Is time linear?

Question

If I am to be woken in the night, I first start to experience my dreams and then awaken.So a future event (my waking) directly causes effects (my conscious experiencing of dreams) in the present. Does this prove that time is not linear?

Answer 1

I think this is the most interesting question that I have seen asked on this site, but not for the reason you think.
It sounds trite, but you must first ask, "What is time?" Now that question has consumed some great minds and to find a definition for "time" usually brakes down into the catagories listed in most dictionaries. The thermodynamic property of entropy is even used. It says that disorder must always increase unless work is done to correct the disorder and from this it is drawn that time must always go forward.
But to answer your question, most physicist today will tell you that time IS NOT linear. This is a basic concept of the Einsteinien Universe and is well proven by a number of experiments involvimg what is called "time dialation." Which is what the author of the original Planet of the Apes story used to get his hero to a future earth.
In fact, no measurement in the modern world of physics is truely linear because all of the basic units of the metric system, with the exception of the mole which is an integer value of a number of objects present (like a dozen), are all affected by velocity.
Einstein used what is called a Lorentz transform to show the effect of say velocity on time. This has been tested on the Apollo trips to the moon, on jet liners circling the earth, even at different heights in the same building and it has always been proven correct. It goes something like t = [1/(1-(v'/c)^2)^0.5]*t' I believe. It is also called the twin paradox since one would be governed by t while the other by t'. As the velocity of the t' twin approaches the speed of light it would appear to stand still if you could see them and they would think you where buzzing by.
You can get excommunicated from the scientific world if you say there is an absolute linear universe, even if you read Einstein's own work who says there just may be. As for your dreams---they are like the weight of the soul. It exists and by fore thought you can save your soul by fulfilling the requirements of your religion. You solution would only be valid if you were damned, came back and changed and then could prove both.

Answer 2

Time is linear.

What happens in the dream state is artificial reality, your own artificial reality created by your subconsciousness. You can't rely on a standard time line when "dream time" is involved.

Time is linear, but it rarely appears linear to us. Have you ever waited at a traffic light for what felt like ten minutes; it was probably closer to 2? Or why is it when you play a video game or do something you love that time goes by so fast? How come kids think a month is forever and a old person doesn't?

You experience time as you notice it and you only notice it one second at a time. If you are bored then those seconds are going to go by slowly. If you lose track of time then it can go by quickly. I do that a lot on Yahoo Answers.

We also see time as a fraction of our lives. For a child a month or a year can seem like forever, while old people wonder how the time flew by so fast. If you have been alive for 10 years than a single year is 10% of your life. If you have been alive for 50 years then a year is only 2% of your life so it seems shorter. Trust me, grow old and you will find this out.

Then you can get into the theories does time stop when I leave the room? Does it suddenly speed up so I can enter the room? Is all that happens around me an illusion, am I part of an artificial reality program?

Time is relative and if it stops for everything around you it is as if no time ahs passed. You experience time from a unique point of view; your point of view. In an objective fashion our clocks prove that time is linear, but no I can’t prove the universe didn’t pause once, twice, or a million times. How can you prove what can’t be experienced?

Answer 3

Answer in two parts:

Part 1: No it does not prove time is not linear. It only proves that you remember dreams more when you are awakened while dreaming them. Your waking only causes you to remember the experience of your dream, whereas otherwise you most likely would have forgotten the dream.

Part 2: That doesn't mean that time is linear, however. As a matter of fact, time is NOT linear. Between the typing of Part 1 and Part 2, the entire universe paused for what would have been measured as one billion years if any clocks had continued to operate.

Oh yeah? Don't believe me??? Well prove the universe *didn't* pause for a billion years!