But what does this mean, and what conclusions follow
from it?
The space of our conception is three-dimensional--that is, extended in
three directions. For instance, the north-south direction, the east-west
direction, and the up-down direction. Any place or "point" in space thus
is located, relative to some other point, by giving its three distances
from the latter, in three (arbitrarily chosen) directions.
Time has only one dimension--that is, extends in one direction only,
from the past to the future--and a moment or "point" in time thus is
located, with reference to another point in time, by one time distance.
But there is a fundamental difference between our space conception and
our time conception, in that we can pass through time only in one
direction, from the past to the future, while we can pass through space
in any direction, from north to south, as well as from south to
north--that is, time is irreversible, flows uniformly in one direction,
while space is reversible, can be traversed in any direction. This means
that when we enter a thing in space, as a house, we can approach it,
pass through it, leave it, come back to it, and the thing therefore
appears permanent to us, and we know, even when we have left the house
and do not see it any more, that it still exists, and that we can go
back to it again and enter it.
Pages:
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180