Do you have the Time..?

I was watching one of Morgan Freeman’s ‘Through the Wormhole‘ episodes last night, episode 2-03: ‘Does Time exist?‘

In this episode, many a scientist will tell you that Time is intertwined with Space but I find that hard to accept. To me, Time is a phenomena invented by Mankind to ‘make sense’ of the period between the Sun at its highest peak (noon), till the same point, one cycle on. To say it in apples ‘n’ pears language, some clever Egyptian divided the ‘day’ into twelve hours, according to the position of the Sun. Time provides us with regularity, something we need to maintain an ‘agenda’ of our lives, and yes, everywhere we go, we need some form of measurement of Time. Especially in this day ‘n’ age where ‘Time is Money’..

Science has proven that astronauts ‘live faster’ when they’re over yonder in the Space Station. We know gravity has a lot to answer for when it comes to Time measurement; the farther away from the planet, the faster time goes. But is that a true statement? Being a complete layman in space science, it seems to me the tools we use (timepieces etc) start running faster due to gravity, or rather, the lack of it. Time is just what we say it is, nothing more and nothing less , in my modest opinion.

Here is what’s been keeping me busy since watching the episode: Time is measured according to the rotations of the Earth around its axle (days), around the sun (years), and the position of the Sun during the day (hours/minutes/seconds/miliseconds and so on), but it wouldn’t make sense if used on any ol’ other planet, anywhere in the Universe, unless the planet would have the exact same rotations, including wobbles. How would scientists go about measuring ‘Time’ on said planets? What if (very popular amongst scientists) the planet is a slow spinner and it’s rotation would take four Earth days, three Earth hours and 12 Earth minutes? What if rounding its star would take just 313 Earth days? After all, the speed of the rotation is inherent to the star’s gravity.. Would we still be talking about Time as the Great Organiser of Cycles?

Is it so difficult for scientists to admit defeat? To openly say: ‘Yes, we Humans invented Time, and it would be a complete different ball game on any other planet as Human’s definition of Time wouldn’t apply there.’ I’m still waiting to have this confirmed by Aliens, though, and I have no equations chalked all over my walls but, in my simplistic view, not everything can be explained by equations..

I guess our definition of Timekeeping would still be used to mark a period, known to us for certain events: ‘Beam me up in twenty minutes, Scotty.’ However that would be the only use of Time, there and then, simply because the Phenomena ‘Time’ has been part of our up-bringing, starting in Junior school, if not Kindergarten, and I guess it would be very confusing to our brain to say: ‘Time doesn’t exist here’, but I think our brain could cope with: ‘Time as we know it does not apply here’.

There is also a rule (written somewhere) stating that ‘Time gets shorter as we grow older’ How does that work..? I believe this has everything to do with the fact we’re not interested in Time when we’re young; we’re filling the days with events as they come along. When we start getting older, we’re more aware of time: ‘Gotta pick up the kids at 16:00’, ‘Have to be in work by 09:00’, ‘Meeting at 11:00’. That is why it appears the days get shorter, it’s all in our heads! We think we haven’t got enough time in a day because of the deadlines we’re given or give ourselves. The only deadlines we had as kids were: ‘Be in before dark’, the measurements of ‘Time’ being ‘before dark‘. Other measurements were ‘after school‘ , ‘before dinner‘, ‘after dinner‘, or even ‘after ‘As the World Turns”

Of course, ‘Us Adults’ know exactly what we’re talking about; school finishes at 15:30, we always have our dinner at 18:00, we know it’s going to be dark at 20:00, and we know exactly when ‘As the World Turns‘ starts and finishes.. so time according to whomever chopped the days in 24 equal parts tells us.. I think ‘Time’ would be a great way to define cycles, wherever, whenever. Whether it’s here on this pinball called Earth, or on any given planet out in the far, far Universe (if not Multiverse). And yes, there is more out there than meets the eye; I’m sure there’ll be ripples in what we call ‘Time’ out there but I’ll leave that to the scientists to wreck their brains on. Fact of the matter is, ‘Time’ right here and now is a completely different kettle of fish than ‘Time’ in the Universe..

Ponder on it..

Why did I even start writing this? Simply because I’ve got too much Time on my hands.
I’d rather be doing my nine-to-five in some stuffy ol’ office but unfortunately, at this moment in Time, that’s not the case.
Perhaps, in the near future, it’ll be my Time..