No Such Thing as the Present?

Discussion in 'Debate Corner' started by The Twin, May 22, 2010.

  1. The Twin My, what a strange duet

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2007
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    The Devil's Carnival
    143
    Here's an interesting one I just thought of while talking to my friend.

    We both think that there really is no such thing as the present. The way we see it, to truly be "in the moment" would have to be that exact second in time, but it's already passed us by, and thus is now a part of the past. In that sense, we can never really be in the present because time passes by us so quickly, that maybe there's really only two periods of time: past and future.

    I thought this was kind of hokey at first but now that I've given it some serious thought, maybe it does make some sense after all.

    Thoughts?
     
  2. MandyXRiku4ever Twilight Town Denizen

    Joined:
    May 11, 2009
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    USA
    27
    246
    not nessicarlly i mean present is the time period we are in, we aren't in the past time period like last month or last day and future is the forward time like in days or months or years so in away yeah it is a moment but also present is used to prdeict of you like in the past you'd cry like a baby in the present you realize you need to stop and for the future you hope to stop crying, get it?
     
  3. ShibuyaGato Transformation

    Joined:
    May 1, 2009
    Gender:
    Male
    4,065
    The present can be considered a longer period of time like today or this week. It doesn't necessarily have to be at this second. Either way we ARE in the present right now. Every day you are in the present regardless of whether you believe it or not.
     
  4. Gobolo Traverse Town Homebody

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2009
    Location:
    The sky
    62
    175
    The present exists in the very second we exist alongside it.
    You might hear someone say this is the present NOW.
    They do not mean that the only time the present exists is when they say now, they mean the present that they are experiencing.
    I may have typed this in the past, however you are reading it in the present. Because you are currently experiencing things in the present.

    Another point I think should be reinforced is Cat<3 Sora's. When somebody talks about the present they could be talking about this week, month or year.
     
  5. White_Rook Looser than a wizard's sleeve.

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2007
    Location:
    A chess board
    69
    Are you sure you don't mean the future or the past? Because the present moment of time is the only thing we can ever be fully aware of from a sensory level. The present at which this is being typed right to the end of this sentence is more available to you and I than it will be as something typed in the past or an idea in the future. Living in the moment is precisely that. Even if it's a micro-second you have presently occupied and lived in it. No one can deny the the reality of what is in front of them at the exact moment that they perceive it. It is the present!
     
  6. Repliku Chaser

    353
    What he said. The present is the thing you are doing at this moment and so I'm unsure how you say there's no such thing as present time. You 'remember' what you did seconds after, but I know right now I am thinking and typing here at this very moment that I did this. When you read it, you are reading it in the present. I think the present is the one thing we can be sure of because memories can be faulty and the future can be guessed at through probability but is unclear.
     
  7. Boy Wonder Dark Phoenix in Training

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2008
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Genosha
    2,239
    This. The past is the present at the moment it happened and became the past after it happened.
    The future will be the present while it's happening and then become the past.

    And like Gobolo said, it can refer to more than a single moment, it could be the present era or month, etc.


    EDIT: Random quote
    "Time was invented so everything doesn't happen at once. Space was invented so everything doesn't happen to you."
     
  8. Blademaster Mai'kel Hollow Bastion Committee

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2007
    Location:
    My aleatorium
    17
    588
    There's no such thing as the present. Or the past, or the future, for that matter, because time doesn't exist.
     
  9. Technic☆Kitty Hmm

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2010
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    1,299
    There is a past, and a future. That much is pretty much acceptable, but as you would find the present is a more delecate matter, right now I could say that I finished this post in the future . . . understandable right? Well, I could say I typed the first line of this post in the past, also understandable. If I were to contemplate the fact of typing the word NOW I did it in the present because when I pushed the last key "w" the instant I pushed that was the time I meant. Present, as stated in previous posts, can also referr to a longer period of time. Actually I could say that the entire timeline of the universe was the present if I lived throught that. Look at it like this, at anywhere in the timeline of your life, you could pick out a single memory and say that was the present at one time. To calculate the exact moment of a present would be to, not virtually, but actually stop time to capture the true essence of the presence of that moment. Time would have to be at a complete halt and if that happened you wouldn't be able to do anything because time would be halted. So, in a sense, I guess you could say that the present (talking about a mere instance not the longer version) is impossible. The only thing we can do is come close to capturing the present because if you wanted to capture the present of the end of this statement then you wouldn't be able to finish the statement (because of the time halting) and thus you wouldn't be able to capture the correct present you were looking for. Thank you for reading my thoughts on the matter and sorry it is so long, but what is the debate section for if you don't intend to get your point across.

    P.S. My point was that the present exists and does not exist. This, in my point of view, is a situation where everyone can be happy. *There is rarely an occasion of which this occurs.*
     
  10. Nova We left a scar size extra-large.

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2008
    Location:
    *Somewhere In The Stratosphere ♥
    97
    So, I guess it is impossible to say you're in the present, and it is kind of automatically the past after you say it is the present, but I guess all I can say is that the present is what's happening RIGHT NOW. Well, not then so much anymore, but I think you catch my drift. Present is present. There is a past, a present, and a future. The present is whatever you're doing or thinking at the moment that you're doing or thinking it.
     
  11. White_Rook Looser than a wizard's sleeve.

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2007
    Location:
    A chess board
    69
    That's slightly fallacious. You assume that each present moment will eventually become the past or was a possible future at some point. But you can never be sure of that because both the event that seems to become the past and the event that seemed to be a future are only ever available to you as the present. The future and past are words used to describe the concepts of moments to come and moments that past but from our current experiential level they technically don't exist. Besides how can you be more sure of something you're no longer experiencing than of something you are experiencing

    Our conception of time and how it is organized follows a logical pattern in which the solar system has organized itself. Even if we neglected our concept of time the solar system and presumably the universe would maintain its constant pattern. Also, how can you honestly deny the present reality of what I am typing, let alone of what you just typed. You were there, and you typed it. How can you deny it?

    it's difficult to use typing here as an example because everything you read here is after the fact. it was typed in a present that technically no longer exists. But the fact that I am sitting here and typing now, experiencing this behaviour attests to the fact that I am currently experiencing a present in which I am typing. There is no need to for time to come to a halt because I am experiencing it right before me RIGHT NOW. It's what's to come and what has past that are the issue. After typing this all I will have to remind me of this experience is this post and possibly a memory. But what if my memory of typing this post was fake? How would I know that it was something I experienced in some present time?

    Living through the entire timeline is no different. The second you move on to experience something else you are no longer experiencing anything that you were doing previously to what you are doing now. What you are doing now is what you are experiencing. You would have to be virtually omniscient to always experience everything simultaneously. Because that quite impossible, all you have to define experiences of the past and future are things like ideas, beliefs and memories. That's it. for example, you're sitting at your computer and typing. That is something you are presently doing. But if you get up to get a snack, you're activity at the computer no longer exists; you're not simultaneously sitting at the computer and typing AND going to the kitchen to get a snack. Once you start one the other ceases to exist. All you have is a memory, belief, etc. that you were sitting at your computer and typing. Nothing else proves that that event actually happened, as you are presently in the kitchen.
     
  12. SoraUchiha Traverse Town Homebody

    Joined:
    Jan 31, 2009
    Location:
    Dublin
    17
    162


    No-I dont think there is a present and if there is you would never be able to state "this is the Present" because it would have passed by the time the statement is done-You think of saying it in the future and as you do so it is broken into the tences-What you are to say in the in the future and what you have already said is in the past and what you are saying that second couldnt be in the presnt because it is to dragged on (Even if you say it quickly) and even if there was a present it would be too small,almost unexistant.
     
  13. White_Rook Looser than a wizard's sleeve.

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2007
    Location:
    A chess board
    69
    But to deny the present is to deny what you just typed. You were presently experiencing it while you were typing it. All you have now is a memory and the post. But what if your memory of the post was fake. if this was the case you could never be sure of any of your actions other than the ones you would be doing at the present. You would say to yourself: "Hey I'm currently sitting at a computer" or something along those lines.
     
  14. 9Kairi9hearts Twilight Town Denizen

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2010
    Location:
    in my own head, running from my lies.
    18
    239
    no, there is always a such thing as the present, it is where you are in that moment of time, no matter how small you look at it, if you freeze time, then you would be in a segment of time still, so if it is as large a year, you are presently in that year, but if it is as small as a milosecond, you are in a milosecond, you may not be able to count it off, but it is still happening.
     
  15. Johnny Bravo Chaser

    Joined:
    Jul 8, 2008
    77
    There will always be the present. The past is what we have been through, and the future is what is yet to come, there has to be a passing point between those two, and the present is one because it is what is happening at this exact moment. There cant not be the present, that wouldnt really make sense, to go from what we have been through to what is yet to happen but hasnt happened yet. If your not in the present would that mean your not living? If that was the case that you werent living you would be part of the past.
     
  16. Radiowave ITSA PIIINCH

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2007
    Location:
    You know, across the universe
    268
    The flipside of that idea is that instead of never being in the present, we're always in the present. Think about it this way: if we're never in the present as you say, then where are we? By definition we cannot be in the Past or Future.

    The thing is, the present can never be "frozen." There are exact seconds in time, but they're impossible to stop...its the whole "time waits for no one" idea.
     
  17. light^_^yagami Merlin's Housekeeper

    10
    24
    i think our conciousness is in the present, but physically, we are neither in the past, present or future, i dunno, its just my wacko opinion
     
  18. White_Rook Looser than a wizard's sleeve.

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2007
    Location:
    A chess board
    69
    If you are presently standing in a room are you not aware of the feel of the floor against your feet just as you are consciously aware of being there?
     
  19. light^_^yagami Merlin's Housekeeper

    10
    24
    well you feel with your senses when conscious but you dont when unconscious, basically you feel the floor in the present because your consciousness is in the present
     
  20. Shadox D. Twilight Town Denizen

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2009
    99
    225
    I believe that there is no such thing as the present, for every passing moment is the past.

    But the present could also be placed upon an hour, day, week, month, year, decade, etc. Which could, in fact be the current present.

    (I hope this made sense)