What is time? If you ask a random person, they will probably give you something to do with clocks, hours or the sun. It's interesting how people define something only by how it is measured. Some other responses will most likely be something along the lines of being nuclear, revolutions, Newtonian or a dimension. Nuclear is another method of measurement, as are revolutions. Newtonian is sequential event sets, typically predefined, especially after happening (they will always happen if you go back in time, the silly notion). A dimension narrows a definition of time down a little, but still doesn't describe it outside of being completely vague.
I am somewhat along the lines of Newtonian time.
Time is purely change. If nothing changes, then time hasn't "passed" so to speak. There is no time travel as you traveling would also be time "passage." The closest thing possible to time travel would be going to a point where things hadn't changed in a specific way yet, though there is certainly no guarantee of things changing to a specific way at all. Change is plastic.
We measure time for multiple reasons. The first is to standardize preset events, like sporting events or the opera. With standardization comes, to an extent, control over what is going on around you. We are certainly a species that is in love with controlling. The second is to put prior changes into perspective in terms of how much has changed between the history and the present, typically to give a lesson, but to also to help you supposedly understand where you came from, the why you came to be and why it is where you are. The third is to help us feel insignificant so we are more easily manipulated into believing in things that haven't changed or will endlessly change while still maintaining consciousness; a divine being or beings. It can make us feel quite insecure to realize when we die, things still change and before we came to be, things had changed, that we aren't in control, that we aren't all there is. As a species, we tend to need that kind of humility, though we certainly don't need the manipulation that is added by those looking to control or fill with a waffle of an answer on the questions of "how" and "why" to matters of existence.
Really, time is another example of Homo Sapiens arrogance. Time, according to us, revolves around us, or us it as it may be. We measure it purely by our perspective with no attempt at neutrality.
Time as a dimension is an interesting concept, really. Typically, we think of time as a dimension surrounding the others that we pass through. If time was a dimension, why couldn't the other dimensions encompass time and time passes through us? Better yet, with time surrounding the other dimensions, what if the other dimensions had already passed through time, but they are now just trying to catch up to where they are supposed to be after passing through time?
I'm sure the first rebuttal will be "what about memory?" Clearly, we can perceive change, otherwise we wouldn't have much of a personality, especially much diversity in personality. Since our memories are pretty much recordings of the change we have perceived, we can remember the changes that have gone previously (as imperfectly and incomplete as we do). Keep in mind, just because we remember a certain process of change doesn't mean that if we rewind the change, then interact with it as it goes on in a different manner, doesn't mean it would change in the same way. Plastic.
Having our measurements of time is important nowadays, though it certainly wasn't necessary 2,000 years ago. We didn't need any units of time to know when to grow or harvest our crops, as it would be apparent what needed to be done when after experiencing on meteorological cycle. Would we have developed time as things progressed if we hadn't done so as early as we did? Certainly, as it is now necessary when dealing with how our economy and social agendas are set up. We just need to remember that time is more than how we measure, but that it is, purely, change.
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