PhilosophyMonkeyFranzKafka

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Wednesday, 4 April 2012

The Fabric of the Cosmos - The Illusion of Time

Posted on 10:21 by Unknown
In the first episode of the Fabric of the Cosmos series, we learned a little bit about the weirdness of space, so hopefully that massaged your brain enough for something even weirder: time.

Philosophers and scientists have been trying to understand what time is since antiquity, and one thing that they have found is that it's incredibly difficult to say anything about time without already presupposing it in some sort of viciously circular argument. Nevertheless, curiosity drives us to ask questions that we then have to test by conceptual analysis and by empirical means, and we often find out that these come in conflict with each other in ways that elude simple solutions.

There are philosophical accounts of time (and I'll provide a short introduction soon), as well as scientific accounts, most of which are based to various extents on some of the incredible insights to come out of Einstein's theories of special and general relativity.

So fasten your seat-belts as Brian Greene takes us on a tour to understand some of the deepest of mysteries: What is time? Does the past exist? Does the future? Can we change the future? Can we travel back in time? If so, can we change the course of history? And hey, if you can go back in time and meet your former self, which one is really you? That last one is more of a philosophical question, just to show you how badass we are :)


If your head isn't spinning by now, then you might want to get yourself checked into a hospital :)

And if you want to watch the original from NOVA, here it is:


Watch The Fabric of the Cosmos: The Illusion of Time on PBS. See more from NOVA.

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in documentary, Einstein, Elegant Universe, Newton, philosophy, physics, time | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Report: U.S. Kids Get Majority of Antibiotics from McDonald's
    And here we've been complaining about our lack of a healthcare system that attends to the medical needs of the poor:) Check out more hil...
  • Daniel Dennett - How to Tell If You're an Atheist
    The human mind is both beautiful and frustrating. We have minds that can contemplate the meaning of infinity and consciousness, on the one h...
  • What Is Evolution and Natural Selection?
    I don't know if it's by design or circumstance, but (apart from the religious and ideological elements) part of the resistance to ev...
  • Critical Thinking Animated Primer
    One cannot stress enough the importance of critical thinking. Without it, we would be defenseless against the manipulative tactics of other ...
  • Election Results in a Beautiful Animation
    I don't know if you heard, but here in the ol' U.S. of A. we just had an election this Tuesday. You know, just trying to choose who ...
  • What Is the Self?
    If you're not used to thinking philosophically, here's a bit of a conceptual conundrum for you: you have certain personal and profes...
  • The Cell - The Hidden Kingdom
    We take it for granted today, but there was a time when not only did humanity not understand the nature of cells, we didn't even know th...
  • Unhate
    Contrary to what the majority of people all over the world believe, I'm pretty sure this is the only life we will ever know. To some, th...
  • Einstein Mask Optical Illusion
    In our everyday experience, it seems as though perception is simply a matter of information hitting your sense organs and going straight to ...
  • The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence
    Last week in America we got to celebrate the 4th of July. To many people, this is a nice excuse to have a day off, spend it with family or f...

Categories

  • 3-minute philosophy (11)
  • 60 Second Adventures in Thought (8)
  • Alan Turing (3)
  • All Too Human (1)
  • amazing (6)
  • animals (25)
  • animation (77)
  • anthropology (4)
  • architecture (2)
  • Aristotle (13)
  • art (14)
  • atheism (41)
  • audio (21)
  • autism (2)
  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1)
  • Big Brother (4)
  • biography (9)
  • Bishop Berkeley (3)
  • Brainspotting (3)
  • Brian Cox (6)
  • Bryan Magee (1)
  • Carl Sagan (5)
  • Charles Darwin (9)
  • chemistry (6)
  • Christopher Hitchens (6)
  • cognitive science (5)
  • corruption (108)
  • Cosmos (3)
  • creationism (12)
  • Dan Ariely (1)
  • Daniel Dennett (4)
  • David Attenborough (3)
  • David Chalmers (1)
  • David Hume (17)
  • David Sloan Wilson (2)
  • debate (12)
  • Descartes (11)
  • dinosaurs (1)
  • documentary (45)
  • doodling in math (6)
  • E.O. Wilson (2)
  • economics (23)
  • education (43)
  • Einstein (11)
  • Elegant Universe (11)
  • Enemies of Reason (21)
  • environment (19)
  • Epicurus / Lucretius (1)
  • ethics (100)
  • evolution (55)
  • existentialism (13)
  • feminism (13)
  • Flying Spaghetti Monster (2)
  • Founding Fathers (13)
  • free speech (4)
  • free will (7)
  • Freud (1)
  • funny songs (12)
  • Galileo (6)
  • gay stuff (12)
  • geography (9)
  • George Carlin (2)
  • health (35)
  • Hegel (1)
  • Heidegger (1)
  • hilarious (163)
  • history (64)
  • Hobbes (8)
  • Inside Nature's Giants (6)
  • Jane Goodall (1)
  • Jim Al-Khalili (4)
  • John Locke (9)
  • John Searle (4)
  • Jon Stewart (48)
  • jurisprudence (8)
  • Kant (7)
  • Ken Miller (1)
  • Kierkegaard (2)
  • Kurt Vonnegut (1)
  • Large Hadron Collider (7)
  • Leibniz (5)
  • Leonardo da Vinci (1)
  • linguistics (11)
  • literature (25)
  • logic (60)
  • Lord Robert Winston (1)
  • magic (3)
  • Malcolm Gladwell (1)
  • Martin Luther King Jr. (2)
  • Marx (2)
  • Masters of Philosophy (19)
  • math (38)
  • Michael Faraday (2)
  • Michael Sandel (2)
  • Michael Shermer (1)
  • mind (34)
  • Mind control (1)
  • monkeys (8)
  • Monty Python (3)
  • movie (2)
  • music (7)
  • National Geographic (3)
  • Neil DeGrasse Tyson (7)
  • Newton (7)
  • Nietzsche (7)
  • Optical illusion (10)
  • Paradox (8)
  • Penn and Teller (1)
  • personal (5)
  • Peter Millican (10)
  • Peter Singer (7)
  • philosophy (111)
  • Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness (1)
  • physics (39)
  • Plato (7)
  • porn (7)
  • privacy (4)
  • problem of evil (4)
  • psychology (18)
  • public announcement (2)
  • racism (19)
  • religion (115)
  • Richard Dawkins (12)
  • Richard Feynman (7)
  • Ricky Gervais (1)
  • Robert Krulwich (1)
  • RSA Animate (16)
  • Sam Harris (3)
  • sartre (1)
  • science (79)
  • sex (19)
  • SNL (2)
  • Socrates (7)
  • space (32)
  • sports (4)
  • Stephen Colbert (40)
  • Stephen Fry (6)
  • Stephen Hawking (4)
  • Stephen J. Gould (1)
  • Steven Pinker (6)
  • Steven Weinberg (1)
  • technology (20)
  • TEDTalks (50)
  • The Human Sexes (4)
  • The Onion (24)
  • Tim Minchin (4)
  • time (5)
  • time lapse (10)
  • William Lane Craig (3)
  • Wittgenstein (3)

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (49)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  July (9)
    • ►  June (9)
    • ►  May (8)
    • ►  April (8)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (5)
  • ▼  2012 (205)
    • ►  December (4)
    • ►  November (7)
    • ►  October (12)
    • ►  September (14)
    • ►  August (15)
    • ►  July (20)
    • ►  June (19)
    • ►  May (27)
    • ▼  April (26)
      • Jimmy Kimmel at the White House Correspondents' Di...
      • Scientists Discover Delicious New Species
      • Obama Slow Jams the News
      • Neil deGrasse Tyson - Space as Culture
      • Just How Small Is an Atom?
      • Banksy on Advertising
      • Tribute to Christopher Hitchens
      • Strange Charm: A Song about Quarks
      • Autistic Reporter: Train Thankfully Unharmed In Cr...
      • Doodling in Math - Spirals, Fibonacci and Plants - 3
      • The Battle for the War on Women
      • T-Rex - Warrior or Wimp?
      • A Geological Timescale for Young-Earth Creationists
      • Colbert and the Dirt Bike Badass in the Lincoln Tu...
      • Bro-Choice
      • Billy Collins - Everyday Moments Caught in Time
      • Faith/Off - Easter vs Passover
      • Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
      • To Infinity and Beyond
      • Adam Savage - How Simple Ideas Lead to Scientific ...
      • Tucson Bans Ethnic Studies Program
      • Rick Santorum's Insane Conspiracy Theories
      • The Fabric of the Cosmos - The Illusion of Time
      • Schrödinger’s Cat... in 60 Seconds
      • The GOP - Join the Party!
      • Inside Nature's Giants - The Camel
    • ►  March (19)
    • ►  February (22)
    • ►  January (20)
  • ►  2011 (217)
    • ►  December (19)
    • ►  November (20)
    • ►  October (17)
    • ►  September (19)
    • ►  August (16)
    • ►  July (19)
    • ►  June (15)
    • ►  May (19)
    • ►  April (16)
    • ►  March (22)
    • ►  February (19)
    • ►  January (16)
  • ►  2010 (29)
    • ►  December (26)
    • ►  November (3)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile