Does the Present Exist?

[Nakosis]

I like saying the past no longer exists and the future has yet to exist.

Does the present exist? I've heard some say the present we experience is actually gone, in the past by a few milliseconds by the time we become aware of it. So what we experience as "now" happened in the past which stop existing a millisecond or so ago.

If no past, present or future exists for us, what does exist?

 

[Eddi]

I think that although for practical purposes we can understand time in terms of there being a past, present and future I think that time itself is ineffable to us humans.

 

[74x12]

I like saying the past no longer exists and the future has yet to exist.

Does the present exist? I've heard some say the present we experience is actually gone, in the past by a few milliseconds by the time we become aware of it. So what we experience as "now" happened in the past which stop existing a millisecond or so ago.

If no past, present or future exists for us, what does exist?

The only thing properly existing to you is your constant stream of consciousness. So yes I would say somewhere somehow the present exists.

 

[savagewind]

I like saying the past no longer exists and the future has yet to exist.

Does the present exist? I've heard some say the present we experience is actually gone, in the past by a few milliseconds by the time we become aware of it. So what we experience as "now" happened in the past which stop existing a millisecond or so ago.

If no past, present or future exists for us, what does exist?

Wonderful! The present exists imo but way too fast for us to notice it. Too bad, really!

 

[74x12]

Wonderful! The present exists imo but way too fast for us to notice it. Too bad, really!

Seems philosophical.

 

[Vinayaka]

Not for long.

 

[74x12]

I wonder what quantum mechanics and consciousness have to do with time travel. Perhaps on a subconscious level we're all time traveling a little bit and don't know it.

 

[exchemist]

I like saying the past no longer exists and the future has yet to exist.

Does the present exist? I've heard some say the present we experience is actually gone, in the past by a few milliseconds by the time we become aware of it. So what we experience as "now" happened in the past which stop existing a millisecond or so ago.

If no past, present or future exists for us, what does exist?

Does an inch exist? After all, any time anyone measures it, there is some degree of error. The probability of measuring one inch exactly is infinitesimally small - one could perhaps say zero. So in what sense can an inch be said to exist?

This argument about whether the present "exists" seems to me to be equally footling.

 

[savagewind]

Seems philosophical.

OK.

 

[QuestioningMind]

I like saying the past no longer exists and the future has yet to exist.

Does the present exist? I've heard some say the present we experience is actually gone, in the past by a few milliseconds by the time we become aware of it. So what we experience as "now" happened in the past which stop existing a millisecond or so ago.

If no past, present or future exists for us, what does exist?

Actually I'd say that the present is the only thing that really exists, since the past only exists as memory and the future only exists as anticipation.

 

[exchemist]

I wonder what quantum mechanics and consciousness have to do with time travel. Perhaps on a subconscious level we're all time traveling a little bit and don't know it.

Quantum mechanics has bugger all to do with it. I don't know about consciousness.

 

[savagewind]

I wonder what quantum mechanics and consciousness have to do with time travel. Perhaps on a subconscious level we're all time traveling a little bit and don't know it.

I believe it. In two ways we are. Sensitive people can feel the future. And physically, are we not traveling very fast regarding the spin of the Earth and its orbit?

 

[exchemist]

I believe it. In two ways we are. Sensitive people can feel the future. And physically, are we not traveling very fast regarding the spin of the Earth and its orbit?

What has the speed of rotation of the earth to do with time travel?

 

[Nakosis]

Does an inch exist? After all, any time anyone measures it, there is some degree of error. The probability of measuring one inch exactly is infinitesimally small - one could perhaps say zero. So in what sense can an inch be said to exist?

This argument about whether the present "exists" seems to me to be equally footling.

I like being footling. Philosophy in general seems to be footling.

 

[74x12]

OK.

Yeah, something about missing the present because we focus too much on future or past.

 

[savagewind]

Actually I'd say that the present is the only thing that really exists, since the past only exists as memory and the future only exists as anticipation.

THAT! "Anticipation" is real philosophy. I think it means that we are subject to the future. Exciting! Isn't it?

Just so you know, (because I like you) I might call that same thing "expectation" and not "anticipation".

 

[74x12]

What has the speed of rotation of the earth to do with time travel?

I don't know ... but I think Superman reversed time by spinning the earth backwards.

 

[savagewind]

Yeah, something about missing the present because we focus too much on future or past.

Maybe not, "too much", but, maybe, "at all".

In other words, let's just please stay where we are.

 

[Nakosis]

I think that although for practical purposes we can understand time in terms of there being a past, present and future I think that time itself is ineffable to us humans.

Although I tend to question time's existence, it seems a necessary part of physics.
Could physics exist if time doesn't?

 

[savagewind]

Although I tend to question time's existence, it seems a necessary part of physics.
Could physics exist if time doesn't?

Haha! God knows!