88 and Standing Still

Imagine just having completed a superhuman feat. Maybe you saved a baby from a burning building or you are running away from a trap that you set for a group of North African terrorists. Now, whatever situation you’ve created for yourself, imagine running away from the danger behind you, and insert the theme song from Back to the Future. The majestic melody blares from the brass section, filling your spirit with the satisfaction and vigor that only John Williams can provide. Back to the Future is undoubtedly one of my favorite films, and there are many aspects that make it so. Rich character development, thick plot points, and excellent acting- they all move in concert to create a real masterpiece. But by and far, the part of the movie that I really love is the theme. Time travel is so cool. That’s the only way I can describe it. Since I was a child, I always pondered the details of time travel, and how it would happen. Of course, as I got older, the concept of time travel became less realistic to me. What did become more realistic, however, was the absurd and defeating concept of time. Stepping out of conventional or blinded thought, time is immensely confusing. It exists, with its own definition, in many realms- two of them being physics and philosophy. In some ways, philosophy has done a great amount to answer the question of “what is time”. Still though, there is no consensus, and when truly mulling it over, headaches are more than common.

It can be assumed that most people, at least in Western culture, begin to learn about time in the same way: a linear structure that consists of past, present, and future. Within this structure, time is not infinite, but instead has a starting point. There is an inherent distinction, then, between infinite past and infinite future. In this model, the past is defined, whereas the future is not, leading to separate levels of definition in reference to infinity. Yet, measuring infinity is neither logical nor possible. Infinity is ultimately conceptual. The only left-brain activity it can be used in is mathematics, and even then it is only reserved for answers. Finite past and infinite future cannot work in the same formula, and therefore this understanding was fundamentally flawed. Furthermore, the idea of the present is extremely difficult to prove. If time is infinitely large, then it is also infinitely small. Philosophically, it would be impossible to pinpoint one single moment as “the present”, if all moments can be divided into smaller moments, each stage of which passes by more quickly than the last.

Eastern philosophy, much like other aspects of their culture, has seen time from a very different viewpoint. Hinduism and Buddhism are just two examples of major religions that believe in Eternal Return, the idea the universe is cyclical and will repeat a pattern infinitely. Eternal Return presents time as a completely different manner. In this system, time surrounds existence, whereas Western approaches say time defines it. This understanding of time is harder to refute because it becomes part of a larger definition of the universe. While they still have the understanding that the cycles are infinite, subscribers to this idea don’t see existence within the bounds of time, but instead the bounds of cycles. As somebody who was born in the United States, just trying to understand this world view is difficult, and after a while, it becomes easier to move back to the evolution of Western thought and time.

One of the philosophical movements which has most affected our lives has been the debate between Realism and Anti-Realism. This debate has certainly spilled into the discussion on time, and it’s almost a sure bet that you’ve had these exact thoughts before. Realists believe that things exist outside of the human perception, whereas anti-realists believe that most things do not exist apart from the human mind. Any discussion on time will inevitably fall upon whether or not time exists at all in the first place. From the realist’s point of view, time has a steady and physical existence within the universe. Humans experience time as it exerts its presence upon them. But the anti-realist argues that time, like most things, is a construct of the mind. From their point of view, time is a manifestation of trying to understand existence. We constantly try to struggle with understanding our own existence, and mathematical measurements help us come to terms with that. We deal with those measurements on a daily basis, however, they are all quite arbitrary. For an anti-realist, time is as arbitrary a measurement as any other, used to link distance between events, but still nonexistent.

From a scientific standpoint, it can be argued that time does exist because of its link to the movement of our planet. While it is true that time is maintained in a more relative basis than some other measurements, it is still malleable and works within our needs. During the year, time is changed based on the seasons. Daylight savings is a method to use time to our advantage, and reap the benefits of sunlight. As recently as 2007, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez attempted to change his country’s time by half an hour. Even with the equalizing method of “falling back” and “springing forward”, we still need to step out of cadence and add a day to the calendar every four years in order to keep up with our own measurement system. There is no telling if our system is slightly incorrect, and will need to be revamped in twenty thousand years.

After significant consideration, I have to come to the conclusion that time does not exist in a philosophical sense. What this conclusion argues is that, while time is a visible construct, it is not a natural occurrence. Time can be (and has been) manipulated to serve human needs. There can certainly be a disconnect between what I am arguing as time and what Xavier is arguing as time, but for those thinkers who ponder the world from a sociological standpoint, measuring how fast life is moving is beyond the bounds of a possible definitive answer. That being said, if they ever invent time travel, well, then I am totally disproved.

My name is August Feldner, and none of this is original.