We are having a wonderful time here in Washington, DC with Cindy's family. With encouragement from Bill, I am posting a thought for the day that my manager at work sent out to us before we left for the Thanksgiving weekend. Enjoy, with hopes that your thanksgivings are full of things to be thankful for!
Thought for the day: Everything travels at lightspeed through spacetime. Light travels only through space, not at all through time, so photons don't age. To them everything happens at once! Be happy you are not a photon. Rocks and similar stuff travel only through time, pretty much not at all through space. Be happy you are not a rock.
The rest of us travel mostly through time and a little bit through space, the latter usually more on Thanksgiving than at other times. Our travel is timelike and we mostly age. Be happy for the spacetime you can savor.
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6 comments:
Karl- I wish I could remember all those physics things from college. All my physics education ended being 'geo'. ha ha
It's great that you are enjoying your visit with Cindy's family. I was with Tamara and family. Along with our turkey etc. we also had some of Edward's creamed corn. We brought back 2 frozen ziplock bags when we came back to Florida. Amazingly it stayed frozen in the cooler. We have one more bag for Christmas. I liked your "thoughts" I understand them in my head but could never put it into words. I'm glad you can and did.
"Light travels only through space, not at all through time"... how strange. From our perspective, a photon would appear to age, but from its own perspective it does not? This leads me to contemplate, how each one of us perceives our own travel through the dimension of time. I "think" that I am really aware only of the current moment... "now". But, then I think that I must also be aware of a discrete amount of time which would include a little bit of the past (why not a little bit of the future as well... ) because if I was aware only of the "now", then I "think" that it would seem as if everything would happen at once. Just the tiniest disturbance in the ideal "now" makes the perception of "time" possible. Just enough to provide an awareness of the existence of "time"... not a bit more. But then why wouldn't the same logic apply to the concept of space. The only place I am is right "here". The big difference between space and time seems to be that our perception of space includes a little bit of up and down, a little bit of backwards and forwards, and a little bit of this side and that side. Our perception of time includes only a little bit of "past". I wonder if our perception of time did include a little bit of the future, it might be possible to go backwards in time, or just have time stand still for a while? Or perhaps our little piece of time does include a small bit of the future and not the past. We can't go into the past and we can't go into the future... we are stuck at "now". Who decides these things? Probably Sarah Palin.
But as I continue to contemplate these things, it really doesn't seem to me that "I" really exist at all in space... Certain things "my tail", "my paws", etc. do appear to exist in space... but exactly where in space do we find my consciousness, my immediate perception. (and where does it go at night... where was it before I was born, and where will it be once I am "dead"). It is fairly clear to me that "I" exist in time (only because I am aware of a discrete amount of time including the past); but it is not at all clear that "I" exist anywhere in space at all.
Such are my thoughts at a Time of Thanks.
Dimitri is an idiot. What drivel!!
A total load of squirrel dooey!! Next time I see Dimitri I am going to twist his mangy tail, stomp on his pathetic little paws, and then peg a bushel of acorns at him as he runs up and down South Lane. Then we will test his "perspective" on where "he" "thinks" "he" "is" in space. You betcha! I'll bet he believes in global warming and evolution too, also.
Holy crap! Am I ever confused.
Where's Waldo???
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