Present time?

eire2009

Just something I though of, not sure if its relevant here, if I'm on a planet 60 million light years away today and I look through a high powered telescope at earth I would be able to see the dinosaurs. Therefore its possible to see directly into the past. If I could travel faster than light say 60 million light years in a second from that planet I should arrive at earth in the present day. Not time travelling just moving quicker than vision and light.

Its safe to say our eyes can only see what has happened and not what will happen seen as light and sight are what we perceive as the present. Is it possible that we live in the past and the future has already happened but it hasn't travelled through light yet and it hasn't been processed by our eyes.

I`m just open minded to the possibility that our subconscious works faster as it doesn't use light to process the present.

Black Swan

MOD COMMENT:
Not really a question for a philosophical discussion; more one that pertains to science. Will be moved accordingly for consideration by the science mods (Astronomy and Space?).

Redshift

Bounced to Popular Science as it not really an astronomy question, left closed pending mod review.

Capt'n Midnight

eire2009 wrote: »

Just something I though of, not sure if its relevant here, if I'm on a planet 60 million light years away today and I look through a high powered telescope at earth I would be able to see the dinosaurs. Therefore its possible to see directly into the past.

It's not possible to see into your past. The photons are spread out so much by the distance you can't view anything. Maxwells Deamon is another thought expiriment that fails when you crunch the numbers.

you could work out how light reflects off a mirror to determine how far you can go before you loose resolution and thus how far you can see into the past.

If I could travel faster than light say 60 million light years in a second from that planet I should arrive at earth in the present day. Not time travelling just moving quicker than vision and light.

relativity is another discussion

Its safe to say our eyes can only see what has happened and not what will happen seen as light and sight are what we perceive as the present. Is it possible that we live in the past and the future has already happened but it hasn't travelled through light yet and it hasn't been processed by our eyes.

our conciousness is a blur of a few seconds rather than instantenaous , stuff like Deja Vu and the transfer between short and long term memory.

I`m just open minded to the possibility that our subconscious works faster as it doesn't use light to process the present.

now you are into persistence of vision and optical illusions

There is an optical illusion, not this one but similar where you see something move before it acutally does, because your brain predicts what will happen , it makes sense of things that don't make sense.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Lilac_chaser

rccaulfield

Your brain has corrective software and percepts its surroundings using the five senses and past experiences. There is no 6th sense unless you've heard of a study i haven't?
You can't travel faster then light either and if you left the earth went 60 million years that way and looked back you will never see the Suns light from when before you left I love relativitys possibilities though!

Capt'n Midnight

rccaulfield wrote: »

Your brain has corrective software and percepts its surroundings using the five senses and past experiences. There is no 6th sense unless you've heard of a study i haven't?

actually there are other senses depending on the specialised cells involved. IIRC we have about 9 , fish also have lateral line and are receptive to electrical fields, must come back to this later


pigeons don't do so well when you strap magnets to their foreheads.

But only humans have a sense of decorum.

eire2009

Stating the obvious like its not possible to travel that fast and a telescope couldn't see that far wasn't what I was looking for. It was a hypothetical question.

Do we not see the past when we look into the stars ?

As for the sixth sense, I find it very closed minded to eliminate the possibility when we are nowhere near fully understanding the human mind.

Thanks for your educated opinions .

Capt'n Midnight

eire2009 wrote: »

As for the sixth sense, I find it very closed minded to eliminate the possibility when we are nowhere near fully understanding the human mind.

Thanks for your educated opinions .

For that sort of stuff you may want to check out the paranormal forum http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=446

Evolutionary speeking human brains must be efficient as they require a lot of energy and hard to get oils to keep going. Animals that live on nutritionally poor diet like sloths and koalas aren't exactly much in the brain department.

Capt'n Midnight

eire2009 wrote: »

Stating the obvious like its not possible to travel that fast and a telescope couldn't see that far wasn't what I was looking for. It was a hypothetical question.

Do we not see the past when we look into the stars ?

Like a lot of though experiments you have think it through, quantum effects will prevent you seeing accuratley over those distances.

Yes we see the past, but it's their past not ours.

im invisible

i thought we were a 3D hologram of what was happening on a 2D brane, or something...:pac:

Capt'n Midnight

im invisible wrote: »

i thought we were a 3D hologram of what was happening on a 2D brane, or something...:pac:

Or 1D if you go for string theory :pac: