Dear Organlearners,
Dan Chay <chay@Alaska.NET> writes:
> This reminds me of a distinction I ran across years ago made, as I
> recall, by Henri Bergson. He distinguished between "time" and
> "duration." If it was, indeed, Bergson, he referred to time as you and
> Doc have in this thread, which I liken to At's recollection of
> Eddington's phrase "(increase in) entropy is the arrow of time."
> Bergson distinguished "duration" as our experience of time.
Dan, I am sorry for not having replied to your important contribution
sooner.
We measure "time" in terms of phenomena in which the (rate of)
entropy production is constant. In other words, we think of an
increase in "time" by making use of a LINEAR increase in entropy. We
make use of phenomena such as planetery motion, sand pouring through
an hour-glass, a mechanical spring driven watch and modern electronic
watches. These phenomena have to be carefully designed to have
constant entropy production, otherwise "time" will accelerate or
decelerate. (The first person to realise this intuitively-tacitly,
was Adriaan Huygens during the sixteenth century. The conscept of
entropy production was formalised only three centuries afterwoards.)
In the case of planetary motion, the entropy production
is (the constant) zero. This is called a reversible phenomenon in
which "time" cannot accelerate or decelerate.
We experience "duration" also in terms of irreversible phenomena,
i.e. phenomena in which entropy is produced. However, these phenomean
have more than often variable rates of entropy production. When the
rate of entropy production is high (such as at the edge of chaos),
the "duration" appears to be very short, although it can be quite
long when we compare it to "time". When the rate of entropy
production is low (such as in the valley of tranquility), the
"duration" appears to be very long, although it can be quite short
when we compare it to "time". In other words, in "duration" our sense
of the temporal is linked to a NONLINEAR increase in entropy.
> Would the terms time and duration constitute a force-flux pair?
Yes, but they will constitute only the force of the force-flux pair.
A force (tension) is set up when two different things become
compared to each through some relationship. By comparing "time" with
"duration", we compare linear time with nonlinear time. If the
"duration" seems to be too long, we increase the entropy production
(move towards the edge of chaos) If the duration seems to be too
short, we decrease the entropy prodution (move towards the valley of
tranquility). In the former case we move from hot too lukewarm and in
the latter case we move from cool to lukewarm. Thus the "flux"
corresponding to the force "time-duration" is flattening out large
changes in entropy production.
As with any other entropic force-flux pairs, we can can have either
constructive emergences or destructive immergences. We will
definitely not have an emergence if we move away from the edge of
chaos before the emergence has happened. <sic> If we do not move too
far back to the valley of tranquility, the conditions near the edge
of chaos are still powerful enough to cause immergences. On the
other hand, if we do not move too far away form the valley of
tranquility, we may become the prey rather than digesting ourselves.
In other words, death lurks whenever in our comparison of "duration"
with "time" we consider linear time more important than nonlinear
duration.
To combat the immergences of "time-duration" as a force and
"flattening entropy production" as a flux, I do not carry a watch for
almost twenty years now. My family and friends know that the one
thing they should not give me as a present, is a watch. I care about
people and what happens to them during a nonlinear "duration". I do
not care about anybody else's linear "time". If somebody else wants
me to take notice of their "time" rather than "duration", I will ask
them what their "time" is. They frequently reply with "it is time to
buy your own watch". My reply is usually "it is not yet time to
become unhappy".
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
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