
    But the point is that all motion in the universe could be opposite to the motion we observe.Hillary
    -good luck providing evidence for that assumptions.

    -" Why is the begin situation situated at the begin instead of at the end? "
    -Not all sentences with a "why" in from and a question-mark at the end qualify as serious questions.

    Particles will experience the same forces, the universe shrinks, and wavefunction collapses are reversed.Hillary
    -This is the quality of philosophy you have when you ignore the whole epistemic framework on why processes unroll at one direction....

    -"Litterally all motion could happen in opposite direction. But it doesn't."
    -no because you are forgetting essential elements in those processes....

    . Saying that there is no place for questioning why this is the case closes the road to comprehension.Hillary
    -No it only opens question that have already poisoned the well with the fallacy of teleology..but I know logic and soundness is not part of your philosophy....
  • Hillary
    1.9k
    good luck providing evidence for that assumptions.Nickolasgaspar

    It's about the philosophical or physical question why time is moving forward. It could have been such that the universe started in reverse at infinity. But it didn't. And that's the strange thing about time. It could have evolved in such a way that the Earth and life on it evolved backwards, to become part of the hot initial planetary system, the galaxy evolving back, the primordial black holex being white and "ending" up in the final singularity (which nowadays is the initial singularity). If the the now final conditions were reversed the universe would evolve in opposite direction. Entropy would get less, effect would precede cause. But that's not the case. The universe started in a ordered state and order decreases.
  • Hillary
    1.9k
    Not all sentences with a "why" in from and a question-mark at the end qualify as serious questions.Nickolasgaspar

    Same for comments.

    Particles will experience the same forces, the universe shrinks, and wavefunction collapses are reversed.
    — Hillary
    -This is the quality of philosophy you have when you ignore the whole epistemic framework on why processes unroll at one direction....
    Nickolasgaspar

    The point is that I understand that framework. All motion can be reversed. A collapsing wavefunction gets back in a superposition, all momenta could be reversed (the motion of hidden variables included) and spacetime expansion could be reversed also.

    no because you are forgetting essential elements in those processesNickolasgaspar

    Which are?
  • Hillary
    1.9k
    Time has an odd geometry: it's linear & circular. If it's 5:00 PM today, it's again 5:00 PM (circular), but tomorrow (linear). Line + Circle = Sine wave (?)Agent Smith

    This comment actually shows deep depth! Everywhere in space you can imagine small pendulums. They all show circular behavior, returning to an identical initial state periodically, while the processes the pendulums are placed beside continue linearly. The clocks oscillate on a line and the more oscillations made the further on the line you get! You're a natural!
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    Actually, time moves backwards, into our past. Note how 1 Jan 2022 was in front of us, then it was 1 Jan 2022, some of us celebrated, and then it flowed into the past, behind us!

    If Kronos moved forward, we would never ever see the future, ja?

    :chin:
  • Hillary
    1.9k
    If Kronos moved forward, we would never ever see the future, ja?Agent Smith

    You amaze me every time, AS, and that's more than I can say for some other people here! Jawel! Time moves from the future towards behind of us. It gets farther and farther away in the past!..:wink:
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k


    Warning! I'm not all there, if you catch my drift! :grin:
  • Hillary
    1.9k
    Scientific speculation, philosophical even, is always welcome. My own suspicion is that time moves obliquely according to a functional operator and we experience only a projection of it in our spacetime geometry. By generating a computer time-field it may be possible to break through.

    Time dilation might be explained by a shift in the time-angle created by velocity.
    jgill

    It very strange why some processes move faster than others. But if you think deeper the opposite is the case. It would be very strange if the all had the same temporal speed. Is the computer time field a field in complex space? The angle of velocity is actually a measure of time flow.
  • Hillary
    1.9k


    :starstruck:

    Easy, easy, too much is harmful! I know... :wink:
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