As a child, I dreamed of walking along a sidewalk that rose bridge-like in a gentle arc and was lined with evenly spaced telephone poles. What I got from that dream was an unmistakably clear notion of time and space that surpassed all attempts at explanation. I’ve often drifted back to that sense of precise understanding on a topic that eludes rational examination, yet here I am - some four decades later, hoping to make rational sense of what I have always felt: the close connectedness of time and space. I am aware of two prevalent theories concerning time. One is the linear theory. Two is the circular ( or linear joined ) theory. Yet, at this juncture of 'circular' mind, I wish to set down some of my own fanciful notions. I've often wondered if time is more than the ticking of a minute hand, or the newly turned leaf of a calendar. Is time an arbitrary concept? Is time an entity in it's own right, or is time simply a set of man-made markers? Does time rush forward into the new event, or flow back across us, consuming itself in the passage? Concerning markers, what if times were like lines of latitude and longitude? This would be a highly involved view of the issue, and would lend itself wholly to mathematicians around the world. Time, then, would be seen as enfolding or engulfing quite a lot more than the single event. Junctures and intersections must then be taken into account; entirely new ways of thinking, seeing ourselves, and assessing our worth would come into play; a sub-language of wholly new terms and expressions would spring up. What a chore it would be to figure out! Would these lines be stationary, or, directional? Would one set of lines be sub-ordinate to the other? Would the microcosm of each intersection be infinity squared? Then again, what if time lines were more like the lines of force around a magnet? Would the event be the magnet? Would the event have two poles? Could the lines, or poles, be acted upon; altered; bent by the nearness of two events? Is an event, in itself, a line of force or a marker in a line of force rather than the magnet? What if atomic matter is the magnet around which the force of time is folded? What if the orbits of planets, being the macro-mirror of atoms, were the lines of time? Are those lines, rather, vast interactive planes? Does time bend between the near approach of celestial orbs? Might there be an invisible umbilical cord of time connecting moon to earth? Is time vacuous, or does it exert pressure? I am reminded of accounts of cosmic debris that exhibited the appearance of being 'rolled' and 'flattened'. What is the relationship between time and gravity? Here is a bold leap: self awareness, or mental cognizance could be the stuff of time. Is the brain a time machine waiting to be built - or needing only to be fine tuned? What if time is the 'seventh sense'? How do I see time? I do not. I feel time; I retain the sense of it I received from that dream of long ago. I feel time as a simple and fundamental condition that is inseparable from space, matter, and directional orientation. To change one's state or position - is this not to alter time? To grow old; to grow away - a process unique to the individual - becoming and going, and possibly not to return: time is as relative as Einstein. Time has a seeming, and elusive quality. Has time brought me to old age? My flesh may flag and fumble, but my mind and soul still gambol.
Great thoughts... Great thoughts. Time, time, a tree of infinite growth? I recommend, if you have not already, looking up Quantum Physics. To get to the gist of it, and not meander off... The movie: "What the Bleep Do We Know?" I feel you will find fascinating.
It seems to me that if you could answer those questions you would have the answer to time travel.... But also,..if what you are saying were true then you could only travel to events..rather then era's ya know? As far as the magnet theory goes....spaces in time are the magnets..(anything with substance like humans,dogs,mountains etc...) so we would each generate our own lines of force and the events in our respective existance are the markers. In saying that I would suppose that time is more flowing than anything else. Can markers create their own line of force..I think so...for every action there is a like or something or other reaction.. HHmm the seventh sense theory..the brain is definately a time machine..the fine tuning is up to you..it is called memory. The key for time travel then would be to be able to tap into other matters memory and follow their lines of time back to events. But then for the highly evolved mind if you could tap into the group consciouness of a society...then you could travel to eras and not just events. Just my musings...
Cool musings, Chanygirl. (Move over Einstien, here we come.) That Moebius loop thing, if I remember correctly, is like an '8' on its side - the symbol for eternity. I relate to it because I was born on the eighth day of the year, and I read 'Lateral Thinking'.
