The Time Between Time
Excerpt from “Why Knot?” Buy the book at Amazon
A series of still photos or drawings viewed in rapid succession looks like natural movement. The faster the sequence, the smoother and more natural the motion seems.
The human eye and human brain evolved with this ability to convert a sequence of still images into the perception of motion. What was the survival benefit of that?
Perhaps reality is discontinuous, like a series of still shots; and the ability to perceive it as continuous provides practical benefits, as does the ability to perceive matter as solid and continuous rather than as atoms and force fields, mostly empty space.
We might ask if reality consists of smooth, continuous changes or discrete changes. If discrete changes were small enough, we wouldn’t perceive them. Our perception isn’t fine-tuned enough to resolve this question, any more than it allows us to notice the breaks between frames of a movie.
We can make machines that perceive and record far more accurately than our all-too-human senses and brain. But, today, the machines that we rely on to extend our sensory processing and memory capabilities are all digital — based on discrete choices — yes or no, one or zero. In other words, they have a built-in bias. Hence the resolution of this question is beyond their ability as well.
