The Time Percept
Or, If a Clock Ticks in a Forest and No One is Around to See it, Does Time Still Pass?
Time is the most elusive physical element. Despite familiarity with the concept, time is difficult to describe. Time is always the underlying assumption in our descriptions of the universe. In physics, it remains the largest barrier to the unification of relativity and quantum theory; some physicists believe time will have to be dismissed altogether if that unification is to occur (1). In more common experience, time appears to be an immutable and often lamented truth; who hasn't wished to "have more time," or to be able to "go back and do it over?"
But does time exist, or is it the creation of a brain eager to render input comprehensible? Examples abound of the brain's ability to invent perception. Color is created entirely by the brain; no single physical phenomenon is responsible for a specific color (2). Similarly, the lonely tree falling in a forest does not make a noise because no one hears the sound. If the brain can invent color and noise, can it also invent time? Or in other words, is time a function of reality or a function of our brains?
The situation is somewhat worse for time than for color or noise, in fact. Whereas light and sound can be objectively observed, time can only be inferred from events; even the motion of a clock is merely a series of events. Einstein's Relativity Theory (3), (4) may be extended to propose that "time" is created by the brain to explain motion through a series of stationary and discontinuous universes. In this way, the "percept of time" would be similar to the percept of motion created by watching a series of still pictures in a movie theater (1). It has also been suggeste...
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...gton, D.L., K.Y. Haaland, and R.T. Knight, 1998, in the Journal of Neuroscience, 18(3):1085-1095.
http://www.jneurosci.org/
11) Toward a neurobiology of temporal cognition: advances and challenges, by Gibbon, John, Chara Malapani, Corby L. Dale, and CR Gallistel, 1997, in Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 7:170-184, on BioMedNet.
http://www.bmn.com/
12) Neuropharmacology of timing and time perception, by WH Meck, 1996, in Cognitive Brain Research, 3(3-4):227-42, on PubMed.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=8806025&dopt=Abstract
13) Locating a mouse by its sound: the value of having two ears, from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1997.
http://www.hhmi.org/senses/c220.html
14) Can neurobiology teach us anything about consciousness?, by Patricia Smith Churchland, 1995.
http://www.hhmi.org/senses/c220.html
Eichenbaum, H., Otto, T., & Cohen, N. J. (1992). The hippocampus—what does it do? Behavioral
Generations of native people in Canada have faced suffering and cultural loss as a result of European colonization of their land. Government legislation has impacted the lives of five generations of First Nations people and as a result the fifth generation (from 1980 to present) is working to recover from their crippled cultural identity (Deiter-McArthur 379-380). This current generation is living with the fallout of previous government policies and societal prejudices that linger from four generations previous. Unrepentant, Canada’s ‘Genocide’, and Saskatchewan’s Indian People – Five Generations highlight issues that negatively influence First Nations people. The fifth generation of native people struggle against tremendous adversity in regard to assimilation, integration, separation, and recovering their cultural identity with inadequate assistance from our great nation.
How can you write about a culture whose history is passed on by oral traditions? Better yet, how can you comprehend a culture’s past which a dominant society desired to assimilate? These two questions outline the difficulty in understanding the historiography of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. In 2003, Paige Raibmon published her article, “Living on Display: Colonial Visions of Aboriginal Domestic Spaces.” Her work, although focused on Canada’s colonial “notions of domesticity,” presents the role of Aboriginals as performers to European notions of indigenous culture and identity. Early social historians believe that Aboriginals’ place in history is in their interactions with European Jesuits. A decade later, historians argue Aboriginals exemplify a subordinate culture fighting against assimilating and hegemonic forces. More recently, social historical perspective shows Aboriginals as performers of the white-man’s constructed “authentic-Indian.” Obviously, there is disparity between historians’ viewpoints but each decade’s published histories concur with James Opp and John Walsh’s concept of local resistance. Using Raibmon’s paper as a starting point, a chronological examination of select histories reveals an evolving social historiography surrounding historians’ perceptions of Aboriginals’ local resistance attempts.
Tolvanen, A. (1992). The rise of Native Self-determination and the crisis of the Canadian Political Regime. Culture, Volume XII (No. 1), 63-77.
John McTaggart in his essay “Time” presents a radical argument that claims time is unreal. While the argument is interesting and has attracted much attention for his arguments, I remain unconvinced of the argument he makes. This paper will lay out McTaggart’s argument that time in unreal, critically analyze why I believe McTaggart’s argument fails and present an alternative idea about time, utilizing aspects of McTaggart’s argument.
The nineteenth century encountered some of most revolutionary movements in the history of our nation, and of the world – the movements to abolish slavery and the movement for women’s rights. Many women participated alongside men in the movement to abolish slavery, and “their experience inspired feminist social reformers to seek equality with men” (Bentley, Ziegler, and Streets-Salter 2015, pg. 654). Their involvement in the abolition movement revealed that women suffered many of the same legal disadvantages as slaves, most noticeably their inability to access the right to vote. Up until this time, women had little success in mobilizing their efforts to gain the right to vote. However, the start of the women’s rights movement in the mid-1800s, involving leaders such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, paved the path for the expansion of women’s rights into the modern century.
...in attempting to alter the policies and practices that keep them in their marginalized position, however one obstacle being that “conventions that refer to the rules may change, but rules that inform the conventions rarely do” (Fleras, 2010; p. 185). The frontier narrative has inadvertently placed a veil over Canadians that keep feelings of guilt and responsibility for the cruelty towards Aboriginals invisible, and simultaneously keeps visible the belief that it is because of the white-settlers that Canada has become what it has today. Some may argue that the frontier narrative is no longer relevant to Canada’s multicultural society, however as demonstrated, it is clear that the narrative has manifested itself and has played and continues to play a crucial role in the structuring of Canadian society and treatment of Aboriginals; the true first-settlers of Canada.
Cigarettes (and its tobacco-related counterparts) have remained to this day, the most readily available and highly addictive substance that’s in legal America and “continues to be the leading cause of preventable death around the world” (Wascher). The production and sale of cigarettes should be made illegal in America because it manipulates people into adopting unhealthy lifestyles, encourages children to try smoking, and it subsequently shortens the lifespan of the smoker and those who surround them (second-hand smokers), by increasing the risk of adverse health effects.
The influence of the fur trade, religious missions, disease, language and acculturation changed the First Nations’ pre-colonial existence. Treaties that were signed with Aboriginal people acted as an attempt to make way for land settlement; and it was with the first Indian Act that the distinction was made between “Status” and “non-Status” Aboriginal people” (JUS-3360 module 3.2, (The Newcomers, 1997)).
Throughout history, women, no matter what race or class they came from, have not always been given the right to participate in government. Through political attitudes and institutions, women’s rights were excluded. However, due to the fight women have put up against “old-fashioned” societal thinking, changes have been made from pre 1900 to post 1900 that have changed the way women are seen in a society.
Prior to the arrival of the Europeans in Canada in the mid- to late 1600s, Aboriginal people were the original inhabitants of the Canadian land. In Canadian history, we forced our Aboriginal people to adapt to the European-Canadian culture and values. Prior to overthrowing their land and culture, the Aboriginal peoples were thriving off the natural land materialistically and financially. In years to come in response to the mistreatment of them, the Canadian government would implement what is known as the Indigenous and Northern Affairs act [1966] this act would aim to establish financial rights and benefits for the aboriginal demographic. Today in the 21st century Canada is comprised of over 1.4 million indigenous peoples (Aylsworth
In my opinion time can be shaped quite a bit by the artist; after all, man is never time’s slave. (Lion in the Garden 70)
Suddendorf, T. & Corballis, M.C. (2007) The evolution of foresight: What is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans? [On-line] Available from: http://www.memorylab.org/Files/Corballis_MTT_BBS_2007.pdf, [accessed 5th May 2011].
Cigarette smoking has become a part of the daily life of many Americans. At every given second, someone somewhere is smoking a cigarette. Beginning in the early 20th century, institutions have been investigating the negative, and in some cases fatal, effects smoking tobacco products has on the body. Banning cigarette commercials from television and mandating warning labels on all sold tobacco products have not been enough to keep hundreds of thousands of people dying each year from the long term effects of tobacco. This country has taken a focus to begin to legalize marijuana; however, the focus should change to this negative element of our economy. Cigarettes should be illegal in the United States for its extensive damage to the body and it’s near guaranteed cause of death.
Time is and endless phenomenon that has no beginning or end, therefore making it infinite. Emily Dickinson proves this point in her poem, Forever – is Composed of Nows, referring to “nows” as more significant than the future (Wilbur 80).