# What is time in itself?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-time-in-itself/463228>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 12, 2008, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-time-in-itself/463228 "2008-09-12T04:58:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![petew83](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@petew83](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/petew83)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-time-in-itself/463228/1 "2008-09-12T04:58:53Z")

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Do you directly experience time? If so, how do you imagine it. To my imagination time seems like motions of objects, or old snapshots/memories. Time is not something I can directly conceptualize. Sure u can make judgments on ‘what time it is’ or ‘how much time has passed’, but the thing u r judging, time itself, seems so elusive.

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**Author:** ![warmgun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@warmgun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/warmgun)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-time-in-itself/463228/2 "2008-09-12T05:25:46Z")

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Fish swim at the edge of my consciousness.

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-time-in-itself/463228/3 "2008-09-12T05:29:38Z")

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As you say, time is directly related with movement. No movement = no time.

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**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-time-in-itself/463228/4 "2008-09-12T06:23:28Z")

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Time is the forced motion through a dimension orthogonal to the more navigable three. It gets confusing because the very act of thinking about time includes additional movement through it. At no point to you get to stop and catch your breath or go back and recheck something. And any internal representation, like snapshots, or grainy film, or falling sand, or fluttering calendars is just an imperfect metaphor. Unless you bootstrap your consciousness up a dimension, I think you’ll always be stymied.

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-time-in-itself/463228/5 "2008-09-12T07:35:17Z")

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Time is the measurement of changing events.

I find it impossible to imagine “before time began” but apparently there has to be such a thing for the universe to make sense.

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**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-time-in-itself/463228/6 "2008-09-12T07:42:10Z")

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Graffiti from somewhere: “Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once.”

One of my favorite definitions.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-time-in-itself/463228/7 "2008-09-12T13:45:38Z")

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This seems destined for another forum. Moved.

**samclem** GQ moderator