Some people thought that time was an absolute, constant and unending thing that would continue no matter what, while others believed that time was dependant on movement. For example, if time was absolute and unending, if every single thing in the world suddenly stopped moving for a hundred years, a hundred years would still pass. But if time was dependant on movement, if everything stopped moving, time would stop moving as well, and no time would pass. Nowadays, based on new information and studies, most of us believe that time is dependant on movement, and that time moves faster when you are in motion.
There were also other theories about time, especially what the meaning of 'Now' is. Is it a knife edge sliding along the unending line of time? Or maybe 'Now' is something that flows in and fades out? Or, the theory that interests me the most, maybe time doesn't exist at all and we're just imagining everything? You might be thinking, 'What do you mean, of course there's time! We see it happening right before our eyes!'.
But people who don't think time is a thing might tell you this: nothing ever happened in the past, because when the thing happened it was in the present. Since nothing happened in the past, the past technically doesn't exist. Same with the future; nothing happens in the future because when it happens it's no longer the future, but instead the present. The present technically doesn't exist because whenever something happens, it stops happening immediately as it starts, because everything is constantly changing and the present is something that's infinitely small, so small that it doesn't exist.
There were also a thought experiment proposed by a philosopher named Zeno that was against the existence of time, called the Paradox of the Arrow. This is what he proposed.
- Time is composed only of instants.
- At any single instant, an apparently moving arrow doesn't travel any distance, i.e. the arrow is at rest during every instant.
- That means that the arrow is at rest for the entire time period.
- Therefore, the arrow cannot be moving at all.
People have proposed solutions to this, but I won't talk about those right now. The point is, Zeno thought that the idea of time - and motion - were all illusions and not real. He also proposed another paradox, Achilles and the Tortoise, and you can go search that up if you want to.
Personally, I think that time is real and dependant on motion, like a lot of people. About the idea of the present, past and future, I like to think of all of them like one blob, and inside the blob are all the events that have happened, all the events that could've happened, and all the events that might happen. As for the present, I think that that is just the state of one little events turning from a possibility into history. There are an infinite amount of events inside the blob and an infinite events turn from possibility into history every second. I don't really get why I think about time like that but I just do. Time is overall a really cool thing, and nobody really even knows what it is. I'm not even sure why I wrote this. Anyways, there's a lot more stuff to be said about time, but I'm going to end my little blurb here. Have a good day!
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