Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 39, No. 368.
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        Date: 2026-03-14 22:34:01+00:00
        From: James Rovira <jamesrovira@gmail.com>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 39.365: time and the future

It might help if we considered thinking about past, present, and future in
terms of more than one discipline: not just space/time, but subjectively,
and then in philosophy (with a great deal of overlap between the two).

But in terms of physics, as I understand it, the future is a definite,
specific location in space and time. We can travel there by going really
fast (time dilation effect). So it is real.

The past is not real in that sense, in a space/time sense. But it is real
subjectively, in memory. I'm not saying memory is reliable, but it is an
artifact in the present of the past.

Derrida observes that given the slight time delay between light hitting our
cornea and the time it takes for our brains to process the signal, we are
in fact always living ever so slightly in the past.

Jim R

On Sat, Mar 14, 2026 at 4:03 AM Humanist <humanist@dhhumanist.org> wrote:

> Dear Willard,
>
> The past and the future don't, of course, really exist.


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