Time - does it have any meaning?

"Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know."

T.S. Eliot



Alternatively ....

"Time is an illusion
Lunchtime doubly so."

Douglas Adams

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
Time - does it have any meaning?

It have meaning for people who put meanings to it.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
What is time?

A human concept.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
When did it start?

When it was created by the human race.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
Is it continuous? or is it a series of discrete moments?

Depending in which science you apply it.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
Is it one dimensional and linear?

At work, it is always too long. When listening to music on Naim gears, it's always perfectly timed. And when having a good time with the wife, it's always too short.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
Or is it erratic?

If you try to buy time, yes.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
Are we all locked into the same time or can we move forwards/backwards relatively-speaking?

Try some rejuvenelating cream or a face lift.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
Does it have any meaning?

(Mr. Bedrock to Fred Flintstone) "Flinstone, You're late!"

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
When will it end?

With the human race extinction, if we instinct one day.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
Whatever you do, don't loose any sleep over these issues...........

Oh surely i won't!

Bye.

Time is what stops everything from happening at once. (I believe it is a lyric from the band the honeydogs).
matt.

To be a bit bloody prosaic, it comes in discrete units of a quarter of an hour, and one only has to miss the begining of the discrete period to find out its significance! It is how too many hard working people are payed!

As for the effect of Music, which is what this Forum is, or should be about, music has the ability to totally suspend one's previous concepts of time. So does time mean anything, and I answer? Only if you are being paid for it!

Fredrik

A friend of a friend used had a watch that simply had an hour hand (albeit extended to the length of a minute hand) and referred to it as 'relative time'.

Fredrik, is quite right about the effect of music (or, indeed any art, on time). I have sometimes said that one can rate a performance by how one feels when one looks at one's watch. If it's bad (the film titanic was an especially potent example of this for me) then you think 'my god, surely more time than that has gone by', in a good performance it is more along the lines of 'surely there must be longer to go than this'. Of course, in a really great performance you never look at your watch at all.

regards, Tam

Dear Tam,

You post made me smile very musch, as I am listening to H Walcha playing the organ. No I am doing a bad thing and multi-tasking as I must sleep soon. Suddenly an hour passes which seems like a second, such is the possible grip on work-time when listening!

Fredrik

PS: As an example of an equally long film on the Titanic tragedy, may I point viewers towards 'A Night To Remember.' This film is so gripping that its very long duration will only be felt in your buttoks at the end.

No, wait Fred, is this the latest news on Walcha I've been waiting for??!

Dear Fredrik,

I have heard great things about that film, but have never got round to catching it.

Note to self - must pick up that budget reissue of Walcha's earlier organ cycle.

regards, Tam

Dear Jon,

You got in while I attempted to correct my typos! Look at Tams thread in the Music room, and you will find that he has been very pleased to find some of the greatest music grandly played. I am struggling to recall the tittle of the the Thread, but it is something like "H Walch plays Bach (Not on the Pianoforte)."

It really is a great starting point in the reading of Bach, and unlike most starting points it is most likely also a benchmark! Yes a real benchmark in my view.

Fredrik

Fred - would this be a way of getting into classical music - solo piano?

Serious question btw!

Cheers,

Jon

Dear Jon,

No. The thread Fredrik mentions concerns the harpsichord (though it does have a link to the Amazon site where the set is available that allows you sample all the tracks) - it certainly is a way of getting into harpsichord music.

However, for classical recommendations and solo piano ones, take a look at my good classical threads thread which contains links to all the key threads on these subjects (as far as I'm aware).

regards, Tam

Dear Jon,

The solo piano is a splendid way to start.

I attempted to make a thread some time ago called first classical pieces on the piano. in the music room.

I have to say the real way to get Bach's keyboard output is on the harpsichord.

If you are reading this I will post my email address, very briefly on my profile, and watch for your acknowledgement. I can help you start, I am sure. Fredrik

p.s. Please excuse Fredrik and me for not shutting up about Walcha - it's just these recordings really are absolutely remarkable.

Ok so I made some time to answer this one....

Two weeks, fourteen days, 336 hours (roughly).....of time.....why the heck does time drag so bad when I'm stuck off-shore, and yet the same amount of time when I am home passes in a blink and I'm back out here before I know it!!

It's all about perceptions, of time, I guess......pity we have no way of controlling it.....there are many moments I've wished I could 'freeze' time......

Hey ho, back to the grind....

Cheers,
Ali

Fred & Tam, many thanks for your replies.

Fred - you have mail

Cheers,

Jon

PS: Ali - Sit back and enjoy those views from the north - I bet they are amazing!

Chaps

Question What is time

Answer Something we do not have enough of. There is so much to do and so many places to visit and so little time to do it in.

Regards

Mick

It's the fourth dimension, as I'm sure you all know...

EW

Stephen Hawking suggests that time is measured in the direction in which entropy increases.

This point is always particularly well illustrated every time I walk into my daughter's bedroom!

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Chillkram:
Stephen Hawking suggests that time is measured in the direction in which entropy increases.

This point is always particularly well illustrated every time I walk into my daughter's bedroom!

That's it. The Second Law of Thermodynamics having its wicked way...

Anyone ever notice it's always NOW? I've known it being now all my life.

quote:

Originally posted by AlexanderVH:
Anyone ever notice it's always NOW? I've known it being now all my life.

Although this is true, the majority of it is actually then.

Time.....

to go mountain walking in Scotland and the Lakes and enjoy a taste of the natural world

Hopefully the 4x4000 footers in the Cairngorms, then Helvelyn on the way back.

Time.........

to think

about - whether time is endless; whether somethingness is endless; or more recently - what it might have been like in 1746, before the age of steam, before they burned the Caledonian forests

Time.........

to enjoy oneself and be thankful

Cheers and bye for now

Don

quote:

Originally posted by Chillkram:
Stephen Hawking suggests that time is measured in the direction in which

Time isn't measured; it is the measurement. When time is distorted, as around a black hole, it isn't the space you occupy that's wrong, it's the tape measure that's stretched.
That reinforces the concept that time (and space) only relate to each individual from a single viewpoint. In order to observe, we have to stand away from what we are observing, meaning that we are not part of the time and space that we are observing, but operate on a different dimension. That introduces the spirit or soul. How you deal with that concept is up to the individual.

I would suggest that time is measured, that’s why we have clocks.

The concept of time as absolute and linear is a Newtonian one now not generally accepted in science. This has been replaced by Einstein’s theory of general relativity (with subsequent adjustments) in which space and time combine to form space-time (hence time as the fourth dimension in E/W’s post above). In this model space-time is curved and not flat as previously believed.

So we cannot bend or curve space without involving time, thus time has a shape. If it has a shape it can be measured.

The tape-measure theory is valid, but even a tape-measure can be measured. The trouble with time as a measurement is that it is not constant. Each observer has his own version of time which, as you rightly point out, can be distorted.

As time appears to have a direction which, to us, could be described as forward, scientists have found it useful when describing how quantum theory shapes time and space to introduce the concept of imaginary time in which time can go ‘backwards’ as well.

The only constant in this theory of the universe is the speed of light and, perhaps, this makes a better tape-measure.

Further arguments about the concept of time postulate that it is only relevant to us as observers, as we need to account for the direction in which events appear to happen, and doesn’t actually exist at all other than in our own minds.

Of course all of these are just theories as science is not absolute either, merely the best model that we currently have that can be bourn out by mathematics and observation.

After all many of the ‘absolutes’ that were accepted in the past no longer agree with our observations (earth is flat etc).

In the words of Douglas Adams, “There is a theory out there that, if anyone ever discovers what the universe is for and why it is here it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened”

Mark

For me, time is without question, the most valuable coin we have in our lives. Only ourselves can determine how that coin should be spent, and need to be careful that we don't let other people spend it for us!

I must say that I do like to spend a couple of hours a week, giving people my time.

Beano