If you have a meeting scheduled for Wednesday . . .

[Gori the Grey]

Imaginings

 

[Hygro]

I literally imagined the intended debate was around, like, on the second day vs. add two buffer dates, and with the workweek, that Saturday becomes the following Monday.

Voted, read Valka’s reply before the OP and it’s correct.

Like in time travel, moving forward in time is one thing. But we’re not time traveling with time.

We are facing time.

From this position the date moves forward to our current place in time, and sooner. That’s the idiom, and how I always used it, and have heard it used.

Yet somehow this thread made me change contexts to time travel wordage.

 

[Gori the Grey]

One can flip back and forth. Like the duck-rabbit picture.

In fact the premise of the experiments is that each person has a general tendency on this matter, but that that can alter based on one's circumstances. Most crucially (for the researchers) that bodily experiences can impact our modes of conceiving abstract matters.

 

[amadeus]

I’m trying to follow along here: the research was how about we perceive of time in the sense of its relatability to physical objects/space?

Breaking it further down, is the implication that time is not a physical property? We know that our measurements of time change based on dilation: a clock on a satellite in space will measure a different time after orbit than one on the earth even if both clocks are initially synchronous.

I would then have to conclude that thinking of time as a metaphysical property is wrong.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I’m trying to follow along here: the research was how about we perceive of time in the sense of its relatability to physical objects/space?

Research was on the impact of bodily experience on our conception of abstract concepts. Time was chosen as an abstract concept.

Breaking it further down, is the implication that time is not a physical property?

Researchers' assumption was that time is not a physical property, yes.

I would then have to conclude that thinking of time as a metaphysical property is wrong.

They weren't considering that thing that we know about relativity, but just people's everyday experience of time: appointments, etc.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I think nowadays many folks think of time as blocks of minutes on a calendar that can be filled and moved around.

 

[Gori the Grey]

You might be correct about that. But we cross off each past day, so there's still some sense of linearity, sequentiality. Forward and back.

 

[Farm Boy]

I think nowadays many folks think of time as blocks of minutes on a calendar that can be filled and moved around.

Seems like that would make people into some real hoseheads.

 

[Birdjaguar]

You might be correct about that. But we cross off each past day, so there's still some sense of linearity, sequentiality.

Time only moves forward. We interact with it in blocks we define as important: hours, days, weeks, etc. Time doesn't care. We are just trying to organize it to fit our lives and perspective. Perhaps its linearity is just part of our attempt to control it. I wonder how chimps think about time if they even do.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Time for a banana!

 

[Birdjaguar]

The greater one's ability to remember things and hold those memories has a big influence on how one perceives time. Corvids (ravens) seem to have strong memories about some things; I wonder to what extent they can string them together in a way that time exits for them.

 

[Farm Boy]

Time is linear even without the watch. Birds sing, sun comes up. Different birds sing, sun goes down, different birds again. Grass grows, grass seeds, grass withers. Seasons come, they go, they come back - but never the same.

My dad used to go out with the dog early in the morning. We'd ring a bell when lunchdinner was ready. I don't think being imprecise changed the linearity?

 

[Kyriakos]

Tbf, there are theories about time. And with Einstein it became part of a complex (space-time), which was anticipated since ancient times anyway, precisely because it can't operate on its own (needs events).
If you have a being, it experiences stuff, but that doesn't mean the being creates time as an external state. And while it would be romantic to think that humans matter so much that something created in their inner world has to be identical or share important similarities with a cosmic factor, it is very unlikely. Possibly time is indeed united with space, but even if not, it's not related to what humans experience so the latter has no bearing on it cosmically.
Of course all of that also mean that a "real" time is so alien to humans that it doesn't matter in the first place. But still, for scientific human purposes time and space are united.

There are some fun historical trivia about this too, for example the theory of "eternal recurrence" was based on the possibility of a finite material cosmos but infinite time; if that was so, at some point things would have to re-occur, because while their own re-arrangements are finite, time wouldn't be. Then again this got replaced by the value of entropy in a (closed) system. Maybe, if it's like that Asimov story, it wouldn't be the end, but Meta-Vac chatbot doesn't answer me.

 

[Bamspeedy]

'Moved forward' threw me off.
Never heard that phrase in regards to meeting times. Like others, was only thinking of later dates, and thought it was trick question. "Monday is 5 days away, duh. Wait, why so many monday votes?"

"Moving forward" is a common phrase, but not in regards to a timing of an event, its about following new policies/procedures.

"pushed back", "postponed until" the usual jargon for a meeting changed to a later date.

"Moved to/changed to" used for earlier or later, neutral phrase.

"Moved up" for earlier. Up on the calendar, I guess. Doesn't mean "moved down" is acceptable for later date... that's just weird.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I don't remember who it was, and this is from memory of a QI episode.

As we envision us moving through time, we're moving forward through time. The past is behind us, the future is in front of is. This is how I answered the poll
But there are people (and here's where my memory fails me, because I forgot who) who envision themselves moving "backwards" through time as time progresses.

Their take is, the future is unknown so we can't see it, the past we know, so we can observe that.

 

[Akka]

From a French perspective, the only correct way is "monday". Because we would say "meeting moved forward two days" as "le rendez-vous est avancé de deux jours", and this ALWAYS means "closer to now".
Doesn't make Gori's post about how people see themselves relative to time and how physical situation can prime the mind, but I guess native language also plays a role ^^

From the original Wednesday day, which is the starting point, moving the meeting two days earlier to Monday is moving it backwards in time. Moving it to Friday is moving it forward in time. Time only moves in one direction. The whole "forward means closer to me" is connected to the idea that the person who is reading the message is the important part and not the meeting that is under discussion.

No, it's connected to "time remaining untill the meeting".

 

[Gori the Grey]

But there are people (and here's where my memory fails me, because I forgot who) who envision themselves moving "backwards" through time as time progresses.

The ancient Greeks imagined themselves as walking backward into future time, on the notion that things that have happened (the past) are ones we can know/see, whereas we cannot know what hasn't yet happened.

From a French perspective, the only correct way is "monday". Because we would say "meeting moved forward two days" as "le rendez-vous est avancé de deux jours", and this ALWAYS means "closer to now".

This is very interesting to learn. I think that language does play a huge difference in these matters. As has already been observed, some of these conceptions about abstract concepts are built into idioms, which are language specific.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Wonder if some of that lingered into current Greek culture.

@Kyriakos *batsign*

 

[Joij21]

It would be Friday. But I'm American so...

Then again it looks like some Americans here think it's Monday so...

I think I'm just going to blame our poor public education system and the fact that most Americans have perverted the English language beyond what any Englishman ever intended. So much in fact that there is even a great disparity in interpretation of meaning of words among fellow Americans. It's why our congress can't agree on anything!!!

 

[Kyriakos]

Wonder if some of that lingered into current Greek culture.

@Kyriakos *batsign*

What? The move in time?
I wish, but in reality there isn't that much more familiarity with Greek philosophy (or any philosophy) here than in other countries.