Mysteries of the Present: Article I

[Dragon in the Shadows]

Mysteries of the Present: Article I

Living in the present

It seams a simple concept.  What has happened is the past.  What will happen is the future.  What is happening now is the present.  However, when logic is applied one can see that the concept of the "present" is faulty at best.  In this short article I will present my theories towards the concept of the present and why I doubt it's existance.

Now you know

To start any discussion it is important to make sure that we are all on the same page.  Thus it is time to define the word and concept of the word "present" which in all the dictionaries I have consulted is described as such:

Present

Adj.
Existing or occuring now

n.
The period of time now occurring

As you can plainly see both describe an instant of occurance without giving any time frame.  This raises the biggest question of the "present", How long is the "present"?  A second?  A millisecond (1/1000th of a second)?  Believe it or not there is no answer that can be found.  So we have a concept of time that is not fixed and no one can agree on it's duration.  Another point of interest that can be seen is the use of the word "now".  Lets face it, most people would say the two words describe the same event.  So let's define it as well:

Now

Adj.

At the present time or moment

And we appear to have the same basic problem.  An occurance without a time frame.  In case you are wondering I have subjected my search engines multiple times with the task of determining how long "present" and "now" are with no luck.  A couple of interesting theories can be found, but they lack any mathmatical or scientific proof, just logic.  Yes, I understand this article is about logic, but I am just showing the lack of knowledge on the "present".  I might cover these theories in a follow-up article.

Now is then

Okay, so far I've torn in to the basic concept of the "present".  At this point many have said to me if you believe in a concept of past and future than you have to admit there is a "present".  Some have even asked for proof.  So I give them a way to test the concept of the present; look up.  We all know that the nearest star, other than the sun of course, is about 4.2421 lightyears away.  You are seeing that star now only the light has traveled for 4.2421 years.  Thus you are actually looking at the past.  Closer to us the light from the sun travels 7 minutes from the surface to our eye (I should say that I don't recommend looking at the f**king sun).

So you might say for practicality perposes the light emitted from a TV across the the room should be intantaneous.  And you would be right, but only from our perspective.  So lets use the speed of light to determine how long it would take the light from a TV 25 feet away from you.  Well that would be a mere .0000000255102040816327 seconds.  Since that is the first solid timeframe thus far let's use that for the time being as the length of time in the "present".  How much do you think you can do in such a short time span?  It turns out nothing.  Lets replace that TV with an explosive device and keep the distance constant.  The shock wave which will hit you first will travel at a velocity of approximately 6,900 miles per second or about .0036231884057971 seconds later.  That means about 142,029 "present" periods had occurred since you saw the flash of light from the device. 

Perhaps you are saying you made the "present" too short.  Well, the simple fact is that when observing time one must deal with small spans of time.  If you make "present" too long then past and future blur with the "present".  For example lets set the time span up to a full second.  In that time span you blink.  Your eyes are not closed for the whole second, just a fraction of it.  Lets say 1/5 of second.  In that sinario your eyes closed sometime in the past of the present or that your eyes will close in the future of the "present".  Confused?  So am I.

Thus we wind up with a concept I call the past-present/future-present.  Similar to Einstein's concept of space-time these concepts permit a middle in which both future and past co-exist similtaneously with the "present".  Now this means in order to think about the "present" one must also consider the immediate past and/or future.  Of course I must bow down before the great Albert Einstien who did the most important work in time.  Einstien's theory of relativity clearly does not permit absolute simultaniety.  Therefore the past cannot be the same time as the "present" until the "present" is in the past, and even then it would be considered the past's past or the past's furure.  The same holds true for the future.

The end...For now

And so now I choose to end this article.  Not because I've run out of things to discuss about the "present", but because this would cease to be an article and become a book if I were to continue.  I will return to this subject again in the future, only then it will be the "present".

[PkMn Trainer]

I suppose "present" and "now" are really references to the exact moment in time in which they are used.  Interesting stuff you bring up, Mister Dragon.

[Fever]

Inb4arkticstheoryoh.

[PkMn Trainer]

^ Haaaaaa!

[ArkticDark]

 Haha! Good one Fever.

Now here is my theory. Lol! Jk.

I never had a theory about this or gave it much thought. But upon reading this I had a realization

If you look at time like a line on a graph and you have a single point that is able to move along it, that point would be present. And yes it would be very short.

So I think the present does exist even as tiny it may be. There has to be a point where past and future meet together on that line and at that junction there is a point which is present.

For without that point, past and future would blur together and be the same thing at one time.

So maybe that single present point is actually consciousness.

I wonder if consciousness is a component of Time-space that allows present.

[ArkticDark]

So then...

If that is so, then that point would the point of origin because without it neither past nor future would exist, they would be a blurred single line.

So then the past and future only exist because the present. Which is a single moment of consciousness.

So then maybe you could theorize that time is void or non existent or exists as something we cannot fathom, when there is a lack of consciousness. Maybe.

Hmm... present being the origin point of both past and future is a paradox. How neat.

Thanx for the awesome topic Dits, really got my mind jogging.

[Fever]

The present is the whole damn day for me.

[Dragon in the Shadows]

I'm surprized Diepie hasn't commented yet...Oh, wait.  I forgot, this is the intellectual forum.

[Fever]

Lol. He's probably too busy with that other site.

[PkMn Trainer]

Hey don't pick on someone with a 5th grade reading level.   C'mon guys, I thought this was the intellectual forum.

[Fever]

Hey don't pick on someone with a 5th grade reading level.   C'mon guys, I thought this was the intellectual forum.

Inception. 

[Dragon in the Shadows]

Hey don't pick on someone with a 5th grade reading level.   C'mon guys, I thought this was the intellectual forum.

   No one said anything about his reading skills.

[ArkticDark]

I see another thread is derailed, and by its creator too.

[PkMn Trainer]

Oh hush you know what I mean.

[Fever]

I see another thread is derailed, and by its creator too.

Lol OMG. This site.

[PkMn Trainer]

Lol OMG. This site.

Seriously. :p  Ya know what I give up.  Actually I gave up a long time ago.

[Dragon in the Shadows]

I see another thread is derailed, and by its creator too.

It's what we do best.

[Kingdiepie]

It's what we do best.

That we can agree on.

[Fever]

Anything else to add to the topic?

[Dragon in the Shadows]

That we can agree on.

Have you finished the first paragraph yet?  Or do you still need a few days.   

[ArkticDark]

converse with me Dits, what do you think of my idea?

[ArkticDark]

When are you gonna finish this Dits?

[Fever]

Whenever he comes back I guess. Man, this place is deaaaaaaaad.

[Dragon in the Shadows]

When are you gonna finish this Dits?

It's gonna be a while.  My computer restarted itself and I lost all my notes and the first draft of the second article.

[Fever]

Man you gotta upload your **** as soon as possible. If I get important documents, I'm saving them on here lol.