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Do you ever think that maybe time is circular?

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Mudcat

Mudcat

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Like the instant you die and your consciousness is extinguished, vast amounts of time pass like nothing - much like if you were under a general anaesthetic - and the next instant you are realizing your first awareness as a baby - and you start the whole thing again.

It's possible.

Probably a good idea to have a good life just in case.
 
Mudcat
Like the instant you die and your consciousness is extinguished, vast amounts of time pass like nothing - much like if you were under a general anaesthetic - and the next instant you are realizing your first awareness as a baby - and you start the whole thing again.

It's possible.

Probably a good idea to have a good life just in case.
Click to expand...

Does this mean that life would be like replaying Super Mario Bros. ad infinitum, or would it be more like The Legend of Zelda where once you beat the game the first time, you started over in a slightly different world with everything not where you remembered them to be? Do you not take with you some of the progress you made in your previous life? Does life have a battery pack? And can the battery be replaced without smashing the cartridge to bits or did God also use these effin' triangle-head screws just to fuck with you?

If I lost you with the NES references, ask your new neighbour - he's sort of a geek.
 
I don't believe there is such a thing as time.

I look at it this way.
1. Time has to be infinite. That is our understanding of time. You can say time started with the big bang. But I think our concept of time would insist that whatever there was before was still something.

2. So if time has no beginning it's impossible (or would take infinity) for us to get to any particular point (such as now).

3. Since we are here now the concept of time has to be bogus.

The idea that we'll be dead for infinity is hard to imagine. But it was pretty much ok before we were born which was also forever.
 
reno cool
I don't believe there is such a thing as time.

I look at it this way.
1. Time has to be infinite. That is our understanding of time. You can say time started with the big bang. But I think our concept of time would insist that whatever there was before was still something.

2. So if time has no beginning it's impossible (or would take infinity) for us to get to any particular point (such as now).

3. Since we are here now the concept of time has to be bogus.

The idea that we'll be dead for infinity is hard to imagine. But it was pretty much ok before we were born which was also forever.
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This is a very conventional misunderstanding of the nature of space-time. Just as many people, when told that the universe is finite, want to say, "Okay then what is beyond the outer edge?" our instincts tell us that time must be infinite. But no, like space, it is very big but not infinite.

And it could in fact be circular or elastic and therefore have repeating qualities. It is unlikely but there is in fact a scientific basis for my question. I wasn't just being gay.
 
Mudcat
This is a very conventional misunderstanding of the nature of space-time. Just as many people, when told that the universe is finite, want to say, "Okay then what is beyond the outer edge?" our instincts tell us that time must be infinite. But no, like space, it is very big but not infinite.

And it could in fact be circular or elastic and therefore have repeating qualities. It is unlikely but there is in fact a scientific basis for my question. I wasn't just being gay.
Click to expand...

Last I heard there was no consensus on whether the universe is finite.
If you simply consider time as a relationship of Earth rotating around the sun to a distance light travels then yes time could be finite.
But, as people we inherently perceive time as something that is always moving forward and always has been. And its the juxtaposition of these two things that create a problem.

Hey, I don't claim to know much about physics, but I find this kind of an interesting philosophical issue. If possible I'd like you to clear up my conventional misunderstanding:thumbup:
 
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That does look like the Quebec flag's evil twin.

Please stay on topic reno.
 
Let me rephrase my first post in this thread (I'm sort of sad that no one even acknowledged my dorky NES analogy, but I won't mention it anymore so as not to appear needy)

In a universe where time is cyclical, does every event always reoccur exactly the same or is there some kind of inherent cosmic instability that produces something akin to the butterfly effect? If it's the latter, it really wouldn't take much to change the course of history in a very drastic manner... in a future "playback" of the universe, maybe a speck of radioactive dust fucks up the early human DNA and we miss out on opposable thumbs, becoming extinct when a rogue tribe of savant dinosaurs start poaching us for our meat (legislation was passed to protect our kind but improper enforcement did us in.)

:wah:

Muddy, please tell me more about this omniscient, omnipotent deity of yours. Sounds like a convenient, comforting option.
 
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