Could a life form perceive time as running backwards relative to our perception of time?
Order of Kilopi
Could a life form perceive time as running backwards relative to our perception of time?
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No.
Order of Kilopi
For normal matter perhaps, but what about if say there was a whole class of material above the speed of light, like the theoretical tachyon. Might not such a creature formed of such matter perceive time backwards? And besides, even for normal matter like us, time seems to stretch and pinch depending on a variety of factors unrelated to physical time. Could not that be taken to a greater extreme, even if only theoretically?Originally Posted by Neverfly
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My answer required less thought or typing time
Order of Kilopi
Emphases mine.My answer required less thought or typing time
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<< Takes the time to think up a witty retort. >>
Established Member
What if they percieved light so fast that the universe looks like it moving in slow motion. Does that count? Like flies I think i heard there eyes are so much more complex than ours that they see the world in slow motion so they have more time to react. Thats why there so hard to kill.lol. Of course to see things backwards there eyes would have to be much more advanced than flies.
Order of Kilopi
Well to answer yes to my questions one would need to assume that time itself is a perception. We perceive time to "flow" from past to future. We do not notice relative changes in time or space.
I think to answer this question one would need to do a thought experiment of us meeting a human like creature that percieves reverse time. Then bring in the second law of thermodynamics which would be opposite for them.
Gravity would be the same right? Things would go towards order and towards heat naturally.
I also think that some of the laws of the string theory may support this possibility ... but I am not sure. Doesnt the string theory state that everything can be represented in 2dimensions?
Banned
It's life Jim... but not as we know it, com'es to mind here.
But no. I would say it's highly improbable. Vanishingly small in fact.
Order of Kilopi
If they did, how would they know it's running 'backwards'?
Banned
Good point.
Order of Kilopi
They wouldnt ... in fact they would think that we are running backwards ...
However some of our laws ( thermodynamics ) are directional so they would see these laws differently.
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I think it is very possible but these beings would be not made of the same thing as we are.
Order of Kilopi
This is a good point. Our measurement of time is only relative to how we perceive it. Our evolution as brought us to this speed of time perception to enable us to survive within our environment.
But our perception of time "flow" for the universe is such that it evolves thermodynamically so for us to exist in the form we do. I don't believe it is possible for our time to flow in reverse only towards entropy. Would be fun though! you get to 80 and wish you'd done that base jump, reverse time and have a go! don't matter if you don't make it alive, you've already been old!
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Maybe some godcivilization might temporarily reverse time by manipulation of the strings.
Order of Kilopi
Anything is possible! but as been discussed on other threads on this forum - who's definition of time would they reverse ours or their own? and who would notice the difference?maybe they could have a completely different perspective of time to ours, maybe able to view all our time at once
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What about Mork's kid, Jonathan Winters?I guess he was just aging backwards...
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In his book "Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension" mathematician Rudolf Rucker has an essay about a backwards time in a collapsing universe and its effect on Earth. The story begins at a graveyard where mourners dig up a dead person who is then laid to rest at a funeral service. Later the body is taken to a hospital where they come to life and gradually become healthier. Eventually they go home all the wiser. Much later when the individual is younger, they go to college to unlearn things. Eventually they become a child and then a baby and have to go to the hospital to be unborn.
Its a whimsically written chapter but Rucker's point is that when all reality exists in a collapsing universe, wherein the second law of thermodynamics and everything else runs backwards toward the big crunch, the interconnectedness of everything, its cause and effect, is equally logical. (Though comical to us.)
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I would think that if the Universe ceased to expand and started collapsing, time would still move forward to our perception.
It doesn't matter which direction space moves in for time to move.
Order of Kilopi
I agree, time seems to run in our "forward" direction regardless of the evolution of the universe. I personally believe that time must have one direction only or there is an infinite paradox situation, which means an infinite numbers of universes to deal with every out come. Just makes things way too complicated
Order of Kilopi
How is that a paradox? Complicated yes, but I don't see how it could logically be considered a paradox.I agree, time seems to run in our "forward" direction regardless of the evolution of the universe. I personally believe that time must have one direction only or there is an infinite paradox situation, which means an infinite numbers of universes to deal with every out come. Just makes things way too complicated
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Actually, I wonder if time even exists, or is it a "dimension" we have conveniently created to explain causality. It is fundamentally different from the other three (known) dimensions. If a theory of higher dimensions pans out, and if we are a subset of a larger multiverse, and if another universe consisted of dimensions mutually exclusive of ours, would time still exist in that universe? To me, time is as unlike the other (3) dimensions, as gravity is unlike the other (3) fundamental forces...
Banned
Although I could be wrong, this is how I see time as well. That it's a description more than a tangible reality.
Order of Kilopi
I wonder if every quantum moment is in fact a different universe, just like every frame in a traditional 2d cartoon is a separate character.
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Time might seem to be a separate entity from forces of nature and space as it did in the Newtonian era but it is also intertwined and pliable with space, wherein a single event appears to occur at different moments to different observers. One occurrence is not an illusion and the other true, both of the same single event occurred in reality.
Rucker's chapter, summarized in a previous post, is whimsical but also illustrates a principle that might be disturbing to some. If everything runs backward, the direction of time has an equal logic and there is no backward vs. forward to time.
Order of Kilopi
If time is the same backwards, forwards, then how come I can time travel to the future with time dilation, but going back is another matter? Oh, it may be possible, but so far even the most promising ideas seem to say you have to go back as far as to when it was built.
Order of Kilopi
I meant that there would be infinite paradoxes if we could travel back in time relative to our forward perception within a single universe situation.time traveling creates the paradoxes. Flowing with time in one direction only does not. If we some how suddenly reversed time to flow "backwards" we would still perceive a one directional "forward" flow of time. Just growing younger! sounds good to me!
Order of Kilopi
I, like Neverfly like this idea, i consider time to be separate but somehow entwined with space. And i agree gravity should not be considered a fundamental force along with the 3 other forces. i believe gravity and time are effects and causality of matter and energy in space.
Order of Kilopi
But there is a forward arrow of time....towards increased entropy. It only runs backwards when the guy in the projection room falls asleep at the movies, when rewinding Stooges clips for the matinee.....pete.
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In Rucker's whimsical essay mentioned earlier, hypothetically - the point is, if everything, including all frames of reference, all time frames, all reality including the arrow of the second law of thermodynamics and everything else runs "backwards" relative to how it feels now, including all of us and every cause and effect, everywhere, you'd have no notion as to which way time was flowing. Subjectively, "forward" and "backward" would be equally logical times in all frames, and indistinguishable.
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