Publisher's Synopsis
Ask someone "What time is it?" and the response will be without hesitation. However, ask "What is time?" and you will get a very different response. The answer to this question and others are presented in three parts: 1: Space and Time, 2: Perception and Reality, and 3: Consciousness and Deity. As these titles possibly indicate, as this work progresses, it becomes increasingly conceptual and speculative. The six words in these titles all have common everyday conversational meanings. On the other hand, all six have less familiar, deeper meanings. These deeper meanings examine questions such as 'What is time?' and 'What is reality?' are presented for the non-specialist in an informal and understandable manner. For example, in part 1, space and common time are considered, and then reconsidered to show that our notions about space and time are possibly wrong and that new ways of thinking about time are possible and even desirable. In a similar manner, the author takes on the topics of perception, reality, consciousness, and deity that are considered and then reconsidered in a manner that offers new and novel insight into each. It is safe to say, that some things that now seem complex will be simplified and some things that seem simple will become more complex. In this way, the author opens new doors into our world, which provides enrichment and a greater appreciation for the complexity and wonder of our world. Portions of this book may be common knowledge to some, new and novel to some, and, possibly, completely absurd to some. I hope that not too many will have the latter experience. Of course, the same reader could have all three experiences. Sample Page: Natural Time Imagine a world without clocks or calendars. No hours, days of the week, months, or any of the other many constructions and artifacts we use for keeping track of what we call time. Imagine a world where the universe was much simpler than today - just the earth with its daily passage of the sun, the longer cycles of the moon and the nightly back-ground of innumerable stars that appear to rotate about a fixed point. This is the world run by natural cycles and is the world of natural time. This time is unfettered by human influences. It is the world of natural creatures today and that of man in the dimness of prehistory, before becoming obsessed with time. >In the dead of winter in Antarctica hundreds of male emperor penguins will spend about 64 days huddled together while enduring fierce gales and frigid temperatures. Each male penguin does this for the sole purpose of incubating a single egg. During this period of sunless days, the males have no food and they will lose almost half their body weight! How are the penguins able to do this? Put simply, they are able to do this because their sense of time is very different from our sense of time. Driven by natural cycles, which give them independence from the detail schedules followed by most humans, they have a sense of natural time that is free from anxieties of anticipation and regrets of the past. For humans, such a task would be impossible. Even if we could endure the frigid weather and the lack of nourishment, our sense of time would render us incapable. We live by the clock, in a state of almost constant anticipation, and would soon find the sense of slowly passing time unbearable. On the other hand, instinct and necessity are the drivers of the natural world, not clocks. In the natural world, there is great patience.
