What is Time?
Time is a very curious thing. Ask anyone on the street if they know what time is, they are sure to answer positively. But then ask them to explain it to you and they will most certainly be at a loss. People often talk about time with a negative connotation, because in some way it is linked to our own mortality. A favorite quote of mine about time is from the science fiction movie Star Trek: Generations (Indeed many science fiction stories often turn a good phrase about time) ``Time is the fire in which we burn'' also there is the famous quote from the great 19th century composer Hector Berlioz. ``Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.'' We have a belief that time exists independent of us, but is it perhaps only something that is measured by our minds' and bodies' perceptions? We seem to have biological clocks that work on a set schedule. Anyone who has flown across several time zones and experienced jet lag knows this to be true. Time also seems to vary with culture. In the language of the Navaho there is no past, present, and future tense like those of many languages. Events are talked about with regard to their quality of happening rather than their temporal quality. Is it possible that time may not really exist, but is just an artifact of our biological and cultural evolution? Let us look at what has been historically determined about the nature of time.