# the opposite of time **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 18, 1999, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497 "1999-12-18T04:10:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 1999, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/21 "1999-12-19T14:11:00Z")
I like Spiritus Mundi’s answer. Time is generally defined by change, so stasis would be its opposite. Suppose in the next second, everything in the universe “froze” for ten thousand years with nothing happening and then everything resumed at the point it was frozen. Would that ten thousand years have actually occurred? ---
**Author:** ![Nickrz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nickrz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nickrz)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 1999, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/22 "1999-12-19T15:25:00Z")
Thinking of time as an absolute concept? It’s not, it’s relative. Einstein’s special theory of relativity addressed the concept of time dilation. As an object approaches the speed of light, time as measured by a clock carried with that object (we’re talking theoretical here) slows down when compared to a clock carried by a (relatively) motionless observer. When the speed of light is reached, time stops. I.e: time does not “pass” for the photon, frozen as it is at the exact moment of creation in the big bang. There can be no “opposite” for a concept that itself carries with it all possibilities of definition or measurement. ---
**Author:** ![Arken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Arken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arken)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 1999, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/23 "1999-12-19T17:57:00Z")
I don’t think that time has to have an opposite. The universe is not dualistic. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/24 "1999-12-20T00:12:00Z")
Ah, yes, whatever is everywhere cannot have an opposite. Human minds are small and cannot grasp such a concept. Questions like this remind me of: om•ne ig•no•tum pro mag•ni•fi•co 'om-ne-ig-"no-'tum-pro-mag-"ni-fi-'ko\ [L] : everything unknown (is taken) as grand : the unknown tends to be exaggerated in importance or difficulty ©1996 Zane Publishing, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. All rights reserved. ---
**Author:** ![mega\_the\_roo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mega\_the\_roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mega_the_roo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/25 "1999-12-20T04:56:00Z")
maybe i’m crazy but nothing was exaggerated in importance or difficulty, but rather a question was asked. oh no! not a question! * * * “human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/26 "1999-12-20T07:09:00Z")
As Kilgore pointed out, not only do we have to define ‘time’ we have to define ‘opposite.’ Do you mean: reverses? anihilates? stops? complete lack of? So, are you looking for the force/thing/reality that reverses time? Cancels out time? Stops time? Timeless? ## Peace. What’s the opposite of river? of blue? ---
**Author:** ![TBone2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@TBone2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBone2)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/27 "1999-12-20T07:41:00Z")
Correct-amundo, Moriah, and those that have gone before! The original poster, or ‘poser,’ in this instance, neglected the simple fact that there needn’t be an opposite for everything! We can postulate a concept like ‘time.’ But if, and especially until, the concept of ‘time’ is totally ironed out, who’s to say if there can be a concept called ‘anti-time,’ or the ‘opposite’ of time? And even if we’re able to nail down ‘time,’ there is nothing to say that there exists an opposite. * * * I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free… T ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/28 "1999-12-20T13:23:00Z")
Well to play a silly (stupid) game we used to play in high school which misinterpreted the definition of “opposite” to mean “having the least in common with” I’d have to say that the opposite of time would have to be a chair, a jelly donut, or the pain of a hangnail. * * * – Teeming Millions: [http://fathom.org/teemingmillions](http://fathom.org/teemingmillions) “Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat O p a l C a t [www.opalcat.com](http://www.opalcat.com) ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/29 "1999-12-20T13:57:00Z")
I agree with Kilgore: > [@](#): > > before anyone attempts to define time, why doesn’t someone start by defining ‘opposite’? If opposite = antonym, then time has no opposite. _True_ has an opposite, _false_; _wet_ has an opposite, _dry_ (although those two are both relative), and so on, but a number of words do not. What is the opposite of _fish_, _Wednesday_, _photocopier_ or _sixteen seconds_? From the point of view of formal logic, the opposite of any proposition is its negation. So, the opposite of P is not-P (formalised as ¬P or ~P). Therefore, while it may not be possible to come up with an opposite of time, the opposite of any _statement about time_ is the negation of that statement: “Time is relative” “Time is not relative” “Time flies” “TIme does not fly” “It’s time for another drink” “It’s not time for another drink” You get the picture. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/30 "1999-12-20T16:00:00Z")
‘Time’ is an abstract idea [4th dim.] & the opposite of an abstract idea is a fish. ---
**Author:** ![mega\_the\_roo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mega\_the\_roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mega_the_roo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/31 "1999-12-20T17:41:00Z")
hey hey hey! easy cougar! i do recall saying **seems** in my original post… sorry for not digging in the dirt and spelling it out… and just for the record, i haven’t seriously thought about the answer to this question… or if there even is an answer… i was simply curious as to what other people would say. and as for, > [@](#): > > Do you mean: reverses? anihilates? stops? complete lack of? ## pick one. “human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/32 "1999-12-21T06:10:00Z")
Totally OT… Handy reminded me of my favorite lightbulb joke: Q: How many surrialists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A:Fish ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/33 "1999-12-21T10:18:00Z")
Well, a phish is **not** the opposite of a filosofer, cause neither one can ever seem to get his feet on terra firma. Ray (aquatic worm) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/34 "1999-12-21T17:15:00Z")
Hello all. I’d like to throw in my two-bit-partial-understanding/knowledge of physics in here. I am under the impression (misguided, most likely) that one of the few places time shows up in classical physics is in the (second?) law of thermodynamics. Whichever one it is, it says something to the effect that entropy _increases_ with time. Well, if (humor me here, this is only a thought experiment) you had a situation where during discretely occurring serial events (to paraphrase **Tomndebb** ) entropy was _decreasing_ could you call that the opposite of time? Not so much the opposite of the concept of time (which can’t really be answered, come to think of it. Can’t say what the opposite of height is, either, or the opposite of any measurement.) but this situation would be opposite to our conventional experience of time. Well, those were my two cents. I hope that you don’t think me the worse for it, I really have a much greater interest in physics than I do understanding. All I know for sure is that while I was typing this the entropy on my desk increased much more thank I expected. * * * Once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right… ---
**Author:** ![JoltSucker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@JoltSucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoltSucker)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/35 "1999-12-21T17:39:00Z")
Not only would entropy decrease in an anti-time universe, but _perhaps_ Einstein’s time dilution might be reversed. Instead of becoming infinitely massive and having time slow to zero as you approached the speed of light, perhaps you would become massless and infinitely older. ---
**Author:** ![JoltSucker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@JoltSucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoltSucker)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/36 "1999-12-22T16:28:00Z")
Let me commandeer the OP with a counter-question: Is time necessarily simply a vector (i.e., time marches on), or can it be two dimensional? Three dimensional? N-dimensional? Stephen Hawkins talked about “imaginary” time (as is the square root of -1), and I think he talked about time being planar. Any cosmologists out there want to tackle this one? ---
**Author:** ![mega\_the\_roo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mega\_the\_roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mega_the_roo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/37 "1999-12-22T16:35:00Z")
okay, see, i like this better. people are thinking about the possibility of an answer instead of jumping down my throat with the absurdity of my question. yay joltsucker! * * * “human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/38 "1999-12-22T17:10:00Z")
Mega, from your website, you say you hate to hear answers for questions like “Why is the sky blue?” I would say “What is the opposite of time?” is one of those questions. So, I’m not gonna tell you! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mega\_the\_roo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mega\_the\_roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mega_the_roo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497/39 "1999-12-22T21:37:00Z")
oh no, absolutely not. the reason i don’t like answers to questions like the sky one, is i like to keep some mystery in the things that i love. why is the sky blue? i couldn’t care less. i think it’s beautiful and i just love that it is. it’s kind of like magic, you know the magician isn’t actually cutting his assistant in half, but who wants to ruin the trick by learning every step they go through to create the illusion? i’m just a big kid that would rather be enthralled by the mystery. and as for time. time can kiss my butt 🙂 * * * “human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-time/5497.md?page=1)