That was quite the insight for a seven year old. That didn't hit me until I was past 40. When I was 22, age 40 seemed forever away, and it did indeed take a long time to reach. The twenty five years since then went by in an instant. The nows come quicker.
Although my family history and current health indicate many more nows to come, I do not fear the not-now. I like most of my previous nows, and feel satisfied with my life.
Also unlike Dr. Lowe, as a child I deliberately adopted a "one, two, many" timekeeping system. As in, I decided that middle school--then high school--then college--then adulthood--were all far enough away that I could approximate the distance as infinite.
This worked... reasonably okay? I don't think I would have benefited from worrying more about things.
"Whereas, ‘now’ is always the same for me and for you, as long as we both live, but it’s also always changing."
Does this intuition hold up under general relativity? Genuinely asking, not a gotcha. (Also, even if it doesn't hold up perfectly, I imagine it's close enough at typical human velocities.)
ha i tried to avoid this objection with my footnote.. but, while i don't know enough about science to give a good answer, this question bothers me too!
I didn't think I was "one of those people" but maybe I am! Reading the wikipedia article on world lines and I'll report back... eventually... once I understand it...
That was quite the insight for a seven year old. That didn't hit me until I was past 40. When I was 22, age 40 seemed forever away, and it did indeed take a long time to reach. The twenty five years since then went by in an instant. The nows come quicker.
Although my family history and current health indicate many more nows to come, I do not fear the not-now. I like most of my previous nows, and feel satisfied with my life.
Also unlike Dr. Lowe, as a child I deliberately adopted a "one, two, many" timekeeping system. As in, I decided that middle school--then high school--then college--then adulthood--were all far enough away that I could approximate the distance as infinite.
This worked... reasonably okay? I don't think I would have benefited from worrying more about things.
I’m not afraid of dying as long as it isn’t now, or this week.
"Whereas, ‘now’ is always the same for me and for you, as long as we both live, but it’s also always changing."
Does this intuition hold up under general relativity? Genuinely asking, not a gotcha. (Also, even if it doesn't hold up perfectly, I imagine it's close enough at typical human velocities.)
ha i tried to avoid this objection with my footnote.. but, while i don't know enough about science to give a good answer, this question bothers me too!
I didn't think I was "one of those people" but maybe I am! Reading the wikipedia article on world lines and I'll report back... eventually... once I understand it...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_line