Is the "Present" Impossible?

[angrywelshman]

Edit:(The title should be something like: Is the present even significant?")

If you think about it, as I am typing these letters, each time I press the key, the press of the key is instantly the past. I could say "NOW!!!" like a hand puppet and slap my hand on the keyboard, but as soon as I touch the keyboard, that moment becomes the past.
I view the present like this:
Past----------------------[]Present (Future being the unknown)

The present is a very, very, very minute bracket on a huge graph in which the Past is being written by the Present, every jiffy(a jiffy is an actual unit if time describing 1/45000000 of a second). But the Present is so minute that it actually is a very small event. The Past makes up what we call the Present, which is, in reality, the Past.
So technically, when people say in the present, they are really describing the past. Even if they said: "I, AngryWelshman, am declaring that at 1:19:45 AM I am saying a sentence." As soon as I finished typing the '45' the statement became obsolete.
Let's have some fun with this. Everyone, talk like you are in the past tense!

[gehtfuct]

Smoking pot has been known to cause a momentary lapse of reason.

[Jack]

Ahoy furturinos! How's the rocket cars and room-temperature ice? Back here, I still listen to "CDs" and I have to watch movies on my "television" with the help of a "VHS". See ya soon.

[A_Zombie]

Thats fucking Trippy :confused:

[Kaiskitten]

That, in my opinion, is actually pretty interesting. It says that you can never live in the moment but in moments past.`tre cool in my book thats the same kind of thing i think about.

[drnknbndr]

I don't think that there is a present. Just past and future.

[void]

I don't think that there is a present. Just past and future.

incorrect.
there is only a present.. a self-perpetuating 'now'.
all else is merely misrepresented and misconstrued memories or what-ifs..
fuck yesterday, it has nothing but the lesson you didn't learn.
fuck tomorrow, it has nothing but the lesson you won't learn.
choose now, it's easier to grasp.

[Jack]

incorrect.
there is only a present.. a self-perpetuating 'now'.
all else is merely misrepresented and misconstrued memories or what-ifs..
fuck yesterday, it has nothing but the lesson you didn't learn.
fuck tomorrow, it has nothing but the lesson you won't learn.
choose now, it's easier to grasp.

I'm amazed at your ability to smash people with such eloquence.

[Kaiskitten]

choose now, it's easier to grasp

how can you grasp something that won't stay longer than a jiffy? I think that time is pointless. Like you said lessons that you didn't and won't learn! Present you can't hold on to long enough. maybe it's just me but pointless seems to explain it.

[void]

I'm amazed at your ability to smash people with such eloquence.

i'm drunk and self-educated.. ;)

it's a hella combination..

[angrywelshman]

Yeah, I wrote all of that at about...3AM. Glad you all find it interesting, I expected more posts like Void's, saying "YOU'RE WRONG! BURRNEED!!! But sadly there were few.

Edit: Noone's talking in past tense...[goes to room and cries].

[Kaiskitten]

I'm a strange girl.:tongue:

Edit: Noone's talking in past tense...[goes to room and cries].


:cookie:

[Who V Fuck R U?]

True void. It is impossible to live anywhere except in the now. People's emotions and thoughts, unfortunately get stuck in the past or the future, making it more difficult to grab opportunities in the now.

When I was in kindergarten back in the 1950's, we were taught that 12 is either noon or midnight. This was easy to accept because few clocks and watches even had a second hand. As time has progressed and the bulk of the population started looking at a second hand, it has become common to say 12 am or 12 pm, which confuses many oldtimers. I think that for the most part electronic devices have forced this issue. It is still true that midnight and noon do not have an am or pm, but even as little as one billionth of a billionth of a second after midnight is am and after noon is pm.

Now comes the big question... Look at 10 clocks in your environment. How many of them agree down to the second as to what time it is? Now, someone is likely to mention that they know the actual time because their clock or watch is locked in to the National Bureau of Standards official time in Boulder Colorado. Even those devices don't update several times per second, so they are still approximate. Ready for another kicker? A one second adjustment was just made because the rotation of the earth is slowing. So what time is it really? Does anybody really know?

The scientist will fret over this because he never knows exactly what time it really is. The engineer and the average person, however, will lose no sleep. They know what time it is, at least, close enough.

So back to a Chicago song "Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?"

[junglizm]

Smoking pot has been known to cause a momentary lapse of reason.
skjahdgas oifdgas


Edit: What?

[Icarus]

This thread is a bunch of sophomoric people wanking off. Congrats!

[Jugular]

Right now I am signed in on WTF.com.


Still present...




Still present...

[junglizm]

This thread is a bunch of sophomoric people wanking off. Congrats!
Junior high philosophers are always good for a laugh. :thumbsup:

[Losertwothemaxx]

Here is something really weird....

As of this moment, we are about 12 hours behind the ACTUAL time. This is because one year is not 365 days, but 365.25 days. But we don't just disregard this other quarter of a day nor do we adjust our clock 6 hours to make up for it (imagine 7AM being sunset) but instead, add an additional day to the calender every 4 years.

I just typed up a bunch of words all I have thought up just some time ago.

[JLXC]

I find myself trying to "be in the moment" as much as possible, maybe trying to capture the essence of Now. I realize when I am having fun and I try to bask in it's glow because now becomes then so very quickly.

I would agree that "now" is less important than "then" almost all the time, because everyone's entire experience, their history, is what makes them who they are. Memory is very often more important to the moment, than the moment itself. I.E. If you do anything at all in the now, you are judging what is happening by what you learned then, and truly new and unique experiences are so very rare really.

[Lord Vetinari]

The past and the present are blurred if you ask me.

The mind is ill equipped to handle the "jiffy" so the only yardstick i can use is my mind. the now is what i percive, but it is still the pressent in a few minutes.
¨
It is defined
"Present:the period of time that is happening now; any continuous stretch of time including the moment of speech"

So, the Now is in short instant. But the Present is a wider frame. say 5 minutes or so. it is defined by the events taking place.


And anyway. you should not use scientific yardsticks to define language. You should use common sense, the natural enemy of science instead. Live the moment, dont measure it.:thumbsup:

For example: if you have a cake, is it possible to scientificly meassure how tasty it is? Or is it easyer an more sencible to just eat it and enjoy?

[ghim]

incorrect.
there is only a present.. a self-perpetuating 'now'.
all else is merely misrepresented and misconstrued memories or what-ifs..
fuck yesterday, it has nothing but the lesson you didn't learn.
fuck tomorrow, it has nothing but the lesson you won't learn.
choose now, it's easier to grasp.

This is actually true. The past can't be proven. All you have are memories of what may have happened. All you can be sure of is what you are doing from moment to moment.

[BklynCannonball]

What?

http://l.maire.free.fr/stetsons/photos_real/clyde_02.jpg

[Lord Vetinari]

This is actually true. The past can't be proven. All you have are memories of what may have happened. All you can be sure of is what you are doing from moment to moment.

Actualy we can´t even be shure of that since our minds always adjust the images, sounds & smells, in accordance with earlier experiance.

Anything you percive may be radically diffrent from the next man.

So there is no absolute reality, "it´s all relative" as some would say.

[BklynCannonball]

It's bullshit talk like that that keeps people complacent. Reality is all relative. So is America at war in Iraq or does that all depend on how you look at it? Are there genocides still going on in the world or is that all relative too? What about hunger, famine, disease.

Hmmm....if there's a way to rationalize all of that into not being real, then hey we're ok after all!

Get your hand out your pants people!

[Lord Vetinari]

I meen that time is relative to one´s individual psyche.
Like for instance; Say we are both watching a game of chess.
You find it tedious, and every second seems to last for minutes or hours.
I, on the other hand, find it facinating and time flies by.
In that sence of the word time & moments are relative to the observer.


I did not mean that things like The Universal Constants, Certain Death, etc. etc. are relative. Since those are events with certain constants.

ok? :thumbsup:

[drnknbndr]

Hello.


That is in the past.


What's left in the future?
Probably more bitchin'. :]

[Who V Fuck R U?]

...Live the moment, dont measure it.

For example: if you have a cake, is it possible to scientificly meassure how tasty it is? Or is it easyer an more sencible to just eat it and enjoy?

Exactly! You can be so concerned about details that you miss the big picture, unable to see the forest for the trees. It is sort of like Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. You can't simultaneously measure the moment and experience it as well.

[BklynCannonball]

Exactly! You can be so concerned about details that you miss the big picture, unable to see the forest for the trees. It is sort of like Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. You can't simultaneously measure the moment and experience it as well.

That's why I stopped taking a video camera with me on trips.

[ghim]

That's why I stopped taking a video camera with me on trips.
While I enjoy my life experiences for what they are, I still take a camera because being able to capture the moment allows me to reminisce later. While the memory may not be 100% accurate I do like remembering it.

[BklynCannonball]

Yeah but if you spend the whole time on a camera how much of it are you experiencing right then and there and how much of it are you "saving for later"?

[ghim]

Yeah but if you spend the whole time on a camera how much of it are you experiencing right then and there and how much of it are you "saving for later"?
Usually I don't even look through the viewfinder. I just take the picture. It doesn't take a lot to jog my memory. Now if I'm taking a picture of a sunset or something...then I make sure I frame it correctly. Pictures of my friends when we go out though...I just start pushing the button.

[BklynCannonball]

Oh geeze, we're talking apples and oranges here. I'm talking video camera and you're talking still camera. 2 completely different animals 2 completely different approaches.

game over.

[HappyNinja]

That's it! I'm going to develop a hovering, remote-controlled video camera. You just buy the device, and for a fee, I'll have one of the employees pilot the camera from a mobile command post nearby to your location.

I'll waive the fee for any female I deem attractive that voluntarily allows us to record a steamy sex scene, and allow me to keep a copy for.. personal use. We guarantee your privacy and promise not to post it on the interwebnetz. :eek:

[ghim]

Oh geeze, we're talking apples and oranges here. I'm talking video camera and you're talking still camera. 2 completely different animals 2 completely different approaches.

game over.
Yeah, I never use a video camera. If I need a play by play then the experience itself wasn't worth remembering.