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On the quantum level, for extremely small volumes of space, time may well go backwards-- just like the electron paired with a certain proton in a Hydrogen atom is almost always within that small area called the "s orbit," but theoretically it could occasionally be found in the next room someplace. ..but in the great scheme of things on the macro level, we can't tell it's happened...
You had a good post on drugs a while back, but you are clearly out of your element here (pun intended). While you can't tell *exactly* where an electron is at a given time, the orbits *are* predictable, it would never be found 'in the next room'.
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There is nothing in the laws of physics that says time can't go backward. It doesn't seem to ever happen because the odds of it happening are extremely small-- in order for it to happen, all the atoms involved would have to line up exactly as they were at the earlier point in time-- like putting the smoke back in the bottle....This infinitely small chance is the same limiting factor preventing a StarTrek style transporter from ever being invented.
Time is a one-way trip, and that is the fundamental basis of it. Your idea of putting 'all the atoms' back where they were is *******s, putting the cart before the horse, so to speak- if Time were able to be rewound, to go backwards, 'all of the atoms' would automatically be put back to their former positions.
Although the position and/or motion of matter can be measured against Time, Time does not care about the motion or position of matter and does not depend on those attributes. Even if you could 'freeze' matter in place, eliminating motion and causing it to remain in the same position, Time would pass regardless...
"Man is the measure of all things" (Protagoras). Time is change or difference. It is measurable because it can be divided into repeatable (countable) units (years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds).
Animals are instinctively attuned to certain changes, such as day or night (light and dark) or the seasons (warm and cold), but can't conceptualize (or know) what time, day, or month it is.
"Man is the measure of all things" (Protagoras). Time is change or difference. It is measurable because it can be divided into repeatable (countable) units (years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds).
I find it interesting that you quote Protagoras. I may be wrong, but I feel that to him your statement regarding time would be meaningless because things are not what they are but what they seem and everything is just an opinion. To Sophists, time may only be a figment of our imagination and would only matter in as far as it appears to us.
before humans invented time there was no such thing as days, weeks, months, hours, minutes and seconds.
you could however count by the passing of sun rise or moon rise.
Stonehenge in England was built to greet the summer and winter equinox.
Humans invented those terms, but that's just nomenclature. Days and years are well defined and refer to specific natural phenomena. If you were to go to another planet, those would automatically change. Either ways, regardless of which subdivision is used, the arrow of time moves forward. All living organisms age and then die.
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