http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5441178
Morgan Freeman seems to think that time doesn't exist outside of Earth.
Morgan Freeman seems to think that time doesn't exist outside of Earth.
Morgan Freeman and His Theory of Time
- Thread starter Dryson
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Amaris
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His answer seems more poetic than anything, and not something to take literally. Time did exist before life on Earth.
That's a whimsical musing, not a "theory" in any real sense. It seems to mean that time didn't have any meaning until we humans were around to measure it and think about it.
I enjoy Mr. Freeman's acting (although all his performances are exactly the same). I also like "Through the Wormhole." But he's not exactly an authority on this kind of thing. I don't understand why the Huffington Post even thought this was newsworthy.
Kor
I enjoy Mr. Freeman's acting (although all his performances are exactly the same). I also like "Through the Wormhole." But he's not exactly an authority on this kind of thing. I don't understand why the Huffington Post even thought this was newsworthy.
Kor
Because when you talk like Morgan Freeman, you can make just about ANYTHING sound plausible.
I see his point. "Time" as we experience it is very much a manifestation of the workings of our nervous system; our perception of the Universe is an idiosyncratic one which deceives us because it's mostly limited to what's useful for our survival in our immediate surroundings. Physicists talk about "spacetime" as a continuum.
Well, there are no clocks hanging on the wall of space - are there? 
His voice is soothing and has authority, the human brain just wants to believe whatever he says. That's why he's narrating half of the movie Lucy, so you can watch it and not realize how stupid the premise is.That's a whimsical musing, not a "theory" in any real sense. It seems to mean that time didn't have any meaning until we humans were around to measure it and think about it.
I enjoy Mr. Freeman's acting (although all his performances are exactly the same). I also like "Through the Wormhole." But he's not exactly an authority on this kind of thing. I don't understand why the Huffington Post even thought this was newsworthy.
Kor
Well, there are no clocks hanging on the wall of space - are there?
Actually, in a way there are really precise "clocks" in the universe, they're called pulsars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar
To sentience, yes, but there is still the state of "passage", that does not require perception. The birth and death of a star. The approach, meld, pass-through and separation of two galaxies. An Event Horizon, where "passage" is theoretically "frozen". Or are those examples only aspects?
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Amaris
Guest
Yes, but space/time moves in fluid motion. The human brain perceives time in sections. We see it more as how film works: frame by frame that creates the illusion of motion. We perceive time that way, but that's not how time works. Where we see A,B,C,D,E..., the universe and time exist as ABCDE simultaneously. There is no linear progression, at least not how we understand it.
Hmmm...I see the birth of a star, for example, as precisely what you gave as an example, J. A to B to C to D. Gasses and dust gather, coalesce, flame on, and shine (simplified, of course, for example). And that linear progression happens whether I "see" it or not. I don't understand that kind of phenomena as ABCD.
A
Amaris
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ABCD refers to linear progression. We see ABCD because of how fast light travels, but on the quantum level, it just isn't so.
Still a little confused, but I am talking about a linear progression of a "thing" that would not all happen at once. The life of our star, Sol, is finite. It does not require our presence or observation, and it had a beginning and will have an end. It's formation, birth, life and death did not/will not happen all at once.
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Amaris
Guest
Sure it did. Everything that has been alive in the universe is still alive, and also dead. The same goes for everything that was formed, is forming, and hasn't yet formed. It existed, exists, will exist as long as we are aware of it. Without us, there's no existence.
None of what I have said above is any kind of falsifiable theory. It's just a way to get your mind chewing on things around it, which I think was Freeman's point. Still, on the quantum level, shit be going down that we just can't understand and has no attachment to space/time as we know it. Planck time, for example is a unit of measurement so short that quantum particles can actually exist in two places in time, at the same time.
Contrary to my tongue-in-cheek comments earlier in the thread time, from what we understand, moves in fits and starts, making opportunities for multiple time frames to exist simultaneously (Planck time). This, of course, is about as far as I understand quantum theory. It gets very confusing from this point forward for me, and I think I'll go over here and play with this pretty string.
Well, there are no clocks hanging on the wall of space - are there?
Actually, in a way there are really precise "clocks" in the universe, they're called pulsars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar
Without AM or PM indicators, they're useless.
Are they on GMT, or what?
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