Time and its Many Roles

What is time? Can we assign a physical significance to it? See, the issue with time is that it has no physical interpretation, no real meaning, unless if we choose to define it. And we define it by using physical changes that occur around us. It has been done since the early times of man, when people started using sun dials - they were intelligent enough to realise that time could be calculated by knowing how the Sun shines on one spot as time goes by. In fact it would be a travesty if, even without clocks and measuring devices, that we did not know of time's existance, as cycles (i.e. Sun rising and setting, among other examples) imply that there exists such a concept. The issue was just about measuring it.

Perhaps it is this abstract quality about time that causes people to have varying opinions about it. Some take it very importantly in what they do, some assign emotional meaning to it, some are ignorant towards it, and so on. The former would probably encompass most of our jobs, and what we do for a living. Take the stock market for example - would old data be useful? People pay for the latest information (so the term "up to date" comes in). What about science experiments? Note what is more often than not one of the axes we draw on a graph. In other words, it is a very important quantity that defines things. In chemistry things are taken a step further, as you learn about entropy. But I'll leave that concept for those who want to read about it on Wikipedia; it definitely isn't for the faint hearted ;)

It also from time where we get a measuring stick to compare different things with. We get new terminology such as early, late, fast, slow, and so on. Notice that all the words mentioned before need something to be compared against to actually work. You could always say that a car is fast, but fast against what? No prizes for guessing whether this applies when you compare that very car to a supersonic jet! Yes, time gives us a measuring tool. From this we can assess different things, different phenomena, different tools, all using our grey matter - to ultimately come up with a decision (isn't this what most of us do as human beings?)

With time too, we get concepts like procrastination in the picture. To be totally honest with you all, I never really understood the concept of procrastination. First time I heard it was during a study skill talk back in Form 3. It was a very difficult concept to understand, though from what I understood it simply meant dilly-dallying. If that is the case, then I am afraid that most Malaysians, even overseas suffer from such a syndrome, because if we all look at gatherings that happen, how many actually start on time? In fact, it is customary (in most countries around the world this time, not only Malaysia) for VIPs to attend functions late (and then again, those functions don't start until the VIPs arrive).

To sidetrack a little, it gets particularly annoying when people come not only 5 minutes late (though there are those who, as stated before, put a lot of emotion into time - they will not tolerate people who come even a few seconds late!), but half an hour late? Yes! Before you go all ashen faced (or start snickering in guilt), it does get pretty annoying, especially if it becomes a culture. Think I'm joking? I spoke to all of my friends a while back, and they was telling me that "if A goes late, and B goes late, then I go late also lor!". This means that our appointment at 10 am are inevitably implied as 1030 am, and those who are silly enough to go early end up wasting time waiting for others, i'm meant to all Tanjong Malim friend. Same case happened today, badminton appointed at 10, i know they'll late, so i called Pinky: "reach liao inform me" instead of wasting time there. I used to be punctual all the time, but friends influence cant be take as a joke. It happens, you see. Yes, punctuality is held very high in regard by people, but apparently not enough in this case. >_> And before you go all berserk and all :P , yes I am guilty of procrastination as well. Just that I have put my foot down and decided to cut down on it to the best that I can. But I am digressing...

I believe that each of us, whatever our faith, belief, culture, age, or gender would surely more often than not be in agreement that we are curious about death. The thought surely passes through our mind as to what death really is, what happens when you experience it, when will we experience it and so on. It is the final question, of when, that elicit a lot of curiosity and subsequently research. Research is done to tell us how long we can last on a certain diet, how long before we become unattractive and require plastic surgery *cynical tone*, how long before we run the risk of cancer, etc. The fundamental principle is there, and that is time. Time too, plays an important role here.

I believe that there are more instances where it plays an important part in our lives, but I'll leave that for you to go back and think about :)

p/s damn, i studied too much in Psychology.

Brandon~