When is 'now'?

Question

I'll try and clarify; if 'now' is the moment when the present becomes the past and the future becomes the present, when is this moment? Surely if time is infinite (or near as) then units of time could be infinitely small as well as big, so 'now' technically can never occur.
Basically, does 'now' actually exist or is it just a term used for the convenience of human perception?
Hope this makes sense...

Answer 1

Thought provoking!!



In my view, 'now' is the meeting point of the past and the future.... just as a point in space has no dimension even though its position is determinate, similarly, 'now' can have no time dimension or duration, but it is clearly defined by the two adjacent events, one of the past and the other of the future in relation to that moment called 'now'. In other words, it is this duration-less 'now' that defines or distinguishes anything as either past or future.

Answer 2

It's all about perception. Studies of people with brain damage who have little or no memory do not suggest that they can not function in the 'now'. We all have selective memory and partial recollection, but that doesn't stop 'the past' from having happened just because we can't remember it. We can predict 'the future' in general ways if not absolutely specifically (apart from, possibly, mathematically), and our actions 'now' determine the future. The only awareness we can absolutely perceive is 'the now'. However, 'now' is of necessity transitory when we try to define it, and by its nature it connects 'the past' and 'the future' - Time is a whole. The problem is that we tend to talk about past, present and future as if they are each unique and separate from each other, rather then being different aspects of our perception of Time. All three can be regarded as either infinite or miniscule - the past has no beginning (there must have been a time before the Big Bang, and indeed something to Bang, even if our perception of Time cannot apprehend it), the future has no end, and the present is infinite - we are always living in it. It is our perception of Time that we are talking about when we say 'now', not some objective measurement. So would Time not exist if there were no people to perceive it? Any one fancy having a go at that?

Answer 3

I think there is such a thing as a smallest unit of time called Planck second, or Planck moment or whatever, and every other measurement of time is made up of a certain number of these. Like a second would be like a trillion of them or something (I don't really know) so the now would be the current Planck moment. Trouble is that it probably takes many many Planck moments to formulate a thought about them, by that time you're at another moment etc.



Time is a funny thing, so is space, never could really figure them out.



"like how long does a Planck moment last"? something I've never understood, because no matter how short it is, you could all ways imagine is shorter.



I think, that the universe behaves differently when you get down to such minute microscopic levels of existence, and if you could somehow go there you could understand it, but not as such a macro level that we're on.

Answer 4

Hm. I'm not sure of a lot of things you seem to take as facts.



Do we really know that time is infinite? There are physicists who might dispute that. Perhaps time came into being after matter (as some calculations seem to show). Or perhaps it will not continue indefinitely. There is some indication that neither time nor space is infinitely divisible... just quantized on such a low level that it is difficult for us to perceive (link 1 has some good comments on the issue, one points out that past a certain point even if it's not quantized it becomes meaningless).



Likewise, if 'now' is the unit of time we are in, is it even reasonable to refer to a 'future' or 'past' which we are going to and from? Time, as used in science, is a reference point but not really a dimension in the same sense as spatial ones. You cannot move forward or backward in time... all you can do is change more or less slowly relative to everything else.



I would tend to take the opposite position of the one you seem to be suggesting. It seems to be that it is indisputable that a 'now' exists: whatever its ultimate nature proves to be, it is where we are.



It is all those other times, and perhaps time itself as anything other than a description of change in the now that seems vague to me. The time/space cone goes in both directions - just as there are many possible futures, there are also many possible pasts that fit the present facts (and facts can ONLY exist in the present because that's the only place you can measure). Not ONE past, but many. Or none.

Answer 5

Hello,



(ANS) NOT only is this a highly confusing use of words, but I think you could drive yourself totally insane trying to understand this. You CANNOT understand the term "now" because in reality it doesn't exist.



NOTE: The term "Now" is just a human construct like for example:- Time, Money, Calenders, Religion, God and so forth. These are all just constructs.



**The term or concept of "now", is an endless flowing (fluid) of time. Past and Present are meaningless concepts to, the idea of now is also meaningless. Frankly, you cannot and will never understand this with your mind. Your mind or intellect will never get it ??



**"The present moment of the "Now" is something else entirely, it is an experience, it is a bodily felt sensation beyond the mind, beyond words & language, beyond your ego self importance, the now can be experienced only through a process which is often called mindfulness. And mindfulness is state which can only be achieved through a process known as mediation.



**The "now" is like a Zen Kohan, for example:- The sound of one hand clapping !!



DON'T MISTAKE THE FINGER THAT POINTS TO THE SKY WITH THE MOON ITSELF !!



Now theres a thought ? :-))



Kind Regards Ivan

Answer 6

An analogy of your question would be:



Where is the "river" when the water is flowing?



The answer would be defined by the river beds containing the "river". When we buy a beer, merchant provides a container to hold it.



In that sense, "now" would be defined by the activities and movements of life through out the stream of time.



To give a more exact description, time could be indexed to a date, hour, minute, second -- or even finer division with accuracy if needed.



The term "time flies" nails this thing right on the head. To catch something in the move, one needs to capture it with relation to its passing and surrounding through a record of human senses.



That's why we have news on paper, on TV and keep all kinds of record to mark the events of the moment.

Answer 7

now is a term used to express the distance in time from here to here.



We have developed a method of measuring time in three sections the past, the present and the future. Because the future has yet to be born and the past has already died. We have purchase of or ownership over only the present. The present is constant. It exists even if we are not here to experience it.



These are the elements, space and time, that give life its reality. Here and now is the matrix within which all elements dwell, the substance in which universes are born and die. Now is a kind of cosmic plasma.

Answer 8

It's always now. The present is the moment which we find ourselves in, at any given moment. The fact that we percieve that moment after it has occurred is irrelevant. Time is not divided into segments, but is a continuous line. Your perception of now could be likened to travelling on a train, but looking backwards.

Answer 9

You have already identified the answer. There can be no "now". There is the past and there is the future. So far as infinite time is concerned - there you get into a mess by even thinking about it. You cannot divide infinity without getting weird results. Any attempt results in infinity. Therefore any subdivision of infinite time equals infinity meaning that there would be a "now" and that every now would last for an infinite amount of time.

Answer 10

In mathematical terms, time is more of a hyperbola around the origin - the branches come very close to zero, but never actually cross it.



So in your case, Limit of now as delta t approaches 0 = 0, but the funny thing about this limit is that delta t never becomes 0.

And yes, the definition of "now" would vary for different time lengths - for someone studying a flight of a bee (or a mosquito, i forget) with wing movement friequency of 1000 per second, obviously "now" of 1 second is too small - hello you just missed 1000 wing flaps.

For someone going to a job interview, a "now" of more than 1 minute is too large, but if you are on your way to meet your buddy for lunch, a "now" of 5 or even 10 minutes is pretty acceptable

Also statistically now is like an electron - it is easy to say with a high degree of certainty that an electron is somewhere around the nucleus. But the more you try to pinpoint the location, the lower your probability of accuracy becomes.

But if your probability of accuracy approaches 0, does it mean that the electron doesn't exist? no, it just means that you need to more work to pinpoint the position.

Answer 11

Time is not a reality as material as we might like to believe it to be. We understand time by the turning of the hands of a clock, or in a broader sense, what we grasp from the changing nature of all things material around us. We say time is like material things with a beginning, a middle and and end. But time is only our sense of reality we physical extract by the fact that all things change and undergo gradual transformations. Now, any arbitrarily conceived units of time, or graduations of physical change, are but an illusion in the real sense, as time in fact is seamlessly continuous without a beginning or an end or anytime in between – time will last for something as long as that something does.



We have stages to tell an adult person from his adolescence, childhood from his infancy and youth from his maturity are all but arbitrarily identifiable stages that we have devised for the purpose of our own convenience; no one could ever tell exactly when is that moment that separates one age from the other. Similarly, we have there for us in time moments, seconds, the past, the present, the future - our understanding of time is subjective to our own need or ability to sense reality.



However, the moment that we denote as the time 'now' is very significant in the mind, as it is the moment that we have, the moment that we are. We are neither in our past nor we are in the future, but what we have just now so much that we are now, the unrealistic presence in the physical world - this is how it is important to realize realities beyond all things physical in the mind. It is not the time of physical change that is 'now', but a reflective realization our our own essence. The moment now is in fact projection of our will with human purpose that we apply to do almost anything in the world, to know anything and to sense anything. We in fact live because we have will to live, a will bestowed upon us by the God, so to speak.

Answer 12

Technically time doesn't exist, and it is a human construct, so apart from the agreed passage of time, time itself is perceptual. I don't think "now" is meant to be a unit of time, its meant to be a way of quantifying a brief period of time in he present and near future. Like a "moment", not a quantity, but a average length of time of which most accept as being a "moment".

Answer 13

Now refers to the present.

How small you care to make that is anybody's guess.

It may refer to the second, mili-second or the nano-second in which the current period you are living is neither in the future (because it is currently occuring) or in the past (because it 'is occuring' rather than 'has occured').

It may however, refer to a time so infintesimally small that it is beyond our comprehension.

To state that technically it can never occur is incorrect. It has to have occured in order to become part of the past.

It is occuring right now as you read this, although my writing this is now in the past.



I am not sure I can agree or disagree that units of time can be infintessimally small. Theoretically, you could say that time can only be as small as the smallest unit we can measure. This is however, only theory. If it is smaller than any measurable unit, is it in fact time at all as we understand it. But that, I am sure is for another question.

Answer 14

A term which describes an instant in time, though 'now' technically never exists because before you can contemplate it, it is in the past.



So I would say it's just a term used for the convenience of human perception.



Interesting question, BTW.

Answer 15

The most interesting part of the building blocks of our universe is the fact that they cannot be quantified into the smallest possible unit.



i.e. no matter how much you split an atom, or an electron, there will always be more there, you cannot single it down to one building block



Same thing with light and time.



So there you have it, there is no such thing as "now' it can never be separated from the part and present.



There's a very very simple explanation for all this,



in fact its so simple, no one has figured it out yet

Answer 16

"Now" can be interpreted in different ways. For you, THIS MOMENT... NOW can be minutes, hours days or even years after I experience it, depending on when you read it.



"Now" can be in the context of experiencing an era... "nowadays" rather than "back then" to describe a culture.



Now can also sometimes mean the very near future. If you say to a kid "come here, now!" you know it will take the child time to actually reach the destination. Or if someone says "the meeting is starting now!"



I can't help but think about Spaceballs, as they paradoxically watch a video of the movie Spaceballs during the movie....



"Now. You're looking at 'now' sir. Everything that happens now, is happening now.

"What happened to then?"

"We passed then."

"When?"

"Just now. We're at now, now."

"Go back to then!"

"When?"

"Now."

"Now?"

"Now!"

"I can't."

"Why?"

"We missed it."

"When?"

"Just now."

"When will then be now?"

"Soon."

Answer 17

Thinking slightly on the contrary, you could say that "now" always occurs. Time is an infinite string of "now"s.



While life is experienced, we all experience "now." The future is always ahead, the past is always behind.

Answer 18

Now is in need of a definition. Because of the relativity of space and time--the space-time continuum, the now of one reference frame is different from the now of another reference frame, but, as somebody above me said, there is no smallest limit to now in the micro world, at least not yet. But, anyway, all that aside, somebody has to create a theory which can be confirmed (indirectly to be sure) of a way to represent now. Without the now of becoming, we have no free will--but we do have free will!

Answer 19

'Now' is an inderterminate length of time, depending on the context of your current state of mind. Also, time isn't like atoms. It's infinitely divisible. So I guess it's just a term. Like a load of other things!

Answer 20

i love your question!!!!

it is a simple word made for the simple minds that are human of course! lol!

now is at the time or moment immediately past! from the moment you pronouce the N you have put it in the past! but now only means for that moment you say it! were taking the meaning of now as at that very second iT is said it only stands for that second but its like a grenade!



we think about pulling the pin = were about to say NOW =future



we pull the pin out = the moment we say it =present



but it will still tickfor s few seconds = now just been said but still present as the seconds going by us =present



then the grenade explodes = now has PAST and is over and is =past



but it means at the time or moment immediately past! its a past tense word!

Answer 21

now isn't a time but the concept in which time changes

now is the changing not the present time and yes time can be measured in very very small increments and in very large increments.

Answer 22

You are exactly right, it is a convenience, as is most language. To define time exactly requires the exact language of mathematics and totally befuddles me.

Answer 23

No because every day that goes by is just another day of history. Someone told me that.. so it got everyone depressed because someone also said that you cant take back any minute that goes by, so you could regret almost everything.. blah blah blah

Answer 24

Now is a split seconod after then.

In Wales we tend to say 'I'll be with you now in a minute'. We can be there now and in a minute becaure in a minute it will be now.

Answer 25

And then their is bathroom time and the term now is defined clearly.Have to go now, Thanks for the question and good day.

Answer 26

just a term

Answer 27

You mean you never heard that song?



It's now or never....



Good luck!

Answer 28

now is the moment you say now

Answer 29

Now is Now - Oh no, I missed it - Oh no, It's ok, Here it comes again. Now is our place in infinity.

Answer 30

wat mann ??? u ask such difficult questoins that cannot be ansewred





i m sorry u totally confused me

now is the now at the pressent which is occouring at this particular movment this second man try 2 understand

i will tell how future becomes now...............

suppose future is tomorrow-5pm then tommorow approcimately that time 5pm is the "now"

and past is wat happened before like yesterday ,

day before yester day and so on...................................

Answer 31

Oops, there it goes! You're right!

Answer 32

It's between 'then' and 'when'.

Answer 33

FUTURE - PAST = NOW





love

Pluto

Answer 34

im sorry but u confused me. how long did it take u to think of this question? sorry i couldnt help u :(

Answer 35

now!

no wait,

now!

no,

now!

no.....

Oh i dunno - ask Morrisey!