Blog 20151230
Why time is not an illusion
When I ask
folks what time is, I generally get one or two of these:
1.
Time is
a dimension.
2.
Time is
a measurement.
3.
Time is
an illusion
Readers know,
of course, that time
is motion (the title of one of my most popular Blogs). The upshot is that almost
no one else knows what time is. I understand why regressive physicists consider
time to be a dimension—they could not be hired if they thought otherwise. Without
it, relativity and Big Bang Theory would suffer an early death. The solipsism
embodied in the second definition is common, and well-preserved in positivism
and operationalism. My response to those who think time is a measurement is
this: The dinosaurs experienced time, even though they were incapable of measuring it.
I was always
intrigued by the silly statement that “time is an illusion.” This is the
definition of “illusion”: “a thing that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived
or interpreted by the senses.” Growing up, I used to do some simple magic
tricks that clearly were illusions. Nonetheless, I am under no illusion that a
great deal of time (motion) has occurred since. The silver hair tells me as
much. Then I got this anonymous comment giving me a clue to what was up:
“as time is illusion,
cause and effect do not exist. Our concepts about time and cause and effect are
deeply erronously."
Despite the
misspelling, the comment clearly shows the necessary connection with
indeterminism. As determinists, we assume that there are material causes for
all effects. Of course, anonymous is correct to a certain degree: cause and
effect do not exist, they occur, as described by Newton's Second Law of Motion.
On the other hand, hardly anyone denies causality for some events. Even if you
lived in a basket, it would be impossible to deny that eating food (a cause)
might produce an effect (continued life). This all goes to show how the radical
adherence to logic based on indeterministic assumptions leads to nonsense. Thenceforth,
we can consider the statement “time is an illusion” to be pure indeterminism. And
like all indeterminism, we can disregard it as psychobabble handed down to
thwart the advance of the scientific
worldview.