Time … for Easter

My father had a long fascination with the concept of time … and if we ponder on it for a bit, we cannot deny it is indeed a complex, hard to grasp and interesting phenomenon.

In talking about time … one can come across as a bit of a nut-job. But that’s largely because most of us don’t spent time considering it – we rather just ‘experience’ it and take it for granted. But I enjoy thinking about things – so here’s my one-minute opinion on the concept of ‘time’ – as per the last conversation I had with my dad about it …

The concept of TIME raises some obvious yet interesting questions … Why does it only seem to move in one direction? Why does it seem to have continuity? What is a MOMENT? These are easy ones … there are more difficult ones as well ….

Many of us measure TIME by the device we call a CLOCK. And we measure it at the rate of one second, for every second that passes. Let’s put the concept of the SECOND, aside for a moment – (pun) – and call it that – a MOMENT. And this in turn, this MOMENT, can be thought of as a convenient name for the packet of information that we perceive … NOW.

Now, (second pun) in quantum theory, one very popular notion is that there are, (in any given moment) an infinite number of possibilities actually occurring (but we, as individuals are only capable of perceiving one at a time – the one we are in) – in other words, the universe (if you want to call it that) SPLITS, at every moment, onto an infinite number of possible paths – and the one we are all in NOW, is the MOMENT or PACKET OF INFORMATION we conveniently refer to as the PRESENT.

This is an interesting idea – because if true, it means there are infinite versions of each of us, all experiencing different realities – and further, even more interesting to me … the same moments exist, endlessly … but we (the we that are reading this blog) cannot perceive that, as we exist in the split-off reality/universe that has split-off from the previous one, etc, etc – that we can trace back to that aforementioned moment – in the so-called past.

Get it? Something in any case, to ponder on as you munch through your collection of easter eggs this weekend.

I miss my conversations with my father ...

JBW