Very nice Dave, thanks. Youtube presented me with a video today that showed a tribe whose language was entirely in the present. The Piraha tribe, from the Amazon I think. I wondered if they saw time as linear. Then I wondered if sheep do.
If I understand what you're saying, you're arguing that something in 'the past' - keeping with the sense that the past is 'behind' us - can actually be in the present. In which case what does it reference, because the thing that it's climbing to reference isn't actually in the past but it's in the 'now'? Doesn't this just evacuate memory and the past entirely and make everything just a succession of endless 'presents'?
And if you can't 'remember' the present because it's in process, how does it become memorable? By what mechanism? Is this maybe what you might call consciousness or self-awareness? Is this available then only to higher order beings like humans and other animals? In which case, how does time manifest for everything else?
I love the idea of heterochronic time, so I'll do a bit of digging into that as well.
If a photograph represents something that ‘has been’, what happens when we look at it in the here and now? If the light that we see takes about 8 minutes to reach us from the sun, is everything we see already 8 minutes old? If I remember being in Auckland when I am currently in Rome, where am I?
“So are memories — all memories — folded into the present? In which case, what’s the difference between past and present?” Surely it’s possible to view memories as occurring in the present but about the past? The difference between the past and present is that you can’t remember the present because it’s still happening. I’ve probably misunderstood some philosophical logic here but I don’t have a problem with the notion of linear time or the notion of duration existing alongside one another. A bit like waves and particles. Does process philosophy invalidate alternative concepts of time? I’m currently reading Peter Szendy’s book about the ecology of images and the idea that a photograph is heterochronic. It’s making my head hurt in a similar way to Tina Campt’s suggestion that we should listen to photographs. Great post!
Very nice Dave, thanks. Youtube presented me with a video today that showed a tribe whose language was entirely in the present. The Piraha tribe, from the Amazon I think. I wondered if they saw time as linear. Then I wondered if sheep do.
Haha, thanks. I knew you'd know about it 😁. I'll amend the online edition now.
Thanks Jon.
If I understand what you're saying, you're arguing that something in 'the past' - keeping with the sense that the past is 'behind' us - can actually be in the present. In which case what does it reference, because the thing that it's climbing to reference isn't actually in the past but it's in the 'now'? Doesn't this just evacuate memory and the past entirely and make everything just a succession of endless 'presents'?
And if you can't 'remember' the present because it's in process, how does it become memorable? By what mechanism? Is this maybe what you might call consciousness or self-awareness? Is this available then only to higher order beings like humans and other animals? In which case, how does time manifest for everything else?
I love the idea of heterochronic time, so I'll do a bit of digging into that as well.
If a photograph represents something that ‘has been’, what happens when we look at it in the here and now? If the light that we see takes about 8 minutes to reach us from the sun, is everything we see already 8 minutes old? If I remember being in Auckland when I am currently in Rome, where am I?
PS I think the photographer, George Hoyningen- Huene, deserves a credit alongside the swimwear designer 😉
“So are memories — all memories — folded into the present? In which case, what’s the difference between past and present?” Surely it’s possible to view memories as occurring in the present but about the past? The difference between the past and present is that you can’t remember the present because it’s still happening. I’ve probably misunderstood some philosophical logic here but I don’t have a problem with the notion of linear time or the notion of duration existing alongside one another. A bit like waves and particles. Does process philosophy invalidate alternative concepts of time? I’m currently reading Peter Szendy’s book about the ecology of images and the idea that a photograph is heterochronic. It’s making my head hurt in a similar way to Tina Campt’s suggestion that we should listen to photographs. Great post!