In time their is no present?

Question

Is their any theory that talks about how if we look at time on a line that their would only be past-time and future-time and the present would be the infinately small line that seperates the two. So our future depends mostly on our past and not the super-micro seconds that is the present

Answer 1

your question was asked so long ago and i answered it so prehistorically that it's become fossilized

Answer 2

There can not be a present in time because it is not a constant. I always hear people saying things like "In the present times" and in this I have to agree with because you are grouping a period of time and calling it present.

But I am also of the belief that there is also a future that already has occured. And to even go further, if we could ever travel through time, we would know this to be true. In fact, I believe that if someone travels back into time to change it, a paradox would occurr causing a new time-line (dimension for those who believe in that) thus creating a possibility of many realities to exist.

So, yes I believe that our past is the key to our future. If the past is changed, so is our possible future. The present as it is has little to do with that. If someone was to change the present, this would prove to be impossible because of the as you state super-micro seconds that it truly is.

Answer 3

Thats a nice question. Its easy to get tempted to jump to conclusion that "past time is gone, future time is not here but only present time is the only thing here". But if we think about it, the "present" is so small that whatever we perceive and do is actually past. I will give you an analogy in the second paragraph. Hearing the word "Past", we think that we are dealing with something an hour ago or yesterday or last year or 1000 years ago. But even a "micro micro second earlier" is past too. Whether past time still exists or future time still exists is another whole new discussion, since the concept of "Time" itself is a complicated one since we use time just as a measure. Any ways...getting back to your question.

Here is an analogy.
If you are looking at yourself in the mirror. You might think that you are looking at yourself in present. But light travels with certain speed...doesnt it? (299,792,458 metres per second to be precise). That means your image (light) has to get reflected from the mirror to the retina of your eye, which then gets processed in the brain. Only then you will see the your reflected image. That means...what you are looking at is micro micro micro micro micro seconds delayed image. We dont feel the time lapse because the time delay is extremely small. Everything we do, perceive, act upon, think etc...will have to go to our brain through electrical impulse between neurons and only then can we know our exsistence and what we are doing. Its not possible to change the actual present because it exists in a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of time and by the time you think about it, its already past. I agree with one of the respected answerer here you quoted a saying from a person who said there is no present but recent past and immediate future.
That is not to mean that present is not there. It is there(or should I say was there). But its so small that brain simultaneously cant't catch it and at the same time perceive it. By the time we perceive it, its already in past. If I cough and say that I just coughed in the present. Thats not true because I coughed few seconds ago. (Past).

Answer 4

Actually, as I understand the physics of time (which is different than the standard of time, that which you observe on your watch)
there is ONLY the present. That is crucial, otherwise the past and future would coexist simultaneously in the present. The past and future are matters of our perspective. And as Heisenburg eluded to, and Einstein postulated, even if you could travel back in time, or to the future, you would be unable to interact with it, for those very reasons. A subjective reality, depending on our very awareness for it's existance.

Answer 5

nice theory but,
the past is the present who has left and the future the present who has no yet arrive, so the future depends on the present in any way you see it.. I believe that the present as micro seconds are what our future depends on, cuz that micro seconds are the only one that we can change as we want and that micro seconds make our past....//

Answer 6

It would appear that the past is already defined and the future is totally dependent on the "infinitely small line", without the defining line there is nothing but past time because the future would yet to be determined.

Answer 7

I disagree. The present is the most relavent time. We may make decisions based on things in the past or percieved things in the future but the only time we can make decisions or have any concious thought is in the present. past and future are more time related. The present is more of a concious or spiritual state of mind that is only percieved by those who are alive and actually aware of it. The present in that sense is continous. It is always the present in our conciousness.

Answer 8

The physics trilogy describes what you are seeking to understand. The trilogy states: E = mc2, m = E/c2, and c2 = E/m. Notice in all these equations that the only value that is constant in all, remaining unchanging, is the "c2" one. This describes that all energy and mass values have as their basis physical time "c2". Because this is true, we are unable to interact with either the past or future, because they do not exist - only present time exists. The duration of this time is according to the value of physical time, meaning present time is infinitely small and continually changing all the time.

http://360.yahoo.com/noddarc "The Problem and Repair of Relativity" offers some thoughts on this.

Answer 9

The great physicist George Carlin once said, "There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past."

Although, Dr. Michio Kaku is an evangelizer for string theory. String theory postulates that time is one of the 10 dimensions of nature and that dimensions can be "compactified" or curled up into tiny little balls, so tiny, in fact, they can never be detected. The brains of string theorists can be described in a similar fashion.

Answer 10

To me,there is only the eternally present, the past is gone ,the future has not yet come and when it does come it is the present,that is why it is a present or a gift so we dont regret what we have done and forget and forgive ourselves for the past and be vigilant in the present to make our future better. We have control of our destiny if we choose wisely in the present.

Answer 11

"Our future depends mostly on our past" This is the basis of pretty much every psychological study that has ever been generally accepted by mankind. So yes, there are a few theory's that agree with what you're saying.