Everything can be, in a sense, quantified. Time is, of course, not an exception. We are all familiar with the meassurment of time, and humanity has createad increiasingly percice devices to keep track of it. And we all like to think that time is universal an idea that has long since been proven wrong.
But then, one comes to ask: what is time?
The 'flow' of time is relative to one's position and velocity, that is, the magnitude of that flow in relation to the 'flow' of space. But the direction of time is not relative, at least as far as we know, and definetely as far as normal, everyday, life is concerned. The 'direction' of the flow of time is indeed universal: no one has a neighbour who's clocks run backwards; a rather fortunate situation indeed, for it allows us to avoid aditional problems when trespassing into our neighbours backyard to fetch a ball.
There is one first concept I'd like to explain today: discrete vs. continous. Let us forget for now the math related to it. We can think of time going in two directions, one of them impossible to achieve, but only two direction, forward and backwards. We can't think of an intermediate direction, beteeen forward and backwards... nor can we think of another direction, say... further from forward than what backwards is. How ever, it is easy to imagine a spot between your house and your workplace, or a spot past your workplace in the direction you take every morning to get to work. And between any two of those four spots, you can easily imagine one more inbetween, and so on. But the same cannot be told about the possible directions one can imagine time to have.
The directions we can imagine time to have form a discrete set: forward and backward. The spots on a map form a continous set: every two points on the map have not one, but a infinte amount of them inbetween.
A mathmatician would argue that continuity is a property of functions, not of sets, that perhaps I'm trying to refer to a set being infinite, or rather complete. That is a correct remark. Continuity is indeed a property of functions. And ofcouse one can mess arround and define continous functions in non-complete and even finite sets.
But lets forget that for a moment I said!
It is the concepts which are discrete and continous, and we therefore cannot create a 'nice' relation between the two of them. Supose your neightbour has his clocks going backwards... as you aproach the wall that separates both houses you clock is still running forward, and once you hop that fence, all of a sudden it is running backwards. An aburbt change of direction, abrubt ofcourse if we consider time to be continous. These two concepts can not be put together, related, in a nice mater, one without this abrubt changes.
D vs C
Take a step back
If we take a step back just for a moment, and not listen, simply stare at the picture infront of us, if we forget the fine grain and look at the "big picture", we realize that there are things arround us which have their effect on us and that we rarely notice.
Looking at the sky has become one of my favourite passtimes lately. The movement and evolution of clouds is a lovely phenomena I hadn't admired for some time. The feeling of insignificance is so conforting when things are going badly.
Nicholas Rostov turned away and, as if searching for something, gazed into the distance, at the waters of the Danube, at the sky, and at the sun. How beautiful the sky looked; how blue, how calm, and how deep! How bright and glorious was the setting sun! With what soft glitter the waters of the distant Danube shone. And fairer still were the faraway blue mountains beyond the river, the nunnery, the mysterious gorges, and the pine forests veiled in the mist of their summits... There was peace and happiness... "I should wish for nothing else, nothing, if only I were there,"
...
Above him there was now nothing but the sky--the lofty sky, not clear yet still immeasurably lofty, with gray clouds gliding slowly across it. "How quiet, peaceful, and solemn; not at all as I ran," thought Prince Andrew--"not as we ran, shouting and fighting, not at all as the gunner and the Frenchman with frightened and angry faces struggled for the mop: how differently do those clouds glide across that lofty infinite sky! How was it I did not see that lofty sky before? And how happy I am to have found it at last! Yes! All is vanity, all falsehood, except that infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing, but that.
Al levantar la bota de vino con al brazo sano, contempló el alto cielo azul, claro en ese día de comienzos de verano. Tenía ciencuenta y dos años y estaba seguro de que veía ese cielo por última vez.
Looking at the sky has become one of my favourite passtimes lately. The movement and evolution of clouds is a lovely phenomena I hadn't admired for some time. The feeling of insignificance is so conforting when things are going badly.
Nicholas Rostov turned away and, as if searching for something, gazed into the distance, at the waters of the Danube, at the sky, and at the sun. How beautiful the sky looked; how blue, how calm, and how deep! How bright and glorious was the setting sun! With what soft glitter the waters of the distant Danube shone. And fairer still were the faraway blue mountains beyond the river, the nunnery, the mysterious gorges, and the pine forests veiled in the mist of their summits... There was peace and happiness... "I should wish for nothing else, nothing, if only I were there,"
...
Above him there was now nothing but the sky--the lofty sky, not clear yet still immeasurably lofty, with gray clouds gliding slowly across it. "How quiet, peaceful, and solemn; not at all as I ran," thought Prince Andrew--"not as we ran, shouting and fighting, not at all as the gunner and the Frenchman with frightened and angry faces struggled for the mop: how differently do those clouds glide across that lofty infinite sky! How was it I did not see that lofty sky before? And how happy I am to have found it at last! Yes! All is vanity, all falsehood, except that infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing, but that.
Al levantar la bota de vino con al brazo sano, contempló el alto cielo azul, claro en ese día de comienzos de verano. Tenía ciencuenta y dos años y estaba seguro de que veía ese cielo por última vez.
Demons
In my solitude
You haunt me
With dreadful ease
Of days gone by.
In my solitude
You taunt me
With memories
That never die
-B.H.
We all have some sort of demons inside of us. A marvelous idea exploiting that apears in Gabriele Salvatores' Nirvana, one of the sci-fi films I've most enjoyed. The futuristic cyberspace in it pictured, strongly remembering Gibson's Sense/Net, has to offer a new sort of protection against intruders. The ultimate protection tools are called demons, virtual representations of the intruder's personal demons (which the system somehow acceses through the neural interface) which try to stop the intruder by engaging him in longed or feared conversations. In the movie, Jimi's (Lambert) ex-girlfriend and father appear, trying to solve old problems so as to stopping him from hacking into the computer.
We call the demons (daemons for the brits) because they are wretched, because they are powerfull, and because they are unpredictable. There's no scaping from them, they will always harm and you can't fully know when or where they will pop up.
My particular set of demons is a nice little pack of quite young lads. I'd never met them before until recently, but they, I think, are very fond of me, and therefore rearely leave my side. It is for the later that I call them a 'nice' pack, for their unpredictability has been reduced, I know, almost for certain, that in any given moment and time, they will be there. But of course, they are also bastards which have ruined my life for over a year now.
My particular set of demons is a nice little pack of quite young lads. I'd never met them before until recently, but they, I think, are very fond of me, and therefore rearely leave my side. It is for the later that I call them a 'nice' pack, for their unpredictability has been reduced, I know, almost for certain, that in any given moment and time, they will be there. But of course, they are also bastards which have ruined my life for over a year now.
<-------------------------------------- But I've met and old aquantiance, a demon not of my insides but of everyone's. I'll try to get him to beat the shit out of the other ones, mine. There will be better days. The weather is superb in Mexico City, you should give a try. At least roll down the window of your car.
We must not ignore the stars above us.
Redeemers
"His armour, still shining,
Though it's torn by fights
The brave man, redeemer,
He brought us back to life"
To what extent does a desire of epic greatness live in each of us? It is not a new idea at all, for redeemers, persons of utter importance to humanity who will forever be remembered, have existed in human imagination for centuries.
I've had my fantasies on the issue, have you?
It is well know that many of those who sign up to a nacent organization, be it a political party, a NGO, a basketball team or a church, do so because in their fantasies they will rise to an importante figure in this organization. And it is indeed that generalized quest for individual outstanding that normaly brings not-well-managed organizations to a prompt end. I wonder, does this have anything to do with the image of the saviour that has been presented to us since the very begining. How many christians, for example, have ever fantasied on being Jesus reborn? and how does this affect their lives? and society in general?
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