I beleive it (time) probably has to do with wave functions in quantum mechanics. But I am not a physicist.
If time is change, and change involves movement, according to Zeno the Greek presocratic philosopher, either X is moving where it is, or X is moving where it is not. Both options seem absurd at the classical level. A car can't be moving where it is, it would be parked. And it cant possibly be where it is not, so thats absurd too.
In quantum mechanics though there is the uncertainty principle relating to "conjugate variables". The more certain one is, the less certain the other is. The less certain is described by a wave function. Position is bound to momentum. The variable related to time is energy. The more we know of the systems energy, the less we know of its time (I think) etc. In relativity there is an
energy-momentum relationship. So I am believeing that time is indirectly related to momentum, and therefore unto movement.
So, Zeno, hold on.
The car is parked. Snapshot! But time is frozen out. The car moves, and we have motion, but blurry picture of the physics involved.
So maybe, maybe, just maybe we know a systems energy at a classical level via the e=mc^2 equation, in Einsteins relativity. Uncertainty appears below a certain mass (philoshopical construct known as decoherence mass) and so classical level physics fades away, and uncertainties pop into being. But time and motion make more sense there, because of the blurred mature of reality. Not a snapshot, but a smugde in space and time.
The car of relativity travels on the back of (rides upon) the particles, and hence upon the conjugate variables of quantum uncertainty.
Just like, by analogy, the self concsious agent "rides on" the neurons of the brain. In some way the one (the self) is conscious, and the others (the neurons) are not. In some way the one is fixed (the snapshot of the racing car) and also it is not. But to get a true snapshot, wouldnt the shutter not open at all? And hence, not even allow the quantum reality inside?
Or at most for an infinitesimal time.
Yet then wed maybe get just one photon, and hence not the picture of the whole car we wanted to look at. Which picture would be built of an
array of photons. "An array is a systematic arrangement of similar objects, usually in rows and columns." (wikipedia)
The universe is
quantum-classical. And the agent is
mind-brain.
Bipartisan:
representing, characterized by, or including members from two parties or factions
(dictionary.com)
Modal:
of or relating to mode, manner, or form:
(dictionary.com)
So I imagine that if we lived in the quantumm world the question would be not "Wierd, what is time?"
but "How can anyone claim - like in 'Zeno's philosophy, there be stable objects one could actually point at with precision?"
Just like we wonder "How can neurons become consicous" etc.
That seems even more wierd again. To get a fixed picture, the best we can do is one photon, but IIRC nothing is known about the temporal qualities of photons (or the best we have is "time stands still for a photon..."?)
So, if we have an array of photons, and a object seen, then time is actually presumed or implied fo that system or object.
Anyway. Lets call this
bipartisan modality.
The universe is
quantum-classical. And the agent is
mind-brain.
The instamatic picture we have of the racing car is made from an temporal array of non-temporal photons...?
The moment depends on the eternal, and vive versa. The array depends on the photon etc. The universe barpartisan in modality. Eternity exists but only when the camera shutter is
closed. Take a snapshot and you are implicitly within the 3-dimensions of space as we know it.
Bipartisan:
representing, characterized by, or including members from two parties or factions
(dictionary.com)
Modal:
of or relating to mode, manner, or form:
(dictionary.com)
So I imagine that if we actually lived in the quantumm world the question would be not "Wierd, what is time?"
but "How can anyone claim - like in 'Zeno's philosophy, there be stable 4 dimensional objects one could actually point at with precision?"
Its like a symmetry. theres a point in the hall of mirrors universe, if we zoom in enough, that the reflective properties disappear. And yet somehow the appearace depends on the disappearing too.
Just like we wonder "How can neurons become consicous" etc.