Is it possible that perhaps the present doesn't exist at all, in that all our experiences include remembering things from the past. If the present does exist, how long does it actually last?
How long does the present last
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@Bones
Is it possible that perhaps the present doesn't exist at all, in that all our experiences include remembering things from the past.
yes. time cannot be directly perceived but must be reconstructed by the brain.
If the present does exist, how long does it actually last?
- the span of short-term memory;
- the duration which is perceived, not as duration, but asinstantaneous;
- the duration which is directly perceived — i.e. not throughthe intermediary of a number of other, perhaps instantaneous,perceptions;
- and/or
- the duration which is perceived both as present and as extended intime
Personally, I think that music gives us a good analog to the present moment in the current beat- now is the note you are playing.
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@Bones
One could also question the past and the future.
Yesterday, today was tomorrow, and tomorrow today will be yesterday, as it were.
In fact, one could infer from this, that everything continuously exists in the present.
And therefore, the present is infinitely "long".
One Planck time?
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@Bones
Our perception takes time, and so does sound and light. We don’t live in the present.
If you mean in universal terms, future and past are equally present. It’s only due to relativity we differentiate between them.
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@Bones
The present moment is just a succession of now's, the past is a collection of those moments and time is how we measure them. If the present didn't exist, you wouldn't exist so that's a good method to show you it exists. Time, or the measurement of time cannot define the present because it only exists in the "now" so there is no mechanism that can reveal how long it lasts, it's sort of an oxymoron. Once that moment passes then time becomes relevant and we can measure it.
Consciousness will always be in the now, the present moment. It is then through the mind that accesses the past through memory, thought through categorization.... and our recollection of past events is how we understand "time".
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@Bones
My inclination is that time does not exist, period, so the notion of past/present/future melds into a continuous stream of present. The fact that it is possible to experience something completely new, such as, for me, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, has no experienced past by which to factor any guesses about what that would be like. I can guess, just as I once guessed what it would be like to be in a jungle with no trail; having to make my own. I guessed for many years, then did it. Nope, no guess was close to the reality, particularly the lack of a guess that I would suddenly no longer be at the top of the food chain. That was not a reassuring thought when it did occur to me.
The inverse of this is true.
Only the present exists.
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@Bones
Is it possible that perhaps the present doesn't exist at all,
No.
in that all our experiences include remembering things from the past.
Are you asking whether or not present experiences can be isolated from past experiences?
If the present does exist, how long does it actually last?
A zepto-second. Measure of time is subject to our descriptions as is our definitions.
For a plank time. That is the length of a “frame rule” inside our world.
15 days later
I think the present is exactly 0 seconds long.
“Dunbar loved shooting skeet because he hated every minute of it and the time passed so slowly. He had figured out that a single hour on the skeet-shooting range with people like Havermeyer and Appleby could be worth as much as eleven-times-seventeen years.
“I think you’re crazy,” was the way Clevinger had responded to Dunbar’s discovery.
“Who wants to know?” Dunbar answered.
“I mean it,” Clevinger insisted.
“Who cares?” Dunbar answered.
“I really do. I’ll even go as far as to concede that life seems longer i—“
“—is longer i—“
“—is longer—IS longer? All right, is longer if it’s filled with periods of boredom and discomfort, b—“
“Guess how fast?” Dunbar said suddenly.
“Huh?”
“They go,” Dunbar explained.
“Who?”
“Years.”
“Years?”
“Years,” said Dunbar. “Years, years, years.”
“Do you know how long a year takes when it’s going away?” Dunbar asked Clevinger. “This long.” He snapped his fingers. “A second ago you were stepping into college with your lungs full of fresh air. Today you’re an old man.”
“Old?” asked Clevinger with surprise. “What are you talking about?”
“Old.”
“I’m not old.”
“You’re inches away from death every time you go on a mission. How much older can you be at your age? A half minute before that you were stepping into high school, and an unhooked brassiere was as close as you ever hoped to get to Paradise. Only a fifth of a second before that you were a small kid with a ten-week summer vacation that lasted a hundred thousand years and still ended too soon. Zip! They go rocketing by so fast. How the hell else are you ever going to slow time down?” Dunbar was almost angry when he finished.
“Well, maybe it is true,” Clevinger conceded unwillingly in a subdued tone. Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it’s to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?”
“I do,” Dunbar told him.
“Why?” Clevinger asked.
“What else is there?”
― Catch 22 by Joseph Heller