Hard on Time

A friend informed me that I was being a little hard on time. Yes, he said, time and space may be different, but space and distance are as equally non-existent and derivative as time is. After all, he said, distance can only be determined by comparison as well. A measurement of something is just a ratio of that and the pole to the equator. Nothing, by itself, has size or distance. There must be something else to compare it to. And on top of that, according to relativity, distance shrinks with speed, but speed is a just distance by time. So, distance is a comparison of objects affected by distance (another comparison of objects in a bit of circular reasoning) and time, which is a ratio of change of distance again (in yet again more circular reasoning).

It all gets cloudy, loopy and non-sensical. So, perhaps I should put it to rest since I can't really grasp it all. And we haven't even touched quantum mechanics.

Time and Space

Time does not really exist. Well, at least not like we think it does. Time is merely a derivative of change. The Earth changes it's position around the sun and when we compare other change to the Earth's relative position, we derive time.

A runner makes one revolution of the track compared with the Earth making 1/525974.4 of a revolution around the sun. We have a comparison and, thus, a ratio of 1:525974.4 This ratio is clumsy, so we call it a "minute." But, make no mistake, seconds, minutes, hours and days are nothing more than ratios of change.

Ratios of change are hard to contemplate and visualize. So, like other things that are hard to imagine, we make metaphors. People can't conceptualize "God" so they think of a man in the sky and call him "He" with a hand, an eye and a voice. People can't conceptualize death, so they think of travel and "passing on." And people can't conceptualize ratios of change (time), so they think of space instead.

But, death is not a journey and, if there is a god, it is likely not a man. Likewise, time is not space. Our language makes us often think of time as space, but it is not. We cannot move in time in any way. You can't go forward in time and you can't go backward in time. You cannot travel through time or across time. You cannot fill time or empty time and there is no density of matter in time. Oh, sometimes we make metaphors that make it seem like time and space are one, but they nothing more than semantics. Time is, by definition, a ratio of change, which makes "time travel" just ridiculous even without the Delorian.

But besides the heaps of science fiction that has arisen from this space-time metaphor, I wonder what other things have come from it. Theoretical physicists talk about a space-time continuum and a string theory connecting them. Now, these are geniuses coming up with these ideas and I'm not smart enough to comprehend their work, but I wonder if they are regularly thinking of time as a ratio of change. I wonder if they are aware of the power that language has over us.

But like many things that don't really exist like god or culture or nations, we cannot escape the spatial concept of time. Everyone else thinks it does exist, so to live a practical life, we must pretend the emperor has clothes. So, I guess we should enjoy the sci fi and and "move on."

More Video Than Anyone Ever Wanted

The is the Queen's Palace before:



After is in the video:

An Hour Outside of Prison

After days of being stuck on the compound, I was given the opportunity to get out and see Kabul.  So far Afghanistan has been the mountains above the razor-wire wall, some Afghan workers walking around and the Afghan mess hall for lunch.  So, I escaped for a moment to experience a little bit of Kabul (and, yes, it is sad that "experience" is looking out the window of an armored vehicle, but it is a war zone after all).  The gentlemen who escorted me around said they would never ever walk around the city alone.

We went to King Nadir Shah's Mausoleum.  A USAID worker I met said she has been trying to get there for over two years, so I feel lucky.  From there we saw a good view of the city.  After that, we passed by the Olympic Stadium, where the Taliban held public executions, and the awe-inspiring Eid Gah mosque.  Also on the route was the Ministry of Finance and the Serena Hotel, both which were attacked.  And there was the Mosque of the King of the Two Swords.

The tour has a second half.  I'll post them soon.