Dreams and time

[mr d]

hello

 

don't know if this is the right forum but here goes.

recently had one of those fun dreams where you feel you've been some place doing some task and it felt as if you were really there passing time, such as a afternoon at the beach. but on waking find only ten or fifteen minutes have actually pasted.

question is, since the mind thinks in terms of bio-electric energy, does energy have its own sense of time, or does time not exist for energy.

i know time slows when approaching lightspeed, but if you actually did travel at the speed of light or faster, would time as we percieve it stop to exist.

which would be useful in extending space flights where as you pass light speed your mass is converted to energy and our meaning of time no longer exists until your energy is converted back to matter.

strange thoughts

 

mr d

[5614]

As you approach speed of light time slows down. As you reach speed of light (impossible unless you are massless) time becomes meaningless. You cannot go faster than light.

 

The "mass converted to energy" stuff is rubbish, you cannot go faster than light.

 

As to the "does energy have time" question. It is complicated because what is "energy"?

 

The kinetic or thermal energy of an object is a property, you wouldn't really say it travels through time. I was tempted to say 'energy doesn't travel through time' but then I thought you might bring the example of a photon. So I'll say a lump of energy travelling through time doesn't exist as such unless it is in a specific form, ie. a photon or mass, this then travels through time.

 

However this train of thought is irrelevant to your question, the time taken for your brain to transmit and process data takes nanoseconds and, in the sense that you are talking about, is unaffected by relativity (ie. the fact that going quickly slows time is irrelevant to this thread).

[Xyph]

Yes, relativistic time dilation would be useful on extended space flights, but not in the way or for the reasons that you've stated.

 

The "dreamtime" you're talking about has far more to do with the brain's collective perception of time than the speed of any individual neural impulses. In dreams the situation is even more distorted by the fact that your perception of everything, let alone time, is probably going to be severely skewered compared to reality. I seriously doubt that - if you recorded your dreams by some indeterminate means and then played them back while awake - the passing of time would seem to make any consistent sense whatsoever to your wakeful self, even if you noticed nothing unusual while you were experiencing it.

[m4rc]

One interesting and relevant fact is that one experiment has shown that dreams sequences occur at about the same speed as in real life. Electrodes were placed on the heads of mice as they ran a maze and their brain activity was measured. Their brain activity was also measured while they were asleep and the reseachers could tell that the mice were dreaming about running in the maze. They could even tell that in which part of the maze the mice were and that time passed at about the same rate in their dreams. For more info see http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/dreams-0131.html

[Daecon]

I remember when I was little, my mum would shout me awake to get ready for school, I'd get up and head out when she'd shout me awake again - I'd been dreaming that I'd already got up!

 

So anyway, I'd wake up and go and get ready for school... when mum would shout me awake again! I was still dreaming about getting out of bed and getting ready for school.

 

This happened on a few occasions... *LOL*

[mr d]

hello

 

seem to remember recently that scientist had determined that light/energy seen at the moment of the big bang was traveling at a speed faster than the current accepted speed of light ( i'll go for the formation of matter and gravity as the influences on slowing). but if true, and you could find a means to nullify what is slowing down current light, you should be able to travel at a great speed then what we have now.

strange thoughts

 

mr d

[5614]

"strange thoughts" -- hmm, I'd say wrong thoughts personally.

[ecoli]

hello

 

seem to remember recently that scientist had determined that light/energy seen at the moment of the big bang was traveling at a speed faster than the current accepted speed of light ( i'll go for the formation of matter and gravity as the influences on slowing). but if true' date=' and you could find a means to nullify what is slowing down current light, you should be able to travel at a great speed then what we have now.

strange thoughts

 

mr d[/quote']

not that this is related to the thread, but, if c was actually decreasing, then it would only appear to us as if the universe is expanding.

[mr d]

"strange thoughts" -- hmm, I'd say wrong thoughts personally.

__________________

Jonathan aka 5614

 

its all theoretical so there are no wrong thoughts.

perhaps light moves so fast because it is realy composed of very small multi-legged creatures with fast tennis shoes.

just a theory and a strange thought.

 

mr d

[silkworm]

I'm curious about this myself. My dreams are very very long and very very detailed and I think that it has a negative effect on my memory. Does anyone know of any good and valid dream research? Thank you for that link m4rc