IDEA POST: 3/11/10 Irreversible Processes

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/5164
"What is time? One Physicist Hunts for the Ultimate theory"

In this article Sean Carroll discusses ideas of time. He is interested in what he calls the "arrow of time." The arrow of time is his description of the way that we in our culture relate to time. We see time as a past, present and future. We can remember the past and know the present but we cannot "remember" the future.

"Time doesn't exist, it is a human concept, our own way of measuring change. There are irreversible processes, there are things that happened like you can turn an egg into an omelet but you cannot change an omelet into an egg." The idea of irreversible processes is the thing I found most interesting out of this article. Time is a strange thing because we can easily say that time does not exist, but when one accepts it as reality how does one explain their own world. Our lives revolve around time, clocks, deadlines etc. I am not sure how to explain my own existence without the reality of time.

Irreversible processes seem to me to be some kind of a clue to what time is. The example of the egg being able to turn into an omelet but not back to the same thing it started from. I guess that starts to talk about the elements that make up the object but at the same time it shows that we cannot reverse a situation.

This idea really gets me thinking about the changes that occur that people seem to not notice. Time can pass by and I miss things all the time. I water my plants but i forget sometimes and come back to find a little one dead and dried up. I completed missed that it was dying, it may be insignificant but it shows my unawareness and distraction.