[net.misc] The flow of time as an illusion...

doug (08/01/82)

Some more from Davies on the "passage of time":

	"It is one of the most perplexing puzzles in physics that the
	elementary conscious experience of time - the flow or motion
	of the present moment - is absent from the physicist's
	description of the objective world.  Whether this is due to a
	deficiency in the framework of physics, which pays scant
	attention to the role of the conscious mind in the universe, or
	whether it is because the passage of time is an illusion, is by
	no means clear.  Nevertheless, because of this profound
	awareness of time by human beings, the acts of violence performed
	on our intuitive picture of time by modern theories such as 
	relativity ar often far more disturbing than the similar
	savagery carried out on space.  Deep philosophical issues and
	paradoxes invade temporal speculation, cutting across issues
	such as freewill and death.  The interaction of the physical
	world of the scientist and the metaphysical world of our minds
	leads to some strange and uneasy conflicts."

And some more, if you are interested:

	(capital letters are mine)

	"In chapter 1 a sharp qualitative distinction was drawn between
	the human perception of space and that of time.  The most
	elementary experience of time is that of *uni-directional activity*,
	sometimes thought of as a flux or flow *of* time, sometimes as a
	movement of conscious awareness *in* or *through* time.  There
	is no comparable experience for space.  Yet the mathematical
	developments of Newtonian mechanics, Maxwellian electrodynamics,
	special and general relativity and quantum theory have only emphasized
	in varying degrees the similarity in structure between space and
	time.  THE WORLD OF RELATIVITY IS DESCRIBED BY A STATIC FOUR-
	DIMENSIONAL MAP.  Thus, the time which enters into the equations
	of theoretical physics seems to lack that essential quality
	of human psychological time.  In chapter 7 this strange fact will
	be examined in detail, and some of the arguments which have been
	advanced in favour of the startling proposal to relegate the flow
	of time to the status of a PSYCHOLOGICAL ILLUSION reviewed."


I for one can't wait to get to chapter 7!

Doug Lerner
doug@uwisc