Posted on 04/15/2019 6:26:23 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Scientists believe that time is continuous, not discrete—roughly speaking, they believe that it does not progress in "chunks," but rather "flows," smoothly and continuously. So they often model the dynamics of physical systems as continuous-time "Markov processes," named after mathematician Andrey Markov. Indeed, scientists have used these processes to investigate a range of real-world processes from folding proteins, to evolving ecosystems, to shifting financial markets, with astonishing success.
In a pair of papers, one appearing in this week's Nature Communications and one appearing recently in the New Journal of Physics, physicists at the Santa Fe Institute and MIT have shown that in order for such two-time dynamics over a set of "visible states" to arise from a continuous-time Markov process, that Markov process must actually unfold over a larger space, one that includes hidden states in addition to the visible ones. They further prove that the evolution between such a pair of times must proceed in a finite number of "hidden timesteps", subdividing the interval between those two times...
The authors stumbled on the necessity of hidden states and hidden timesteps while searching for the most energy-efficient way to flip a bit of information in a computer. In that investigation, part of a larger effort to understand the thermodynamics of computation, they discovered that there is no direct way to implement a map that both sends 1 to 0 and also sends 0 to 1. Rather, in order to flip a bit of information, the bit must proceed through at least one hidden state, and involve at least three hidden time steps.
It turns out any biological or physical system that "computes" outputs from inputs, like a cell processing energy, or an ecosystem evolving, would conceal the same hidden variables as in the bit flip example.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
The strongest proof of discrete time is my toaster. The toast slowly, linearly and smoothly progresses toward a light golden brown. Then I turn my back for a second and, BANG!, burnt toast. Time is sneaky. If you stop watching time, it stops behaving.
Another proof. The hands of our gur grade school clocks in the fifties would completely stop for a FULL MINUTE. Time hung there, suspended, as the teachers droned on. Then, BANG!, the time instantaneously jumped a whole minute. During the minute when the flow of time stopped, anything could happen.
Lastly, I woke today and found myself old. That happened in the blink of an eye. How can that happen if time doesn’t pass in discrete chunks?
There you have it...three solid proofs of the existence of discrete time.
btt
Schrodinger says there’s a turd in the cat box.....or there isn’t.
LOL, good ones. We had one of those clocks in my elementary school, many many decades ago.
efficiency in completing any one of the tasks is diminished.
I prefer the CZ82 version though
“It has been proven impossible for a human to do several things simultaneously.”
Tell that to a good drummer.
This actually happened to me 60 years ago while waiting for a traffic light to change - one moment the light as there and the next gone, only to reappear a few intervals later ...
It’s like you took a videotape and cut out a portion, spliced the tape back together and ran it. Chances are you’ll have no idea there is a missing section.
What this means for me, surgery-wise, is lying on the preparation table as the nurse dials in some sedation. Then me looking over at her and asking when the operation will begin. And she says, “It’s done already.”
“That makes sense. But bear in mind the amount of diminshment is usually less that the time gained running more than one autonomous external process at a time.”
Sometimes you have no choice. Other times you just have to say no.
When I was working I always had dozens of balls in the air. Everything seemed urgent, but when the power went out you hopped to it and did whatever you could to get it back on line. Every else faded until the next day.
I got a good sense of knowing the difference between and urgency and importance. A good book to read about it is “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” by Stephen Covey.
Schrodinger says there’s a turd in the cat box.....or there isn’t.
I like it — especially the part about waking up old.
One more thing, as we age time cranks up its rate too. For something that I thought moved at a steady rate I.E. A unit of time equal to one sixtieth of a minute. The time needed for a cesium-133 atom to perform 9,192,631,770 complete oscillations. It seems like it is racing now. (I am 73).
But I do understand the hidden state needed to change a variable, if you want to interchange A and B, you need to have a SAVE variable to hold one while you write in the other location. There is no command in programming to interchange two variables unless the command relates to a subroutine that generates the SAVE state where you do not see it.
There you have it...three solid proofs of the existence of discrete time.
The use of Versed can erase more than just a few hours. My brother lost YEARS when they did his heart surgery.
“Time before Time” Sister Bernadette wasn’t successful in explaining that to me sixty years ago.
They used something like prefenol on me. I forget the name of it. Fantastic stuff. You awake clear headed with none of the hangover from regular anesthesia.
I found an error in your analysis.
You write Q(p-D)/2p. I’m certain that should be Q(2p-D)/2p.
OTOH the effect of this minor error in the overall calculation will be quite small.
One more thing, as we age time cranks up its rate too.
Too early in the morning for this, but NO. They have the wrong idea of time. Time is the measurement of motion. Specifically, the motion of the Earth, Sun, and Moon. There is no objective reality that exists outside of the mind called “time.” So it is stupid to ask if time is continuous, or in quantums.
Check with St Thomas of Aquinas for a better explanation.
I took a corporate course in the Seven Habits. Can’t remember a one of them today.
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