What is time? I believe most people would agree that time is a constant flow of events from one instant into the next or a measurement of the duration of or length between events. Thus, time is a linear series of occurrences. Is it? Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines the word "time" in several contexts. The most relevant to our discussion are:.
1 a: the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues : DURATION b: a nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future 2: the point or period when something occurs: OCCASION 3 a: an appointed, fixed, or customary moment or hour for something to happen, begin, or end b: an opportune or suitable moment 4 a: an historical period : AGE 8 a: a moment, hour, day, or year as indicated by a clock or calendar b: any of various systems (as sidereal or solar) of reckoning time . (1231).
It appears that the definition of "time" depends on how we measure it. .
Is time constant? For our lives to make sense, it must be. Seconds must tick into minutes; minutes must form hours and become days; days must trudge on into months and years; and so on throughout the millennia. The sun must rise and set every day as the earth eternally revolves around the sun. What if time is not as constant and concrete as we like to believe? Time warps and bends, thus creating a different view of reality. I refer to the alternate concepts of time as "metaphysical time" where "metaphysical" refers to that which is not accepted as normal within the realm of humankind's three-dimensional reality. Jorge Luis Borge's "The Garden of Forking Paths" and Johan Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust ensnare their readers in the arena of metaphysical time. Both works challenge their readers to set-aside their ideas of normal, rational, and sane, thus invoking notions of fantasies and improbable realities.