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#37452 08/04/01 08:10 PM
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the concept of time existing--at least in abstract terms--is as integral to our existence as it is receptary. i'm not sure i understand, though, what time could conceivably be if *not linear? is it ever not quantifiable? and even if we do buy into the many worlds theories, would it not still be a [myriad of] linear function[s]?

btw, being partially of native american descent myself, i once read about an [N.A.] indian culture whose language included absolutely no provisions for the concept of past, present or future... anyone know something about this?



#37453 08/04/01 10:58 PM
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Brandon PM'd me to clarify my previous statement in this thread, and after reviewing my answer, I thought it best to regurgitate it here for ya'll, and I wanted our Bean to know that my intent of "thanking her for making my point" was with tongue firmly planted in cheek (the first time, anyway).


In a recent thread called "Defining the Beatles", Bean offered a number of (pardon the pun) "examples" of how music may be interpreted by mathematics (and I'm not sure why since she was really "proving" my point, not the one she intended), and that music is not an application of mathematics but a reflection.

The idea is about the same... that mathematics reflects that which exists... a way for us to understand... a definition for us to exist in... time is how we understand it. Of course, time actually is defined by the relativity of the planets within our solar system, the relationship of Earth to Moon orbits (with some minor mathematical adjustments every four years) blah, blah...

BTW - as a performer there is little point to reflecting music as mathematics, but as a teacher or student it is invaluable to do so. However, it is always definitive of a humans concept of time.

Time is a context is this case, one of many. There are "times" (all puns intended) when the value of this reflection is stronger, requires more concentration, communicates more intensely... as a performer fighting it or losing it is more obvious (to me) than a wrong note (not that there are any... but that is a whole other thing).

I thought it was possible that I was not clear in the formation of that little word construct, especially the "(amongst others) which was referring to: there are more functions than only perspective that effect its definition, not that the being amongst other (things/peoples) perspectives is part of the function of time (even so much as it actually is).

I love this line of thought and would be happy to hear about it more....



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"What time is it?" someone asked Yogi Berra, and he replied, "You mean now?"

And this from legendary baseball pitcher Satchel Paige, who some claimed broke into the Big Leagues from the old Negro Leagues when he was close to 50 and still pitched his way to a Hall-of-Fame career!:

"How old would you be," Paige asked, "if you didn't know how old you was?"

Source: "Living Legends," Sports Illustrated, July 30, 2001 (current issue)




#37455 08/05/01 02:22 AM
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Thanks, Musick, for the public post. I'll respond in kind.

Musick writes that the value of this reflection is stronger, requires more concentration, communicates more intensely....

Maybe this is why it is so difficult to actually discuss. I'm also a devil's advocate who learns more fleshing out arguments by taking opposing views. One could doubt the existence of time because there isn't any empirical proof that it exists. Yes, what we measure as time is tied to the order of celestial bodies, but nature knows no time, really. Think of Heracleitus' idea of the omnipresence of change. Doesn't that only exist in our minds? Isn't it our memory alone that preserves the past and nothing physical?

Once upon a time I had a point worth making...


#37456 08/05/01 02:33 AM
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perhaps it's time to post what is considered by lexicographers to be an excellent definition of the word time, in our sense, from MW10:

a nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future

how helpful St. Augustine might have found this is left as an exercise for the student.


#37457 08/05/01 07:15 AM
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#37458 08/05/01 11:42 AM
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<<a nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future>>

In other words,

"a non-spatial continuum that is measured in terms of a spatial continuum," or "a non-spatial continuum that is measured in terms of a spacial continuum which is itself susceptible to being measured through its existence in time"

*As I remember, with reference to time, Augustine allowed for the measurement of time--of "its" passing. He considered the present moment, in which time *passes, could be measured and time (at least the *concept") of time to be impossible.

On the other hand, Kant rejects time as a concept, a faculty of understanding, and describes it as an intuition, or, rather, as one of intuitions two forms of appearance--the other is space--which form the *subjective possibility of appearance. Time and space are the possibility of objective appearance: of events, both in terms of the object in flux and the flux in the object.

On the other hand, subject/object is itself concept.

Extrapolating from some Neoplatonism, time is not only linear and non-linear, it is a reciprocation of time and not-time.

Time for breakfast



#37459 08/05/01 12:19 PM
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Extrapolating from some Neoplatonism...

I wonder what kind of shadow *time would cast on the cave wall. And could somebody please loosen my chains, they are getting a little uncomfortable.


#37460 08/05/01 03:27 PM
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And could somebody please loosen my chains

There you go, dear, is that better?

It's all very simple, dear friends, time is all around you, it is how you move through it that makes all the difference!


#37461 08/05/01 05:49 PM
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Dear caradea (tautology of not) looking for your word "receptary" I found a bunch of contrived definitions that are mildly amusing:

PRAVITY: physical deformity ("no amount of make-up can help you
defy the Law of P.")
PREANTEPENULTIMATE: the fourth from last ("please hand me the p.
bottle from that shelf")
PREPUCE: foreskin ("the protein was painstakingly isolated from
10,000 kilo of p.")
PROLEGOMENA: preliminary remarks; long introductions ("writing
original p. to an article is quite difficult")
PROTEAN: infinitely variable ("there are indications that protein
folds are not p.")
PSILOSOPHER: superficial philosopher ("... and someone who has
limited knowledge of protein folds is a phi-psi-losopher")
PTARMIC: snot-promoting, sternutatory, errhine ("this protein
causes the p. symptoms in allergic reactions")
PURPURACEOUS: purple, purpurescent ("the heavy-metal derivative
had a deep p. colour")
PYGOPHILOUS: buttock-loving ("she's the living proof that fat is
a p. substance")
PYRIFORM: pear-shaped ("p. women get pregnant more easily than
apple-shaped ones, I read in the newspaper")
QUADRIGAMIST: someone who has married four times ("I say, is that
fellow really a q. ?")
QUAESITUM: objective; true value ("the ultimate q. is to measure
the q. of this quantity")
QUANTULUM: small quantity ("I always add a q. of BOG to my
crystallisation solutions")
QUASIHEMIDEMISEMICENTURY: one 16th of a century ("a typical PhD
takes a q.")
QUIDDITY: essence or nature of a thing ("once you've built your
skeleton, you've uncovered the q. of your protein")
QUIRE: set of folded sheets fitting one within another; collection
of 24 sheets of the same size ("the structure can best be described
as a beta-q.")
RECLIVATE: sigmoid, S-shaped ("if we plot X versus Y, we obtain
a r. curve")
RECREMENT: waste product, impurity; something secreted from the
body, then reabsorbed ("saliva is the best example of a r., for
most people anyway")
REDARGUTION: refutation ("if there doesn't exist a r. of a receptary
(unproved fact; postulate), that doesn't mean it's true")
REDDITION: translation, explanation ("could you render a r. of this
paragraph ?")
REPAND: having a wavy or undulating outline ("look how nicely r. my
mask has turned out")
RETICULUM: network ("thanks to Castor the whole bloody r. is down
again")
RETRAD: backward ("dummy, you've traced the whole chain r. !")
RETRORSE: bent backward or downward ("two of the sheets were r.")
RETROUSSE: turned up ("two of the sheets were r.")



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