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Ten most controversial theses about time

  1. Time exists. You can not even raise this usual question. Of course, time exists - otherwise how would we set our alarm clocks? Time organizes the universe in a clear sequence of moments, and thank God; what confusion would it be if reality did not go second by second. In fact, the question is whether time is primary or secondary. We used to think that “temperature” is the basic category of nature, but now we know that it arises from the motion of atoms. When it comes to the question of whether time is primary, the answer is: no one knows. Maybe “yes”, but we need to understand quantum gravity much better before we can answer for sure.
  2. The past and the future are equally real. This view is not fully accepted, but should. Intuitively, we believe that “now” is real, whereas the past is recorded in books, and the future has not yet come. But physics teaches us something remarkable: every event of the past and the future is reflected in the current moment. It is difficult to notice in our daily life, because we never get close to knowing everything about our universe at any one time, and never get close - but identities do not lie. As Einstein put it: “It seems more natural to perceive physical reality as four-dimensional, instead of, as previously thought, the evolution of three-dimensional reality.”
  3. Everyone perceives time differently. This is true from both a physical and a biological point of view. From the point of view of physics, we adhered to the definition of time that Sir Isaac Newton gave, which was universal and shared by all. But then Einstein appeared and explained that how time flows for an individual depends on how they move in space (especially in approximation to the speed of light) and also on the gravitational field (especially in proximity to black holes). From a biological and physiological point of view, the time measured by an atomic clock is not as important as the time measured by our internal rhythms and accumulated memories. It happens differently depending on who we are and what we experience; there is real meaning in the statement that the older we get, the faster time goes.
  4. You live in the past. About 80 milliseconds ago to be more accurate. Try to touch the nose with one hand and the foot with the other. You will perceive these actions as simultaneous. But this is a delusion - it is clear that the signal goes further along the nerves from the foot to the brain than from the nose. The conclusion is simple: our conscious experience takes time to gather information, and the brain waits for all interconnected input data before it experiences “now.” Experiments have shown that the time gap between the event and our perception is approximately 80 milliseconds (according to conference participant David Ingleman).
  5. Your memory is not as good as you think. When you recall an event from the past, your brain uses very similar techniques to how it represents the future. The process is more like a “put on the play scenario” than a “repeat video”. If the script is wrong for any reason, your memory will be wrong, albeit as vivid as the right one. Eyewitness accounts, as it turns out, are one of the least reliable sources of evidence that are admitted in court (according to conference participant Kathleen McDermott and Henry Rodiger).
  6. Consciousness depends on the time of the operation. Many cognitive abilities are important for consciousness, and yet do not provide a complete picture. But it is clear that the ability to manipulate time and opportunity is a crucial feature. Unlike aquatic life, terrestrial animals, whose sensory field based on vision extends over hundreds of meters, have time to think about hundreds of actions and choose the best one. The nature of grammar allows us to talk about similar hypothetical features with each other. Consciousness would have been impossible without the ability to present other times (According to conference participant Malcolm MacAiver).
  7. Over time, confusion increases. At the heart of every distinction between past and future — memory, aging, causation, free will — is the fact that the universe evolves from order to disorder. Entropy increases, as we say, physicists. There are more opportunities to be unorganized (high entropy) than organized (low entropy), so the growth of entropy looks natural. But in order to explain lower entropy in the past, we need to go all the way back to the Big Bang. We just haven’t answered the difficult question so far: why was the entropy low closer to the Big Bang, and what does the increasing entropy mean for memory and cause-effect relationships and everything else? (We listened to the great speeches of David Albert and David Wallace among others).
  8. The difficulty comes and goes. In addition to creative people, most do not have big problems in order to appreciate the difference between “simple” (low entropy) and “difficult”. Entropy increases, but complexity is ephemeral; it increases and decreases in complex ways, and not surprisingly enough. Part of the "work" of complex structures is to increase the entropy, for example, the emergence of life. But we are far from a complete understanding of this most important phenomenon (speeches by Mike Russell, Richard Lensky, Ress D ”Souza))
  9. Aging can be reversed. We all grow old, this is part of a general tendency towards disorder. But the growth of entropy as a whole should relate only to the universe, and not to every single part of it. (Otherwise it would be impossible to build a refrigerator). To expand the timeline for living organisms is a technological challenge, not a physical impossibility. And we have some progress in several areas: stem cells, yeast, and even (with reservations) mice and human muscle tissue. As one biologist told me: “You and I will not live forever. But if we talk about our grandchildren, I would not make any bets. ”
  10. Lifespan is a billion heartbeats. Complex organisms die. In each case, it is sad, but it is a necessary part of the larger picture; life pushes the old to give way to the new. Notably, there are simple laws for measuring the ratio of animal metabolism and body weight. Larger animals live longer; but their metabolism is slower, resulting in a slower heartbeat. These effects cancel each other, because animals from shrews to blue whales have a lifespan with about the same number of heartbeats - about one and a half billion to be exact. In this sense, all types of animals have "the same life expectancy." At least, until we put No. 9 into life and become immortal. (Jeffrey Wester's amazing performance).

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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/213751/

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