| </span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (orgaelin,)
I see what you mean Mr Bath.
You're talking about the actual physical interaction.
So you have two forces, one from the hand, one from the rubber. But aren't these both effects of the hand pushing the membrane? Am I not right in thinking that action/reaction are not the same as cause/effect?<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>
The pressure on the hand is the effect of the tension of the membrane pushing on the hand. In this view, the membrane is the cause. But it’s only a “view.” In truth, both entities are pushing against each other at exactly the same time. So both hand and membrane are causes (at least, this is an equally valid view to take). Actually, the whole thing is just one event in which the hand-pressure and the membrane-pressure are merely aspects of the single, unitary event.
Of course, one may argue that situations like this are isolated events, leaving initial causes outside the arena of the event, so to speak, and that they only enjoy their simultaneity in isolation. But I suspect that no part of the universe is isolated unto itself, that everything touches directly or indirectly. And as I mentioned in a previous post, I haven’t had time to really dig for the proof but I would think that, in a unified universe, if anything is simultaneous with anything else, all things will be simultaneous with each other since all things are in some way or the other in contact with each other – that is, in a sense, pushing against each other.
Hence, time loses its meaning – at least the meaning we are accustomed to giving it, such as things following other things. I think a better definition of time now would be “the measure of change.” (I think Aristotle had said that, didn’t he?) But that leaves us with the interesting task of defining change. Which ought to be rewarding in itself.
I’ve planned for some time to work on the details of this idea, and I’m glad it came up here to spark me on. I’m between projects and it’s a good time to work on it. Especially in an intellectually savvy forum like this.
Of course, it’s not a question that can resolved quickly. But neither was the “flat Earth” concept. |