Friday, May 20, 2005

Whatever else may be said about time, one thing is certain. It defies definition. The best we can say is that we all know what time is, intuitively. For it cannot be expressed in terms of other things, though some try. The Seventh Edition of Webster's Collegiate Dictionary tells us that time is "the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues." Of course, what the lexicographer has done here is to tell us that time is defined by its measurement and that that measurement is of a period during which something occurs. He has not told us what time really is.


From Carl Sagan - The history of the universe and time compressed to one year-
Earth was formed between August 15 and September 10.
Dinosaurs arrived just ahead of Christmas Eve.
Human civilization occupies the last few seconds of December 31.
My life is one billionth of one second. We have just entered the first seconds of the New Year.

This is why I wake up in the morning and know that I can only have a good day or a great day. There simply is no time for a bad day.

So, in a cosmic blink I have gained a year of existence, and its a great day.