From Bill Summers
Having read your special issue on time (8 October, p 37) I’d like to share my understanding of it, which is simple. Time does not and cannot exist for the following reason.
We talk about and experience time as the past, present and future. To me, the past and the future are made up of a continuous stream of present moments in time. But what makes up a moment? A minute, a second, an attosecond, half an attosecond? Perhaps this means the present shrinks to nothing.
In that case, the conclusion is that the present does not exist, and is merely a construct of our consciousness. The past and future are back to back with no present at all; in which case there can be no past or future either, only consciousness.
Perhaps time should be spent in determining how the four fundamental forces of the universe gave rise to consciousness. Now that really is a puzzle.
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From Jeff Clarke
The discussion of what time is made me realise the problems of describing difficult concepts with commonly used language. In his contribution, Stuart Clark touches on the mechanisms of clocks, and says they “tell us that time is inextricably linked somehow to change” (8 October, p 38).
The word “change” describes a temporal concept, indicating a difference occurring over time. This word cannot be liberated from the general understanding of time as we know it.
Manchester, UK
Sturminster Newton, Dorset, UK
