Monday, January 07, 2008

It doesn't exist if it exists too much...

The idea started when a good friend of mine was talking about the two basic elements of the universe, existence and non existence. I thought on the matter for a while and felt that something very important is missing in this basic definition and that is the notion of time. Trying to incorporate this ubiquitous meaning it seems like existence is "change in time", and looking at it this way non existence is "no change in time". Change itself can be understood if something is measurable or inversely something is measurable if we can see its changes. So if something is not measurable that is because it doesn't change from an aspect and hence it doesn't exist for us. I am not going to enter the objective point of view here for all matter and the important aspect of this idea for me is the subjective views and all related to the mind and behavior. There is something magical in the essence of change. Process is something that changes in time. A process exists !?

Lets think about some examples. You purchase a new PC, there is a big change in time for your computer related needs, you enjoy every moment and I'm sure the word "Existence" has a significant meaning in your mind regarding the new machine that you have. One year from now, you are used to the new machine and it just doesn't exist as much anymore, 10 years from now, you might not even see this machine, does it exist? Is it changing anything in your domain? Do we only feel the changes? Is this all related to a relative world? When do we feel a good friend existed? When the friend does not exist. In nonexistence, we give higher marks to existence, or maybe when we are in the change, when something is "Becoming". Hegel points out that "becoming is the unity of being and not-being". So maybe everything exists and not exists at the same time and it is just how we switch between the states that makes us feel such realities.
I often think about snakes and how their eyes are sensitive to motion only, some say a snake will not see you if you are really still. Well what about us, don't we not see lots of things and not feel lots of things when we don't see the changes. A lot of successful people have had many ups and downs in their life, wasn't this necessary for them to see the existence of new opportunities and possibilities?

Looking at the human brain, the neural activity will be reduce by repetition. So seems like we are hard coded with this behavior.

Abundance in existence means something that exists today, and tomorrow and the day after that and .... but as we are moving forward in time ... we will have less changes and this will reduce the existence value for us (subjective) and as time goes towards infinity, this meaning goes towards non existence. Is this related to "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it!"
or maybe losing the interest in a goal when it is reached! Loving something while you don't have it? Degeneration of the value for many concepts by the introduction of technology because of abundance in existence, joy of communication doesn't exist as much as before because communication is everywhere, ever seen people talk using the phone over seas in the past.

Should we be in a state of oscillation in order to feel what we have to feel? Is this why we have days and nights and everything else changes around a center, but the very notion of this oscillation itself can be repetitive and lose the element of change. Is this what life form is, something that changes and so we see its existence as a life form?

2 comments:

Tournesol said...

Interseting way of looking at time. However I must caution you that perhaps time could be defined without existence of human beings.

Also I think existence is a manifestation of time. They are intertwined so that one can not exist without the other. At least that is my opinion.

I try to think of it this way, if we were not around would the billions of stars and galaxies in the universe cease to exist? My answer to this question is certainly no.

Good luck buddy, these are some ricky waters your swimming. :)

Amir H. Fassihi said...

I agree that existence is a manifestation of time exactly. The galaxies will exist if we are not around also ... that would be the objective view of existence.