HOW do we perceive TIME?
"Time" is something that all of us measure in our watches.Concept of time is so basic to our consciousness that even a three year old child uses Time in his daily life without any problem.All our social activities,from trains to offices to cinema shows- just every thing! -are performed according to a time table.Keeping track of Time is so important that every body ties a wrist watch in hand to know Time anytime.
But if we ask ourselves to define Time, or to explain in words that "What this Time actually is!" we will feel that we can't come up with any ready answer quickly.Even science books do not define the concept of Time well.In Physics it is accepted as a 'fundamental quantity'-but Physics does not discuss its concepts.Never-the-less, the entire Physics (which is the foundation of all Sciences) depends upon The Concept of Time for its description of Nature.Perhaps Time is such a basic concept in our mind that there is nothing more elementary to our consciousness than it.And perhaps that is why we are unable to define it properly.But here through this blog post I am going to begin a philosophical journey of examining the real meaning of time.
Please feel free to comment.
What creates the feeling of time in our brain?
An infinite variety of events keeps on occurring in our universe, one after the other.Some events occur together but some occur separately.For example, suppose you are sitting in your room watching television, and... ...suddenly your phone rang and at that very moment some one knocked at your door and simultaneous to the two of these events the electricity went off and the wall clock sounded 12 midnight-Tun...Tun...Tun...-indeed an scary scene ! Next day you will recall all these four events (ringing of phone,some one knocking at your door,going-off of the electricity and the clock's Tun...Tun...) as simultaneous.
But suppose you ordered a Pizza in the evening on phone (event-one) and the delivery boy came to deliver Pizza later (event-two).Now you know these two events did not occur simultaneously-how do you know this?Because there are several events which might have occurred in between 'your order giving event' and 'Pizza boy coming event'-for example,the moment you had finished giving order for Pizza on phone your mobile rang (event- a) so you put the receiver of the phone down in haste (event- b) and looked at the mobile screen, it was your girl friend calling (event- c).You picked up the phone quickly (event- d).She was shouting on you on the other side for not remembering her birthday (event- e) you listened to her scoldings quietely, said sorry to her many times stammer-ingly and she still cut the call abruptly (event- f).You were left glaring at your mobile screen aimlessly and suddenly you heard the sound of a plate falling from self in your kitchen (event- g) and you rushed to your kitchen where you saw a cat (event- h) which had entered into the kitchen from the open window... ...and so on; and then after many such insignificant events you heard knock at your door,it was Pizza boy with your ordered Pizza. So we see, betwee our two events 'one' and 'two' so many minor events like a,b,c, ... ,g,h, ... as noted above occurred.These got registered in to the memory of your brain in the sequence of order in which they occurred.Since so many events separate the two main events 'one' (your ordering the Pizza) and 'two' (Pizza boy coming) - you know they did not occur together. And the order in which they, along with other intermediary events, occurred and got registered in your brain creates the feeling of, what we call Time, in your brain.
