tronvillain

And yes, I know what Zeno's Paradox is. To clarify my previous post, if the present is not privileged, then an infinite number of events are not traversed - they simply exist.

DarkDruid

This probibly isn't the place, but could you expand on that a bit, please? What constitutes a uniquely privileged time?

tronvillain

DarkDruid:
I'm simply pointing out what happens if we don't treat the present as more real than the past or the future or act as if it travels forward in time.

Answerer

Hi, sorry to cut in, but according to the latest discovery,the universe now is believe to be expanding at a increasing rate, so there will be no big crunch. Scientists are now trying to figure out the cause of this unexpected behaviour of the universe.

Francois Tremblay

Are you seriously trying to say that our present time does not exist ?
Of course if you treat anything as imaginary, you can make imaginary things with it. That has no relevance to my point, and doesn't make infinity any more actual.

[ February 23, 2002: Message edited by: Franc28 ]</p>

Answerer

Seriously speaking, I think of the big bang as a change of state not a creation event in which something appearing out of nothing which seems quite ridculous. In addition, spacetime in physics is just a dimensional description of the changes in state of the universe instead of an actual phenomeon, so guys it seems pointless to argue if time is infinite but rather is change continous in our universe or not.

tronvillain

Franc28:
I never said "our present time does not exist." I'm simply pointing out that it's not necessarily more real than the past or the future. I take it that you hold that it is? Not just from our perspective (since it is obviously more real in that sense), but in some sort of ultimate sense?

Francois Tremblay

What is this about an "ultimate sense" ? Is that an equivocation of the god-concept ? Because otherwise, it's totally meaningless.

From my perspective, there is an unbroken chain of causality reaching all the way from the first moments up to today. If infinite regress was true, then this chain of causality could never reach the present. "Ultimate sense" has nothing to do with it.

Panta Pei

Uh, two words...Panta Pei (eternal flux)

...for scientists:

The Big Bang is a myth. Avoid orthodoxy...try plasma cosmology...if that's your kick.

~ Steve

tronvillain

Franc28:
I'll try this another way: Is the present something that actually moves forward in time or is it simply the label those at a given point in time give to that point?

"Ultimate sense" has everything to do with it. If "now" is not something in motion, then the present is not something that is reached, and an infinite regress is possible. You seem to want to treat time like a row of dominos, where the present is the domino falling over, the future is all of the dominos that haven't fallen over, and the past is all of those that have. It's not apparent that this is how things actually are.

[ February 24, 2002: Message edited by: tronvillain ]</p>