Non-Silly Ass Thread 3 - The REAL Millennium

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Okay, here it is, the true Millenium, right? Last year was a sham. 2000 is the last year of the 20th Century, not the first year of the 21st. Right? We all got that? Right? So Jan 1, 2001 is really, really it this time. Right?

Maybe. It depends on who you ask and what calendar you use. The Pope screwed things up a couple of centuries ago by eliminating nearly two weeks one chilly October (to make up for innacurate calculations in a year's length), so, techincally, the new Millennium might not start for another fortnight.

Well -- I just read that there is a new theory out (and getting widepsread support), that TIME doesn't truly exist. Time doesn't pass. It just IS. There is no past or future, only a (relative to the observer) present. Anyone else read about this?

I've heard that women who've spent time in underground labs for months at a time lose all track of their cycles and menstruate at very odd times, all because their body clocks are no longer set on the rise and fall of the sun and moon.

What do you think? Are we slaves to time, and if time doesn't exist, what does that say about us?

 

[Chuckus]

Okay, here it is, the true Millenium, right? Last year was a sham. 2000 is the last year of the 20th Century, not the first year of the 21st. Right? We all got that? Right? So Jan 1, 2001 is really, really it this time. Right?

Maybe. It depends on who you ask and what calendar you use. The Pope screwed things up a couple of centuries ago by eliminating nearly two weeks one chilly October (to make up for innacurate calculations in a year's length), so, techincally, the new Millennium might not start for another fortnight.

Well -- I just read that there is a new theory out (and getting widepsread support), that TIME doesn't truly exist. Time doesn't pass. It just IS. There is no past or future, only a (relative to the observer) present. Anyone else read about this?

I've heard that women who've spent time in underground labs for months at a time lose all track of their cycles and menstruate at very odd times, all because their body clocks are no longer set on the rise and fall of the sun and moon.

What do you think? Are we slaves to time, and if time doesn't exist, what does that say about us?

If time really does not exist and just "is" then I can't answer your Non Silly Ass Thread 2....

 

[Juspar Emvan]

Time

Did you ever notice how as you get older, the years seem shorter. Gives some creedance to the idea of time not being as relable as we thought. I've heard it said that time is an artificail measure imposed on us to try and understand what could probably be better described as chronology (one thing happens before another.) Our brains are fairly fragile really and if we take away structures like 'time' we'd probably all go insane.

Regarding the whole millenium thing, what does it matter? As I don't personally believe that Jesus was the son of God, why should it matter if he was born 2000 years, 2001 years, 2001 years and a fortnight ago. It's not exactly a significant mile stone for me.

 

[CreamyLady]

I've been reading that time bends and stretches and has bumps. The measurement of time is supposed to be standard, but it has to be fixed to some external event; I believe the standard has something to do with the rate of decay of some proton or something. I'm not exactly sure.

Time is relative.

Personally, I don't care exactly when the millenium is. However, if there's a party every year, where some small population of people is hitting another milestone in their collective continuum, I'll happily help them celebrate.

 

[Thumper]

"If I could save time in a bottle.."

Sappy song...

I tend to believe that time just "is".

My father came over last week and tried to engage me in a discussion of time and it's biblical implications. He is a literalist when it comes to the Bible and he steadfastly believes that the earth is only 6,000+ years old tops. Dinosaurs roamed the planet with man and all that rot. Anyway he asked me if "Time" would cease after Armageddon since everything would be eternal...

I just shook my head...

Time is the fourth dimension....it is what separates events...if it weren't for time everything would occur at the same instant and for that matter at the same point in space since time and space(distance) are relative to each other.

Time is indeed relative...and the less "time" I spend with my "relatives" the more balanced my universe is...

 

[teresafannin]

I don't know about time existing, but I am glad someone besides me & Arthur C. Clarke believe that 2001 is the first year of the new millenium. I do think that time goes by faster as you get older. I can't believe this year is almost gone, it feels like it just started.

 

[Wil_E_Harden]

"Confronting the Millenium"

Steven Jay Gould wrote a book by this name which is a delightful gem you should buy before it becomes passe.

His points:

A. The very idea of a "millenium" as date with any genuine significance is completely fabricated.

B. If it is supposed to somehow date from Jesus' birth, latest evidence suggests the millenium probably took place about 6 years ago.

C. The year "2000" is indeed the last year of the present millenium as the common calendar goes, but, yeah, the date could be off by anything from a period of weeks to a year or so because of calendar fiddling by late Roman Empire clerics, Popes and English bureaucrats. In respect to formal mathematics, 2001 is the first year of the new millennium.

D. Since most people just consider 2000 as the beginning of the millennium, and since it does not actually mean anything anyhow, and inasmuchas celebrating the turn of a millenium is an excuse for a terrific party, Gould is easy. He considers the new epoch begins when most people agree it does.

Here's the Amazon.com reviewed site:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t.../reviews/ref=pm_dp_ln_b_6/102-2713126-9796121

Pass the champers and let's all go watch things through the window of Douglas Adams' Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

[Edited by Wil_E_Harden on 12-29-2000 at 07:14 AM]