12.25 Seminar about Time

Slim Novel 12 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage

25: Seminar about Time

Sunday and Seminar. Ali stands at end of the mahogany conference table at far end of room from the door where Professor Edwardes's secretary enters and exits. On Ali's left seated are Dan in black suit over white shirt with dark blue tie, to his left the super's assistant, Sam, a powerfully built man in gray turtleneck sweater. And further down, Alfonze in white T shirt. Across from him on other side of table is Brenda in plain black dress that comes up to her neck. On the same side, on Ali's right, opposite Dan, is Nicola of the pizza place in brown shirt and black work pants, and his face with white Italian mustache. On his right is Moyshe a 16-year-old tall guy in brown suit over white shirt with red bow tie. Prof. Edwardes is at end of table, back to door, facing Ali. across length of the long table.

   “Professor Edwardes tells me he asked Dr. Chou to talk to us about the subject, which is Time, and it's about time, dontchyathink?” Ali looks at Edwardes and at that moment the door opens to a slim young Chinese with military-cut hair, and Ali thinks, Wow! He looks like the Charlie Chan's number three son.
   “Oh, Dr. Chou! Thank you!” She makes room for him at head of table.

   Edwardes stands. “Tony, allow me.” Prof. Chou nods Yes.
   “I am honored to introduce Dr. Tony Chou, our physics associate who will run the seminar. Tony did his thesis at UCLA on ‘Time, a dimension.’” He sits.

   “Thank you, John. Well, fellow Seminarans, if I may use that variant to differentiate us from the religious variety, it seems obvious that time flows forward from now to future but time's flow is influenced by matter and energy as Einstein's special theory of relativity suggests." He looks around table. “Now, I should like anyone to tell me his or her thoughts about time?"
   Ali starts it. “When I take my morphine, time slows. What seems to me 10 minutes is, actually, if you clocked it, maybe 30 seconds. But now, without my morphine I experience 10 minutes like you do. But if I get involved in something that fascinates, then my 10 minutes may actually be 1 hour. So time must be in the head.” Ali sits.

   Chou comments: “You have Aristotle's view that each human projects reality from inside his or her mind. Your observation is important in terms of relativity of phenomena and prefigures Einstein.”
   He turns to Dan, who stands. “Well, Ladies and Gentlemen,” Dan starts formally then smiles, “Or, considering my advanced age, better yet,” nodding towards Ali, Moyshe and Brenda, “Girls and boy”, towards Nicola and Alfonze, “fellow Jerome Avenuers”, and then to Chou and Edwardes, “Honored professors.”

   “Now, nearing the end of my life, I often think 'How much more time do I have?' And reading R. Buckminster Fuller, I like his approach and pass it on here. The hour is the best unit of time because, figuring how many hours in a year and considering the human lifespan you get one-million hours in about 114 years. In terms of your clock on the wall, 114 years is the 24th or midnight hour, the end of the day and your ideal lifespan. From this it follows that one could make a life clock. Well, take me? I will be 83 years old, which is seven-hundred, ten-thousand and forty-six hours according to my pencil-paper calculation this morning, and using one-million hours for my ideal life, it is seventy-one percent of my possible life, or on a 24-hour, 12 o’clock timepiece the eight fifty-two PM of my clock-hour life. And thinking of my life in hours makes me value each of my hours more preciously than the usual person, who does not have this concept.”

   Dan sits. Sam, next to him rises. “Well, Mister Dan that is a right original idea. Y’know I do mechanical inventing in my spare time and I can see maybe inventing a lifespan wrist watch – it'd make a million dollars. May ah work out the details and gimme a ten-puhsent?"
   Dan smiles and nods Yes.

   Nicola stands and clears throat. As happens with an educated person who usually speaks in ethnic accent, his English when speaking as expert is better: “Ladies and Gen'lemen. First you know me as the guinea - the pizza guy who works wit' Luigi. But what you don' know is I am educated at the Technical College in Fiume back in Italia. And my godfather is the Nikola Tesla. In fack, dat's why my name. Well, if you never heard a Tesla he is da guy dat Edison stole all his stuff from, he is da man dat shoulda got da Noble Prize for Physic dey gave ta Einstein. I live under his influence befo' you kids born. He was a Serb but he speak Italian. Well, he had a theory a time and dis was before dat Joyman, Plank, got his condom theory.  Ha! Ha!  Like the other Noble Prize scientists, Plank stole his theory from Tesla."

   "Well, Tesla theorize the unity of Nature. At its base wuz da single unified bit a time, matter, energy dat Plank call “quantum”.  But Tesla taught dat time wuz da basic substance of reality, its unbreakable unit he call the Kronum, da smallest piece of time, a micro, micro, micro instant. And inside the Kronum, time stand still. Well, accordin’ ta Tesla, time flow forward only because the Cosmos is a slope and the Kronums roll down da slope like dey is pull by some sort of gravity at the center of reality. Dat's why time go by, as dey say in da song, only in one way so you not never roll back time and you maybe can see into da past by following da light from da past dat reach our eyes from da stars and also by an attachment Tesla made dat receives brain waves and analyzes memory.
  " Dat's all I gotta say.” Nicola sits.

   Alfonze next to him shakes his head. “I do-ohn believe yuh, Nicola. Sorry.”

   Edwardes stands. “Well, gentlemen and ladies, I wish to say about time that it exists to a large extent in our human, individual minds, as Miss Ali's observation suggests. But what about a one-way forward time machine? Now, one might make such a machine by using Einstein's Theory of Relativity. If an individual were to go at such a velocity as to approach the speed of light – then, for that individual in his vehicle, time would be slowed and nearly stopped and when that individual rejoined us, for him, one hour of his travel is maybe one year for the rest of us. This can be mathematically determined by how close to the speed of light he has traveled and I merely use the example without numbers. In fact I have the calculations here” – He holds up a sheet – “for anyone curious. Anyway, at that rate a 24-hour journey for this forward time traveler could land him -  still the age he set out - but 24 years in our future with all of us, and our surroundings 24 years older than when we last saw him. Of course he could never return to his starting out time. Still it is a fascinating possibility that may someday happen and has implications.”

   Alfonze raises his hand and Edwardes acknowledges his interest and motions him to stand. And Alfonze says “Yeah, Pafessa! But how is dat gonna be an advantage for a guy like me? I mean to make money on?”

   Edwardes chuckles. “It is a challenge to wonder what might be a purpose to invent such a one-way-forward time machine. First, allow me to give an image of such a machine. It would have to be a kind of cyclotron because to do the speed, of light and stay in a practicable place you’d have to travel in a circle. We have such cyclotrons today for accelerating electrons and other sub-atomic particles and in fact it has been shown that such particles at near light speed actually stop existing in time, in that their time slows almost to a stop compared to us the observers outside the cyclotron's path. Its like they get inside Tesla's Kronon - as Mr Nicola told us. Of course, for a human time traveler they would need to build a protective capsule. It would be like a 10-foot external diameter sphere with 5-foot high sitting down clearance for a passenger. The thickness of the wall is needed to protect the human from inertia-momentum effects of such high-speed and provide a livable environment. He would be strapped in place and in a kind of protective suit. Well, to answer Alfonze's question: How about using such a time machine for murdering some one in the present and going into the future to escape the law and to collect insurance, inheritances or bank interest which has been a popular fiction speculation of such time machines?

    "Joking aside, the question resolves into: What great benefit to a civilization or its main persons could be achieved by constructing a time machine that sends a human into the future?  I think Science can figure out good answers. Don't you all?”

   Dan raises his hand. “It occurs to me, and maybe it is obvious to others that at our present state of medical knowledge some persons die of disease that in a century may be completely curable. Professor Edwardes's forward time machine might be useful for that. Already it has been also suggested to use suspended animation as animals do when they hibernate over the winter, in this case by a lower-temperature technique?”

   Brenda jumps up without asking permission. “Yeah, I read a story!”
   Moyshe interrupts her. "I'll ask my Rabbi what he thinks."
   Ali gets up. "Interesting, but I want to get back to the one-million hour life - a real fascinating, stimulating idea. My morphine experience tells me the importance of compartmentalizing one's time. Everything by the numbers down to a clock's second hand. Since the hour is so important because it is one one-millionth of an ideal life, how about a portable alarm clock to regularize one's activities? Like I get up in the morning at 06:01 AM?  Why the oh one?  Because an hour don't start at 00, like 06:00, it starts right after 06:00 whose closest our alarm might measure is 06:01. And for all my daily activities, I use the hour or clean fractions of it, by my alarm?"
   Dan holds up his wrist watch. "This one has an alarm - but it is terribly expensive."
   Professor Chou interrupts. "Quite a creative seminar and I want you to keep it going in your minds and between yourselves after leaving here."

Time for food and Luigi's has donated pizza, spaghetti, fresh vegetables and fruits; and, for those who can drink alcohol, beer, or for others, Pepsi's.

   For next, click 12.(26-28) Girl Talk, a Tumble, and Educate Brend...