| Pete Dashwood 2006-01-11, 7:55 am |
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"Alistair" <alistair@ld50macca.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1136900927.606227.97620@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
> Pete Dashwood wrote:
>
> Suppose we consider a volume of space in which time does not exist. A
> complex organism, such as a human being, may evolve and occupy that
> volume of space. Such an organism may remember a past and may be able
> to predict a future without the existance of the fourth dimension. Such
> an organism may conceive of a fourth dimension even though that
> dimension does not exist and there is only 'now'.
>
> That is how I can say that time is not a real dimension. However, it is
> only a debated topic and is not widely accepted. But then the (digital)
> universe may in fact be virtual and not real.
>
I certainly can't close down your argument, Alastair. (It is a bit like the
tree in the forest falling over... does it make a sound if no one is there
to hear it? Logic tells us it must do, but it really depends what you mean
by 'sound'. If you consider 'sound' to be the arrival of certain nerve
impulses in a certain part of the brain, then it doesn't make a sound. If
you consider 'sound' to be a wave motion of air, with an amplitude and
frequency within a certain range, then it might indeed make a 'sound'. )
The fact that no-one's occupying your space and cannot therefore be aware of
time passing, does not preclude it passing :-) It depends on what your
definition of 'time' is. And that is the nub of the discussion.
I'm not persuaded by your argument, but I don't have enough authoritative
data to refute it, so I just have to agree to disagree :-) I guess my
concept of Time is largely based on intuition and faith... :-)
Pete.
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