“If we accept that we cannot prevent science and technology from changing our world, we can at least try to ensure that the changes they make are in the right directions. In a democratic society, this means that the public needs to have a basic understanding of science, so that it can make informed decisions and not leave them in the hands of experts.” (Stephen Hawking, Black Holes and Baby Universes, p.28, Speech given in Oviedo, Spain, 1989)

Every day that has passed since this statement was made we have gained knowledge and our abilities to implement ideas have improved, both for good and ill.

According to Moore’s Law our ability to process and present information has been doubling approximately every two years. It has been almost 20 years since Stephen Hawking made the statement above. This means that approximately 10 doubling periods have passed. If we take 1989 as the baseline of when we were able to process one bit of information in a certain time, then by 2009 we will be able to process 1024 bits of information in the same time period. To do this calculation you start with 1 then multiply it by ten 2’s … 2 to the power of 10 (2^10). This growth in processing speed has allowed us to get a better understanding of the world we occupy.

Future exponential growth based on Moore’s Law will not only affect technology, economics and the New World Order but also philosophy and our concept of morality.

One of the most important fields in science, which directly affects us in our daily lives, is the concept of time. Time is something that we take for granted. What it is and how it works has yet to be accurately defined even though our society is consumed by it. Time not only governs our daily, yearly, and actual life cycle but also our mind, beliefs and thoughts.

The majority of what we have been taught about time and the age of the world around us is based on one law. This law, known as the Uniformitarian theory, states that the rate at which things occur in the present is the same as the rate at which things occurred in the past. This theory simply implies that the time it takes for natural processes to, for example, erode a beach, was the same in the past as it is now. This law is the basis for carbon dating and every other history and pre-history dating technique that is used to calculate age. This law is the standard to which we measure time.

When I first learned about this theory, my first instinct was to accept it as a valid assumption. Intuitively it made sense to assume that time, or the rate at which time changes, is constant. Only when I started to question the accuracy of this theory did I truly think about the meaning of time. More specifically, how the concept of time, as we know it, affects our lives and our understanding of the world around us.

If time is the basis of everything that we know then where is the proof that time is absolute? Why do we assume that the rate at which time changes is constant? How do we know that one minute in the past was the same as one minute in the present? If everything about our understanding of the physical world is based on this assumption, then is there a way to prove it? Have we reached the point of being able to understand the properties and implications of time?

to be continued ...

Posted in 2012 | Health | Politics | Psychedelics | Science & Technology | Time Submitted by chycho on Wed, 2008-03-19 22:04.
login or register to post comments