Is Time an Illusion Created by Consciousness?

[Evgeny Naumov]

Jumping in quite randomly here, I have something (most likely asinine) to say:

I believe time is an illusion simply for the fact that the universe is only ever one one state. Any state it "was in before" no longer exists. In fact the "longer" in the previous sentence is nonsensical. The universe was and is only ever in one state.

That state contains in it motion and change.

The reason time seems to exist is consciousness. Consciousness changes the state of the universe so as to create a "picture" of a "previous" state, i.e. a memory.

This is like a car leaving a skid mark. When consciousness observes the skid mark it infers the existence of a past to account for its creation. In fact, the skid mark does not mean that a past existed, it is merely a manifestation the one state of the universe. It exists wholly in the present, as does its observation.

Say someone watches a bomb explode. After it explodes the thought goes as such: "All that I see now is rubble. I remember an unexploded bomb. Therefore it was unexploded in the past and is exploded now. Therefore time has passed"

In reality, it did not. Your brain simply makes an imprint of the unexploded bomb in your mind, and this image exists as part of the universe's one state. As the bomb explodes, your brain takes a continuous set of images and retains them. It then compares the "past" and "present" images, which all actually exist in the present, the one state of the universe, and infers the existence past. All that happens with the bomb and your brain is wholly in one state. Your brain simply manipulates the one state so as to allow itself to infer time.

Yet another analogy: just like flipping the pages of a notepad with pictures on them quickly can create an illusion of motion, so can observing relevant memories, all in the present, can create the illusion of time. All the pages exist at the same moment, just like memories, but clever manipulation can crate the illusion of change.

All we know of the "past" we infer from the present. all memory and all thought is in the present. It is merely the "positioning" of objects and thoughts in the present that allows consciousness to infer the past and extrapolate the "future".

I really hope the above makes some sense.

 

[johan01]

As i see it time is a manifestation of events.. events are caused by change (movements, oscillations,) or any form of energy transfer between any two points in space that are not in the same place.

 

[Boy@n]

As i see it time is a manifestation of events.. events are caused by change (movements, oscillations,) or any form of energy transfer between any two points in space that are not in the same place.

It might be that time was the initial force which created our Universe, and since then, things keep changing, moving, oscillating (e.g. time made electrons rotate around nucleus).

So, time, as observed now, appears to be a manifestation of events, while it was the primary cause for events to take place.

 

[Anticitizen]

Jumping in quite randomly here, I have something (most likely asinine) to say:

I believe time is an illusion simply for the fact that the universe is only ever one one state. Any state it "was in before" no longer exists. In fact the "longer" in the previous sentence is nonsensical. The universe was and is only ever in one state.

That state contains in it motion and change.

The reason time seems to exist is consciousness. Consciousness changes the state of the universe so as to create a "picture" of a "previous" state, i.e. a memory.

This is like a car leaving a skid mark. When consciousness observes the skid mark it infers the existence of a past to account for its creation. In fact, the skid mark does not mean that a past existed, it is merely a manifestation the one state of the universe. It exists wholly in the present, as does its observation.

Say someone watches a bomb explode. After it explodes the thought goes as such: "All that I see now is rubble. I remember an unexploded bomb. Therefore it was unexploded in the past and is exploded now. Therefore time has passed"

In reality, it did not. Your brain simply makes an imprint of the unexploded bomb in your mind, and this image exists as part of the universe's one state. As the bomb explodes, your brain takes a continuous set of images and retains them. It then compares the "past" and "present" images, which all actually exist in the present, the one state of the universe, and infers the existence past. All that happens with the bomb and your brain is wholly in one state. Your brain simply manipulates the one state so as to allow itself to infer time.

Yet another analogy: just like flipping the pages of a notepad with pictures on them quickly can create an illusion of motion, so can observing relevant memories, all in the present, can create the illusion of time. All the pages exist at the same moment, just like memories, but clever manipulation can crate the illusion of change.

All we know of the "past" we infer from the present. all memory and all thought is in the present. It is merely the "positioning" of objects and thoughts in the present that allows consciousness to infer the past and extrapolate the "future".

I really hope the above makes some sense.

Whether you are correct or not, I must say that your post was very well-written and probably the best possible way to succinctly describe your side's viewpoint.

I happen to share your viewpoint, being a skeptic. I don't believe in the tooth fairy and I don't believe in 'time', but I'm willing to alter my view given some compelling evidence.

 

[baywax]

Jumping in quite randomly here, I have something (most likely asinine) to say:

I believe time is an illusion simply for the fact that the universe is only ever one one state. Any state it "was in before" no longer exists. In fact the "longer" in the previous sentence is nonsensical. The universe was and is only ever in one state.

That state contains in it motion and change.

The reason time seems to exist is consciousness. Consciousness changes the state of the universe so as to create a "picture" of a "previous" state, i.e. a memory.

This is like a car leaving a skid mark. When consciousness observes the skid mark it infers the existence of a past to account for its creation. In fact, the skid mark does not mean that a past existed, it is merely a manifestation the one state of the universe. It exists wholly in the present, as does its observation.

Say someone watches a bomb explode. After it explodes the thought goes as such: "All that I see now is rubble. I remember an unexploded bomb. Therefore it was unexploded in the past and is exploded now. Therefore time has passed"

In reality, it did not. Your brain simply makes an imprint of the unexploded bomb in your mind, and this image exists as part of the universe's one state. As the bomb explodes, your brain takes a continuous set of images and retains them. It then compares the "past" and "present" images, which all actually exist in the present, the one state of the universe, and infers the existence past. All that happens with the bomb and your brain is wholly in one state. Your brain simply manipulates the one state so as to allow itself to infer time.

Yet another analogy: just like flipping the pages of a notepad with pictures on them quickly can create an illusion of motion, so can observing relevant memories, all in the present, can create the illusion of time. All the pages exist at the same moment, just like memories, but clever manipulation can crate the illusion of change.

All we know of the "past" we infer from the present. all memory and all thought is in the present. It is merely the "positioning" of objects and thoughts in the present that allows consciousness to infer the past and extrapolate the "future".

I really hope the above makes some sense.

This makes sense as long as conscious/awareness does not exist in the universe. Now conscious/awareness does exist and we call our perception of change (etc..) "time". And if calling "something" a name makes the "something" exist... then time does exist (especially in the brains of over 5 billion people).

For example "coffee" was never "instant" until someone freeze-dried it... now there is "instant coffee" and it exists where it once never did.

Come to think of it... was coffee "coffee" before anyone tasted it?? Perhaps not... perhaps it was simply the reproductive end of the life cycle of a plant in northern Africa

This is how your proposal appears to me and how it seems that it could be falsified.