Tag Archive: life

Time (part 2)






― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby



― Ralph Waldo Emerson





Imagine walking through an endless series of rooms. As soon as you step through a doorway the door is forever locked behind you. There is however a new door that opens up in front of you that takes you to the next room. Each room is different, some are bedrooms, others offices, kitchens, storerooms and so on. Moving through each room we can experience it while we are there, but once we leave it is only a memory never again accessible physically to us. As we reach the next door we are unaware to what room it will lead to just as the future is unknown to us.

Everybody understands time in their everyday lives and we all quantify time into set agreed upon standards such as second, minute and hour and also into longer periods such as day, year, century, etc. Much like how other things are measured such as distance, volume or weight we agree upon a quantifiable standard for time. Most of us also know that time is also something that we feel progress at different speeds depending on the individual or situation. Some moments seem to drag on for an eternity while in other circumstances they can seem to flash by in an instant. Time while having a measurable standard is also subjectively felt by the individual.

In general though everyone agrees that time flows in one direction, the arrow of time moving from the past through the present into the future. The past is already completed and done with and the present is where we currently are at any given time and the future is still an unknown with a multitude of possibilities. Things such as chance and circumstance can come into play making the future harder and harder to predict the further along we think about it.

Much like the first dimension of a simple line, we view time in the same manner. As we move through that line we can only see the single point that is the now or present. Even the past second that has passed us by cannot be relived in the same manner. As time flows we are pulled along. From one room to the next and the next the flow of time never ceases and never reverses, it simply moves forward into eternity.

This is the most accepted view of time, that time is a single fixed point moving along a singular dimension, that the past and future does not exist and only the present does. Commonly known as presentism in philosophy and the A-series of time in physics. The main issue that arises from the idea of the A-series is when relativity comes into play. Two objects moving at different speeds would be in different ‘presents’ as time would move differently for them. So what happens now for both objects could be very different. The present for one could be either the past or future for the other depending on speed.

“Time is an illusion.”
― Albert Einstein

The B-series of time points to the idea that there is no past, present or future. That all of time already exists. Much like the rooms, each location, each moment is already there and all we need to do is move forward to the next one.

The idea of time as tenseless, without the idea of past, present and future has been gaining some traction in the physics community as it tends to solve some of the issues that occur when using the A-series model.

When it comes to philosophy and religion the ideas of destiny, fate, predestination and so forth all fall within the ideas of B-series time. That the next room you you enter is already there and so is the next and next and all you need to do is reach the next room. In A-series of time the next room does not exist until you open the door and the past room ceases to exist once you close the door.

In either case whether you believe in the A-series or B-series everyone recognizes that we are currently in the present so make the best of it.



Intuition and that Crazy Feeling




David Lynch






“The only real valuable thing is intuition.”

Albert Einstein
















Passivism and the Art of Doing Nothing


I would like to begin by admitting that I am one of the great passive people on Earth and that I have mastered the Art of Doing Nothing. It’s the main reason why I started rethinking my life and writing down my thoughts and experiences. For those of us who simply go with the flow and are nothing but passengers in life the greatest sin that we commit is placing blame when it comes times to take responsibility.

Passivism is not the lack of action but the active choice of doing nothing which there are consequences to. In too many cases the passivist takes on the role of the victim and are quick to blame without realizing that our lack of action led to the victimization. By thinking ahead to what possibilities might occur or taking active precautions we can help safeguard ourselves from potential problems that may occur. Successful people tend to prepare for failure and try to minimize the damage that it may inflict. If we take a more active role to avoid, correct or change the circumstances in most cases we can change the outcome to something that is more positive.

A passenger in a car has little to no control in case of an accident and regardless of the circumstances is generally a victim, but looking further back the passenger always had the option to drive for themselves and accept the responsibilities of their life. It is easy to think that someone or something will always be on the lookout for us, to keep us safe whether it be family, friends or even God, but the reality is that in the end we are the ones who are ultimately responsible.

Passivism for me at least was always and attempt to take on as little responsibility as possible, but I realized that in reality it was just an excuse as I was still responsible for ceding control of my life to outside forces and then blamed outside forces when they fail.

Chances are if you feel that your life isn’t where you want it to be or you have hit rock bottom, the first natural reaction will be to place the blame on someone else. If you take the time to look back on the circumstances of where you and look for possible decisions and choices that you could have made you’ll soon realize that you are at the very least partly responsible and in most cases fully responsible for where you are in your life.

Understanding and accepting that you are ultimately responsible for yourself and must shoulder the responsibility yourself regardless of the circumstances is the first step in solving the problems that occur and can occur in your future. Taking on that responsibility forces us to be more aware of things that are happening around us and allow us to be ready for that rainy day. When you are capable of taking care of yourself then you’ll also know that you can help out others as well to build a supportive community and be an active participant in said community. Knowing that you are not just a passive observer in your life, but an active participant with the ability to enact change.



We all learned the Laws of Thermodynamics in school. The first law simply states that energy in a closed system energy cannot be created or destroyed but simply changed from one form to another. The second law states that entropy or entropies exist which will also sap some energy in the process of the conversion of energy from one form to another. To put it in simpler terms the first law states that anything on its own has a limited amount of energy, the only way to increase the energy is from an outside source. For example, your car has energy in the form of gasoline, diesel or in more modern cases the batteries. Once the car is driven to a certain point it will run out of energy or power unless it is refueled or plugged into an outside source.

The second law simply states that a perfect conversion from one form of energy to another is never 100% efficient and some loss is always present. We all learned these laws in school and for the majority of us we saw it as information to learn for an exam only to be forgotten. In the sense that we never thought about how it applies to our own daily lives much like the idea of mitosis. We learned about it in biology class and may even be able to explain what it is, but I’m sure that the average couple engaged in amorous activities will not have the idea of mitosis crossing their minds.

Entropy Definition

The idea that entropy, the march towards chaos and disorder exists is something that we don’t realize happens every single day in everything that we do. In any project or job that we undertake it will ultimately fall apart unless we give more energy into the project to keep things moving or even increasing.

A musician can release a hit song and it may see its time of fame on the radio and record sales and streams, but unless there is more effort or energy input into the system the song like many others will simply disappear from the market. So the musician makes an effort to make a video, go on tour and advertise in order to promote the song and make more sales. They are actively inputting more energy into the system to keep it viable and fight against entropy. More energy is put into the song in order to keep it popular or to revive it.

This principal can be applied to every aspect of our lives from our careers, hobbies and skills to even our relationships with other people. We can all recognize that without putting in more effort that things in time will degrade because of entropy.

In our relationships with others the more time, effort and energy we put into it the stronger the bonds becomes. Just like a chemical process between atoms and molecules where stronger bonds exist because of more energy the same exists with our relationships with others. If you want a better relationship simply input more energy into it and the bond will get stronger.

The Golden Path












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