United States or United Kingdom ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Accordingly under the dominion of Time we appear to be in a similar position to that of a being whose senses are limited to one-dimensional space namely, to a line; we can only have cognisance of what is in front and behind, we have no knowledge of what is to the right or left, we appear to be limited to looking lengthwise in Time, whereas an Omniscient and Omnipresent Being looks at Time crosswise and sees it as a whole.
Time, as the individual experiences it, is called one-dimensional for an analogous reason: one number is all that is required to determine and mark out any particular event of a series from all the rest. Now in order to establish a position in a space of four dimensions it would be necessary to measure in four mutually perpendicular directions.
But in the one-dimensional time the same bit of matter occupies different portions of time. Accordingly time would have to be expressible in terms of the relations of a bit of matter with itself.
Accordingly there is an approach to ideal simplicity as we approach an ideal diminution of extension. The word 'limit' has a precise signification in the logic of number and even in the logic of non-numerical one-dimensional series. As used here it is so far a mere metaphor, and it is necessary to explain directly the concept which it is meant to indicate.
It can be summarised as the belief that nature is an aggregate of material and that this material exists in some sense at each successive member of a one-dimensional series of extensionless instants of time. Furthermore the mutual relations of the material entities at each instant formed these entities into a spatial configuration in an unbounded space.
Accordingly we can easily see that the durations of any set with the properties just enumerated must be arranged in a one-dimensional serial order in which as we descend the series we progressively reach durations of smaller and smaller temporal extension.
Word Of The Day