Time

[vorlon13]

Universes without an organized system of linear time (like ours!) may not allow for the development of life forms that can evolve to the point of being able to ask questions about the nature of time in their specific universe.

[Excited Penguin]

How come it's the "fourth dimension" if it simply measures motion?

Think of a street address. If I want to meet you, I need to specify not only a 3-dimensional location but one of a time, also. If the time doesn't match up, we won't see each other.

How does that enter physics since this seems to be so entrenched in human affairs that it doesn't necessarily arise from that that we might use it to describe the way the cosmos works?

It just seems like such a funny concept if all we do is compare rates of motion against each other. It sounds more like utter nonsense, on the face of it. I just wish someone would offer me a healthier grasp of it so I could better conceptualize it.

[Excited Penguin]

Universes without an organized system of linear time (like ours!) may not allow for the development of life forms that can evolve to the point of being able to ask questions about the nature of time in their specific universe.

That's a pretty bold claim, all underlying sarcasm aside, or I just don't understand what you mean by an "organized system of linear time" and whether it faithfully describes reality or not. 

[IATIA]

QM can survive without time, but if you want to send a rocket to Mars, you need to 'time' the meeting of the rocket and mars.

[Excited Penguin]

Either without time everything would happen all at once, or nothing would happen at all . . .

How is that? Can you please define time first, before you give it such deistic qualities as all that?

This is the point at which time becomes a problem.  If everything did not happen at once then we run into infinite regression.  On the other hand, I perceive that I had to strike a key on the keyboard before it would show on the screen.

How can motion measuring motion become such a big problem? When I ask you guys what time is, you can't provide me with a good explanation, but when you start to talk about it, suddenly you're all but experts on the subject.

Why do we run into infinite regression if everything did not happen at once? Care to explain this point, please?

[IATIA]

Universes without an organized system of linear time (like ours!) may not allow for the development of life forms that can evolve to the point of being able to ask questions about the nature of time in their specific universe.

That's a pretty bold claim, all underlying sarcasm aside, or I just don't understand what you mean by an "organized system of linear time" and whether it faithfully describes reality or not. 

Without causality then everything just is.  All realities.  An "organized system of linear time" would just be our linear perception of these realities.

[Excited Penguin]

QM can survive without time, but if you want to send a rocket to Mars, you need to 'time' the meeting of the rocket and mars.

That doesn't necessarily imply that we should think of time as an essential part of the way the Universe works. There's quite a lot to explain between how useful a concept appears to be in human affairs and how important it is in nature itself.

[AFTT47]

Think of a street address. If I want to meet you, I need to specify not only a 3-dimensional location but one of a time, also. If the time doesn't match up, we won't see each other.

How does that enter physics since this seems to be so entrenched in human affairs that it doesn't necessarily arise from that that we might use it to describe the way the cosmos works?

Are you kidding? The same applies to any two objects. If they are to meet, they need to be in the same 3-dimensional space at the same time. If they are a million years apart, they will probably be separated by a large amount of space also, depending on their motion. It's nothing unique to humans at all.

[Excited Penguin]

That's a pretty bold claim, all underlying sarcasm aside, or I just don't understand what you mean by an "organized system of linear time" and whether it faithfully describes reality or not. 

Without causality then everything just is.  All realities.  An "organized system of linear time" would just be our linear perception of these realities.

So, I guess, we just experience the universe as if it were causal, but we don't have any actual reason to believe it really is that way, and we won't either, until we find a way to find out about some truly objective properties of it that are as remote from human bias as possible?

[IATIA]

Here we go.

Time does not exist. Everything just is. What we regard as time is just our linear perception of these different realities that is steered by QM which has no need or regard for time and causality.