When Does Time Change and What Does It Mean for the Present?

[runner]

when did it become the past? when does it become the future? finally, how long does it last?

 

[CompuChip]

The present became the past now. It doesn't become the future. How long it lasts depends on context (cf. "when I say now, now is not now anymore", "presently, it's my birthday" and "present day politics")

 

[colloquium]

Well, of course, there is the past which we are aware of, but our opinions and memories of the past change over time, they are modified through new information or just fade as our brains age. The future, undoubtedly, is a question mark - all we have is our best guess.

So I would conclude from such evidence that all we truly and absolutely have is the "now" - however if that too is often later refuted, how reliable can it be? As the old saying goes "if only I'd known then what I know now". The "then" is the problem. The erronous component. But of course this "now" I'm literally experiencing will soon be a "then" and no doubt I'll find some way to lament what I, in the most direct sense possible at this time, have written, regardless of how certain I feel of it.

 

[robertm]

The "Present" is quite simply an instantaneous quantity. It ends the instant that it begins.

 

[runner]

is there any way to measure how long that moment lasts?

 

[CompuChip]

Physical question: What moment?
Philosophical question: Define "moment" (isn't that by definition something without length / duration?)!

 

[madness]

The Einsteinian view is that there is no such thing as the present - all moments in time simply exist. I think our perception of a "present" may be to do with our own consciousness and how we percieve reality.

 

[Crosson]

The "present" is not the name of anything, don't reify it.

 

[maverick_starstrider]

The present is what I get at christmas

 

[g33kski11z]

.. and to expand on what Maverick said...

when did it become the past?

it becomes that past when you have moved on to another present to open, leaving the initial present under the tree. {or whatever}

when does it become the future?

if its a toy/gift that you will one day give to a little brother {like a bike} its the future for him..

finally, how long does it last?

depending on the size of the gift.. but my boy usually unwraps his stuff in seconds..

 

[runner]

Physical question: What moment?
Philosophical question: Define "moment" (isn't that by definition something without length / duration?)!

by moment is meant the point in time that is now.

 

[runner]

.. and to expand on what Maverick said...
when does it become the future... if its a toy/gift that you will one day give to a little brother {like a bike} its the future for him..

like a future present?

 

[g33kski11z]

exactly... like buying something and wrapping it, but if you haven't presented it to the person yet, its a "future gift" ... lolok, way off topic.