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WHAT DOES MEAN TIME?
Basic concepts of time development for better understanding of the world
Katarina Teplanova
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia
e-mail: teplanova@fmph.uniba.sk
What is time? Why we need TIME?
We are a part of a very complicated SYSTEM that is in a permanent CHANGE. Our understanding of
TIME is related to our understanding of particular changes of this system.
Considering about time we can find different meanings of time. Trying to put them in some categories I
have found these:
1. Time as a very subjective concept. This kind of time is a very personal matter. If nothing is going
on, it seems us that the times stops… Time runs, if there is some action. If you live intensively, a
short time period can seem you as a long one. But if you live a period poor on own experiences
the same time period can seem you long at present but short looking backwards (there was
“nothing” happening).
2. Time as an agreement of the society. “What is the time?” This kind of time was agreed by people
for practical purpose. In order to organise and control the everyday life of a society and the
technology processes.
3. Time as one of the basic science concepts. This kind of time is developing by scientists for
objective description of the world, to understand natural phenomena and processes.
4. Travelling in virtual reality. A new category of artificial time not related to the real world. Here
belong (for me) reincarnation but also TV-shots of advertisements with their primitive
simplifications as well as different so-called SCIENCE FICTIONS that have usually only very less
to do with science knowledge.
The first and the second time concepts we cannot change. The first one belongs to our human being,
the second one to the category of laws of the society that we are a very small part, independently if we
like it or not.
The third concept belongs to the category of mankind and personal richness. It is your personal matter
how much, what and how you learn. The better you understand this concept of time the better you can
travel in your life.
The fourth category with its suggestive and often arrogant presentation can cause a real mess in our
heads and miss-understanding of the world. It could happen that once, in an important moment, you
would be not able recognise the difference between the real and virtual world! This is a real danger
and it is important to be aware of this.
The best protection against the uncontrolled fall into the space of virtual reality seems the science
concept of time.
What does mean process? What is a CHANGE?
The conception of TIME gets its meaning only if joined to some PROCESS. Each process is taking
place in some SYSTEM. The concept of process is always jointed with the DEVELOPMENT of a
system. The development of the system means that there are some actions in the system changing its
CHARACTERISTICS. Characteristics are the typical features of the system that we are observing or
feeling and, in science, that we can also measure.
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