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I just had a slight epiphany (nothing profound, just possibly interesting), with regard to the nature of past and future: They are just like East and West.
Where, exactly, do East and West meet? Well, not quite never, as Kipling said, but very nearly so. You see, East and West, independent of a conscious observer do not ever meet. However, if there is a sentient being standing anywhere on Earth, they are (in their own opinion) the point where East and West meet. They can lift one arm and point toward West, and lift the other arm to point to East.
It seems that it is almost exactly the same with the past and the future. The present is the illusion, produced by a person standing at any point in time, who can look forward to the future, and look back on the past. There is never a point where future and past meet (unless there is a minimal point of spacetime, in which case East and West would technically meet also, but at an unthinkably huge amount of points), but there is the so-called "specious present", which is the illusion that they do.
Just a thought I thought I'd share.
Where, exactly, do East and West meet? Well, not quite never, as Kipling said, but very nearly so. You see, East and West, independent of a conscious observer do not ever meet. However, if there is a sentient being standing anywhere on Earth, they are (in their own opinion) the point where East and West meet. They can lift one arm and point toward West, and lift the other arm to point to East.
It seems that it is almost exactly the same with the past and the future. The present is the illusion, produced by a person standing at any point in time, who can look forward to the future, and look back on the past. There is never a point where future and past meet (unless there is a minimal point of spacetime, in which case East and West would technically meet also, but at an unthinkably huge amount of points), but there is the so-called "specious present", which is the illusion that they do.
Just a thought I thought I'd share.