Re: Time

Don Mikulecky (mikuleck@HSC.VCU.EDU)
Wed, 7 Apr 1999 08:52:07 -0400


Don Mikulecky replies:
Time is a very interesting concept. I am working on the unpublished notes
of the late Robert Rosen who has had a lot to say about time. First of all
we do not "measure" time, we label it by using events. Clocks are labeling
devices or event markers. Secondly, time is generally a very observer
dependent concept. The time in Newtonian dynamics is but one concept of
time. Organisms have many intrinsic time scales as to collections of them.

Because we label time via events we really are dealing with simultaneous
events and/or precedence.

As to clock time being "linear" and other forms non-linear, what then if we
map onto any other time scale in such a way that all its intervals become
uniform. This will make clock time nonlinear. One result of this is that
the usual notions of time are anything but generic.
Respectfully,
Don Mikulecky

Gavin Ritz wrote:

> Dear List members
>
> In the course of human understanding Time plays a huge role, Mental-Time
> ( maybe non-linear) plus physical-Time(linear). Time is interwoven into
> or Motivation, values and behaviour. We all can measure linear physical
> time, we just look at our clocks, but how do we measure mental-time. Are
> there any connections to Linguistics?
> Any comments
> Kindest
> Gavin Ritz
> Auckland
> New Zealand