X-Message-Number: 23403
From: 
Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 16:22:36 EST
Subject: subjective time

Yvan Bozzonetti writes in part:

>I think a safe bet is that we can only act in the present.

>In quantum theory, the uncertainty principle gives some duration 
>to the present. For example, we are built from chemical structures 
>with energy binding in the electron-volt range. The uncertainty for 
>such an energy is in the millionth-billionth (10^-15)of a second, this 
>is the time duration of our present.

>Submarines communicate with ELF radio-waves, using photons with f
>requencies down to 10 kHz. They have a present duration in the tens of 
>microseconds. In space, waves with present duration extending in the 
>hour domain may be present or even more if you take into account 
>nonlinear process.

>Assume we use an ELF wave with both, right and left circular polarization. 
We 
>could squeeze one polarization and so reduce its present duration if we, at 
>the same time, blur the other polarization, giving it a longer present.  If 
we 
>squeeze one polarization by a factor near one billion, that wave will looks 
as 
>an optical light. The other polarization will have a 3 hours long present. 
We 
>would have a 3 hours long window to act on a chemical reaction for example...

>What if the not squeezed wave has an hour long present? Squeezing one 
>polarization down to the optical domain would expand the other to 10 ^18 
hours or 100 
>times the estimated age of the Big Bang.

>Strong squeezing on low frequency radio-waves could so open a present able 
to 
>encompass any epoch we could be interested in.

This is very amusing, but I don't think it has much bearing on the main 

question, that of subjective time. What is the objective duration of a 
subjective 
moment, or of a quale? Probably at least 1/20 second. So "you" probably "live" 
at least that long. Since subjective moments overlap, by extension you live 
much longer, although incompletely or with variations. 

Robert Ettinger


 Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"

[ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] 

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23403