Time is usually the constant domain by which things are a function (growth vs. time, distance vs. time; almost everything is a function of the "simple measure" of time). In Mr. Willoughby's lecture, he mentioned time as a function of technology stating that when technology was mechanical, time was linear, and now that technology is electric, time is circular (a cycle of analysing and improving). How does a line become a circle? Perhaps time started off linear when we were following herds and gathering berries, and reached its limit. Then time became logarithmic when we advanced to mechanical, and then it reached its limit, and is now circular with an electrical technology.
Question: When everything has been analyzed and improved to the fullest, what does time become, or does it remain a circle whose radius grows infinitely or shrinks into a point? What type of technology brings this change? Is another type of technology possible? Will we become supernatural, and will time become defined as a point?
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Perhaps technology will reach a point to which it can go no further and we must revert back to a linear state in time, where we must rely on traditional and classical methods for life. Although, it is possible that we may get so lost in technology that we may lose the ability to function in a traditional sense.
ReplyDeleteIf you are referring to the adjective definition of supernatural, which is, "unexplainable by natural law or phenomena," then I do not believe we will become supernatural because we would have invented the state in which we have brought ourselves to, therefore we are able to explain and understand how we got there.
However, the noun definition of supernatural "that which is outside the natural order," supports your question of us becoming supernatural because the technology we invent and become a part of is clearly a separate "world" from that which was created originally.
If time reaches the state that is defined as merely a point, perhaps that will be the end of mankind. Or maybe it is that point in which man has reached perfection.
If technology were to reach a point where it couldn't advance, I think that time would become a point and not be linear. Time would be a point because if there are no possible advancements, the value of technology would not change. Since time (in this discussion) is a function of technology, it would also remain the same. Even though we would exist in time, second by second, year by year, a hundred years later would not be different but the same.
ReplyDeleteI think that we will break out of the circle and go back to a logarithmic time as another technology is discovered; however, I cannot predict what kind of technology will replace the flow of electrons. As we advance through this new technology, I think time would curve in the opposite direction than it did for mechanical technology. Instead of starting off slow and increasing exponentially, I think that it would start of fast and decrease exponentially with the last few pieces of technology taking centuries, or perhaps longer to perfect. Just as it took centuries before anyone domesticated plants and animals, it may take centuries or millenniums to understand the last understandable bit.
I believe that the end of mankind and his technology would make time undefinable. No technology = no time.