r/Time

Time/Chronos is a word that was coined in 700 BCE to describe something that was believed to have been discovered 300 years earlier. So for a little over half of human civilized history there was no Time, so

what happened in history for this phenomenon to come into existence?

When you were a kid, time felt like it was suppppppeeeeeerrrrr slow. Now that you’re an adult and or older, you feel like you don’t have enough time.

Time is a human perception. No other creature uses or even understands time like we do. They go off the position of the sun. While yes we also use the position of the sun and moon, but clocks, digital clocks, time dials, etc, are only used by the human race. You can tell time by the stars yes but still.

For the love of god and all things holy, DO NOT BRING UP EINSTEIN OR ANYONE ELSE WHO STUDIED SPACE AND TIME. I WILL NOT FUCKING CARE. You can argue and argue. Try to prove points and whatever. I will not fucking care.

Time simply doesn’t exist. We use time like it’s the end all be all. When you die, time doesn’t matter. You are a sprit in wherever you go too. I had a NDE and went to the area of judgement. It felt like I was there for years. It had only been 15 seconds earth time. I have also had “visions” if you will of the past and future. I had an intrusive thought so to speak of my dog dying. It felt like a memory that didn’t happen yet. I was walking my older dog with my mom and she said “how are you holding up without sassy?” (Sassy is my dog’s name.) I laughed it off. A few months after she died, this came true. We were walking my older dog and my mom asked the same question. I laughed it off as well. Everything was the exact same. Down to what I was wearing, if the sun was setting or not, how I felt in the moment, everything.

Another time I had a dream of the USS KRAKEN.

I was there when it was talked about in the red room of the White House. I saw and remember the blueprints. I talked to some of the people who were working on it, they kept saying how fucking nuclear it’s going to be, and saw it be launched in the dead middle of the ocean, in the dead of night to land on the dark side of the moon. If you look this ship up, it was created by the US government and the UK as a last resort if WWII got nuclear.

Another time is Deja vu.

I was riding a roller coaster with my sister. I got a feeling that this has happened before. I got another “vision” if you will of the exact same thing that was happening but it was a memory.

If time exists, explain everything I just said. Explain Déjà vu, Deja reve, explain the billions of experiences from all over the world of this type of thing happening. This has been happening for thousands upon thousands of years. All over the globe. If you say it’s a “phenomenon”, you don’t know what you’re talking about then.

Time doesn’t exist and or matter.

There's an interesting dichotomy between forward and backward; I find it hard to discern which would be easier to traverse. The past already exists and therefore may be easier to 'map' because it's easy to gather telemetry from established events. However, the arrow of time points forward, and thus entropy would naturally carry us forward, via means like time dilation.

So, utilize general relativity to elapse the space around you while keeping yourself in stasis, and you can move forward in time. Exaggerate the variables, and you can control the temporal destination. Easier said than done.

As for backwards movement, let's posit "entropic waves", a fundamental force which can be observed similar to cosmic background radiation. Everything that has or ever will occur leaves a tangible signature, a 'spike' in the fabric of entropy. Observe these spikes, and they become 'grabbable' destinations.

Time dilation can only point you forward. And entropic waves only exist in the past.

Tell me why I woke up around 7 this morning and I decided I was going to sleep for an extra hour. I set my alarm so that I could get up at 8. What was supposed be an hour literally felt like 30 seconds, and as I was going to readjust my alarm to the correct time, I saw that an hour passed by already. I have had hours that felt like minutes but never seconds. This is so strange, what is the science behind it all? On a grander scale though, the weeks feel like days, and as I get older time is flying by.

Anyone else having this feeling?

Assuming that we have free will, how could time be considered a 4th dimension? A dimension could be defined as a motion in the positive or negative direction (eg. +x and -x). If we have free will, can be doing different things at the same point in time.. For eg. I am sitting in my room at time t=t, at t=t+1, I could either be studying (in one universe) or I could be watching a movie (in another). Does the thought of mind change the time we live in or time itself is non linear and can explode into infinite different directions to accommodate the chaos we live in?

For over a century, physics has treated time as a continuous, relative dimension. From classical mechanics to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, time is mapped along a continuum where interval measures remain scalar. However, when we analyze the human, observational, and structural nature of temporal states—Past (n-x), Present (n), and Future (n+x)—the linear assumption breaks down.

This thesis introduces a novel conceptual and mathematical framework based on the principle that while every individual unit of time holds an equal fundamental value of t = 1, the combined output of a three-unit timeline sequence does not simply equal 3. Instead, time functions as a positional, contextual system. By evaluating the seven fundamental arrangements of temporal triplets, we prove that time is not additive; time is contextual.

​1. Introduction & Initial Hypothesis

​We often ask ourselves a fundamental question: "What is time really?"

​In its simplest definition, time can be viewed as a baseline unit, denoted as t, where every individual moment carries an identical potential value:

Under classical linear logic, if we select any temporal units—whether drawn from the past, present, or future—their combined sum should naturally yield is 1.

However, when we observe how temporal states interact within a sequence, the net value of the timeline changes from case to case. The total output of a timeline is not governed by simple addition, but by the positional alignment and interaction of its units.

​Defining Temporal States

​Using n as the active reference point of the Present:

​Present: n

​Past: n-1, n-2, ...

​Future: n+1, n+2, ...

2. The Seven Temporal Cases

​When constructing a three-unit sequence from these states, exactly seven distinct operational combinations emerge. Despite every individual cell possessing an input value of t = 1, the output of each sequence fluctuates dramatically based on the presence, absence, and position of the Present (n).

Case 1: Past + Past + Past

​Mathematical Sequence: (n-3) + (n-2) + (n-1)

​Resulting Value: -1

​Temporal Logic: Three consecutive units trapped entirely in the past create destructive interference. Without an active Present anchor to translate memory into realization, accumulated history collapses into stagnation and regret.

Case 2: Past + Past + Present

​Mathematical Sequence: (n-2) + (n-1) + n

​Resulting Value: +2

​Temporal Logic: This sequence yields the highest possible positive value in the framework. Two units of past experience, preparation, or history resolving directly into the active Present moment unlock constructive accumulation. This represents total realization and breakthrough.

​Case 3: Past + Present + Future

​Mathematical Sequence: (n-1) + n + (n+1)

​Resulting Value: +1

​Temporal Logic: The baseline state of natural equilibrium. Moving seamlessly from memory through action into expectation preserves the fundamental conservation of time without loss or artificial inflation.

​Case 4: Present + Future + Future

​Mathematical Sequence: n + (n+1) + (n+2)

​Resulting Value: 0

​Temporal Logic: Moving from a single moment of action directly into multiple steps of anticipation results in complete dissipation. Because the future consists of unmanifested probabilities, over-projecting without sustained present action zeros out real-world output.

​Case 5: Future + Future + Future

​Mathematical Sequence: (n+1) + (n+2) + (n+3)

​Resulting Value: -1

​Temporal Logic: Three units of pure, unanchored future project identical negative interference to three units of past. Living entirely in abstract anticipation without grounding in history or present reality creates groundless anxiety and paralysis.

​Case 6: Past + Future + Future (Practically not Possible)

​Mathematical Sequence: (n-1) + (n+1) + (n+2)

​Resulting Value: +0.3333 (1/3)

​Temporal Logic: Skipping the Present entirely to jump from a past state into future expectations causes severe attenuation. The sequence retains only a tiny fraction (1/3) of its potential because the essential catalyst—action in the now—was omitted.

​Case 7: Past + Past + Future (Practically not Possible)

​Mathematical Sequence: (n-2) + (n-1) + (n+1)

​Resulting Value: +1.6667 (5/3)

​Temporal Logic: Strong historical momentum directed toward a future goal creates substantial structural readiness. However, because it lacks the active spark of the Present, it remains bounded just below the peak output of Case 2.

Case 8: Present + Present + Present (Not Possible)

Temporal Logic: Present can only be one.

3. The Unified Law of Temporal Context

​From this 7-case breakdown, we arrive at the overarching conclusion of this framework:

​Time is not additive; time is contextual.

​A unit of time (t=1) possesses no fixed output in isolation. The value of any moment is strictly defined by its position in sequence and its relation to the Present (n).

​The Present (n) as the Universal Catalyst: The Present is the only state capable of activating potential energy. Without n, past experience decays into stagnation (-1) and future projection dissolves into anxiety (-1).

​Constructive Masses: Past experience yields its maximum mathematical value (+2) only when it is discharged directly into present execution.

​Non-Linear Dynamics: Time units do not pile up linearly like bricks. They interact dynamically like waves—either amplifying reality or canceling it out based on alignment.

4. Conclusion

​While classical physics measures time by the ticking of a clock, this framework demonstrates that time’s actual yield depends entirely on structural relationship. By mapping time as a contextual matrix across these seven core cases, we bridge the gap between abstract mathematical units and the true, non-linear nature of temporal reality.

Action is what we humans admire most, in athletes, heroes, performers, and winners of all sorts.  Most of us admire them by watching them (and sometimes cheering them on,) usually from a comfortable seat. —“There are two kinds of people:*  Those who get up and do what they’re not sure they can do, and those who don’t because they’ve already decided they *can’t.”—  

Oddly, the science and philosophy of recent generations has strongly supported the false assumption that we cannot choose our futures.  The doctrine of determinism says that the future is already set in stone and that our “choices” are not under our control.  Intentional or not, this appears to be another way of repressing the rights of people to choose their own way in life.

But now, experiments in quantum physics have validated beyond question the phenomenon called “the observer’s choice.”  We already knew, of course, that choice is a big part of life experience.  According to “virtual roads of time,” we can choose among the futures available to us by an “athletic” effort of will.  When we do not make these efforts, our future “just happens by itself.”

The “power” of choice exists because of real possibilities for actual events to occur.  These “quantum potentials,” says VRT, are the invisible permanent and unchanging background of the universe.  It’s our experience of time that “brings them to life,” allowing us to actively and selectively “observe” them as a timeline, a “virtual road” that’s traveled only in human experience.

Potential realities, just like physical realities, are structured by information, which informs or presents things to our experience.  Like “potential energy,” potential information is inactive, but potently real. The information we draw from experienced past and imagined future potentials “informs” us about our possibilities, giving us the power to make actual choices and change our lives. 

Since our chosen roads can be good or bad as well as “neutral,” we must consider the likely effects of our choices.  Before choosing, we value or devalue the available “information potentials.”  This is why human values are necessary to a complete worldview.  Incredibly, some of us still simply reject or ignore our role in choosing “good or bad” experiences for ourselves or others.

As a society, we do try to limit “driving on the bad roads” by making laws to prevent disaster.  When we consider how our choices affect others, we’re engaged with the so-called “moral” concerns of ethics.  Thus, amazingly, modern physics brings the “human spirit” into science.  It’s precisely the immateriality of quantum potentials which makes our “spiritual” concerns very real. 

Just as in quantum physics there are real “virtuals,” in VRT there are real “spiritual” things.

“Three centuries of false thinking has brought many physicists and philosophers to expect and desire an understanding of nature in which everything is completely predetermined in terms of the physically described aspects of nature alone.  Contemporary physics violates that classical ideal.”  Quantum physicist Henry Stapp, in Information and the Nature of Reality (2014)

Following “science,” most of us have long assumed that time is a sort of simple “row of dominoes,” with every event caused by the one preceding.  In turn, it causes the following event, and so on.  This was the unquestioned “principle” of determinism, which for generations provided “proof” that humans do not control destiny (and of course, neither does the “First Cause,” God.)

Assuming that change was governed only by cause-and-effect determinism greatly simplified the ability of science to “calculate” the universe.  Einstein was able to make some of the greatest discoveries of modern times, but (to his own dismay,) he also helped uncover the much more complex “quantum causes” of randomness, probability and the observer’s choice.

The most mysterious of these influences has been human choice.  Yet hundreds of experiments have shown conclusively that how the experimenter chooses to examine nature can always change the results.  Cause and effect, randomness and probability still play their roles, however, making the outcome of these choices not just “selective,” but partly uncertain as well.

Quantum physics has been called “spooky,” because none of these new influences are physically real.  Random chance?  “Probabilities?”  Human choices?  How can any of that control what happens?  “Virtual roads of time” agrees with Stapp, who says, “The postulated global informational structure called the quantum state of the universe is the ‘spook’ that does the job.”

Our universe is demonstrably founded upon something more basic than “physical stuff.”  It appears to be made up of what Aristotle, Heisenberg and many others have called “objectively existing potentials.”  And like all existing “things,” potentials are structured by information.  VRT likes to boil this down to say: The universe is founded upon information potentials.

And if so, for our future we should not look into “destiny,” but into all the potentials available to us.

Say at the moment it is 9PM on a Monday because that's what time this absolute crime occurred. My brother asked me "how long until Thursday?" I said "2 days". That's when the arguments started. He said it was 3 days and I say it's 2. Here is his argument:

Monday is the first day of the week, Thursday is the fourth, 4-1= 3. 3 days.

Here is mine:

In one day (24 hours) it will be 9pm on Tuesday. In 2 days (48 hours) it will be 9pm on Wednesday and in 3 days it'll be 9pm on Thursday which is already too late! To get from Monday to Thursday can differ. It it's literally 00:00am on Monday then it's 3 days. Anything after that! Is 2 days and something hours.

I don't do it that literally. I'd do it more like, if it was midday Monday I'd say it's 2 and a half days and since we're close to the end of the day I just went for 2 days, 2 more full days to live before we start Thursday. Now! Reddit. Please help me be wrong or right. Tell me in this scenario, how long until Thursday? 2 days or 3 days

(Just thought to mention, the reason this pointless argument matters to me at least is because I'm autistic, I'm not trying to use this a block for honesty or anything just thought I'd mention.)

So, for entities that experience time, such as us, everything that happens as we move forward through time, has already happened from the view of our immortal photon.

Therefore, there cannot be free-will.

(r/showerthoughts removed this and suggested this sub)

In this video, theoretical physicist Professor Brian Greene explores the complex and evolving scientific understanding of time, moving from classical concepts to modern theories.

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