A question for deep thinkers

I think that "the present" can depend on the way you are using it. It can be today; it can be this week; it can be this decade.

But technically, I believe it exists. It arrives, and then it leaves, but it still is here, even if only for a split second.

Make any sense?

By the way- this topic reminds me of a quote I once heard. "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift- that's why we call it the present."--It was said by that short, animated bald guy, whose name I can't remember for the life of me.

there is the now. Live it. There is no future because you can't live in it. The past is gone, you've already livedit. Ther is only the now.

^Exactly, only the now is such an infinitely tiny moment, because it lingers for the smallest unit of time before it is devoured by the past. So, seize the now before it's gone.

I disagree, Abby:

'Firstly, it implies time only goes in one direction.'

Not at all. You are thinking of the inplications, connotations and inferences of 'the present'. The present is merely what we experience at the moment of experience. The 'NOW'. I do not believe time is linear, and yet I believe there is a NOW, which is the present, otherwise this moment would have to be the past or future.

'Secondly, it must only be subjective- defined as something occurring alongside something else.'

That is a tenuous point. Everything is subjective because the map is not the territory. In other words, everything is subjective because the very act of percieving something means the perception of it is different from the reality.

'Thirdly, the 'present' is different everywhere and is only relative- take starlight, for example. Even my present here is probably your tomorrow there.'

No, that is merely human perspective. Yes, I may label 'this point in time' tomorrow in this part of the world, yet you may label 'this point in time' where you are the present. Ultimately though, 'this point in time', is still, 'this point in time'. What you are referring to is difference in human perspective, or as you said, 'conceptualised to make sense of reality'; distance = time in physics.

All of this can be encapsulated in one point; we musn't get too carried away in what most people have accepted as their view of time - a linear, past present and future. The present does not have to be codependant on these components. The only thing we can objectively say, is that the present exists, because our physical existence and experience postulates that. There is nothing else we can say, for your thoughts are riddles with implications and inferences from the bare facts.

Even so, what would be interesting is to debate whether memories are evidence of the past. Or even photographs.

I think that the past is merely a memory, the future is only a guess, and the present has already become a memory, therefore it doesn't exist.

There is a present. Sure, as soon as it has happened, it is past. But WHILE it is happening, it is present. Just because our peabrains can't fathom the tiniest amount of time which is considerable to be present, does not mean it is nonexistent. Then consider your tenses. I am. I was. I will.

You humans like to overcomplicate things.

I'll check back tomorrow, see if what I wrote makes sense. This is my last post for the night. I'm worn.

Abby, the deal is this. The now exists only as the moment in which you live. everything else is not the now; it is something different. However, not everybody's now is different. The now in which I type this to you is being shared with a person in China who is using this exact now to maybe ride a bike, despite the fact that his now maybe 12 hours ahead of mine (or whatever the time difference is). Yes their conceptualized hours and minutes, today and tommorrow are different, but that does not change the now. Now I am doing this, typing to you. Now someone somewhere else is doing something else, but the clock says they are ahead of me, does that make them my future? No. Does that make me their past? No. because if you had a camera grand enough to take a snapshot of the world you would see us both completing our own actions in that picture, despite the clock.

How wise you are.

When you TOUCH the table..the immediate touch..during the process. That is the present! What do you fools not get about this!?! Borrow my brain if you must.