This idea doesn't work for me. Many animals clearly have a perception of time. Also, planets and stars need time to evolve. Which is not to say that I understand what it actually is.

@Coffeo So, how exactly do you know for certain that animals can perceive time?

@Triphid There have been heaps of studies. Here's an approachable one, from Scientific American.
[scientificamerican.com]

@Coffeo Yes but, are NOT all studies into 'time' simply based upon the ideologies and concepts of man himself since it is man who needs to rationalize everything into terms that his mind can comprehend using his presently limited intellect?

@Triphid I suppose that applies to all studies into anything at all. In which case, what's the point?

@Coffeo Well, since most people see things only from the aspect/s of the ' little boxes' that they've taught to look at the world from and so we end up with such things as time, religions and the like.
But, when you get someone, or a group, that starts to think and look ' outside the box' then slowly a whole new and exciting world begins to open up.
As my father once taught me as a child, " Never accept an answer without first ASKING the question and then question the answer as well." Not too bad an idea from a self-educated man I think.

@Triphid Perhaps that's because he was self-educated.

@TheAstroChuck BUT, the actual terminology of "TIME" itself is merely a Human Construct is it not?
Humans have an innate, need/desire/drive to see and categorize everything into regular little, well ordered piles that they place neatly into these ' little boxes,' it is a part of the Human Psyche.
What, precisely is TIME in relation to the entire Universe?
Yes, I know that in the Human mind it is measured by the passing of things like nano-seconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc, etc, simply because HUMANS need it to be seen in that way, without it we would be bereft of any reference point/s and utter confusion would take over our ever so regulated minds.
Does the Universe run to a specific and defined ' Time?'
Is there, perhaps, a Gigantic Clock like mechanism hidden away in the Universe, something like the card operated log in, log off clock that is used at Human Factories, etc?

@TheAstroChuck I think you are, somehow, missing my point here.
The construct of TIME is a construct of the Human necessity for MEASUREMENT of things.
Our ' precise' atomic clocks' are nothing more than an extension of that necessity to measure events and the passing of the same, are they not?
For example what did our primitive Ancestors do, i.e. 50 - 100,000 years ago BEFORE the concept of Time and the measurement of it was invented? Things still happened in and around them and the Universe did they not? Animals continued to migrate and breed as they had done for millenia previously and ALL without the measurement of ' TIME.'

@TheAstroChuck I'm putting across a Philosophical point of view and thinking 'outside of the box' on the subject.
The definition/s put forward by Physicists are based upon; a) observations governed by human rationalizations of events and the forces that influence them,
b) the rationalizations that fit neatly into those very same little boxes decided upon purely by the mind/s of man who, btw, has a very strong and undeniable desire/need/necessity to see rationality in nature simply because that is how his mind operates or it has been trained/taught to operate, ergo, THEY must correct since it is UNREASONABLE to think that they are not.
For example, it was once deemed that for humans to travel faster than a HORSE could run would mean the person/s would be torn apart by the forces of acceleration, etc, etc.
Guess what? Humans can now travel at speeds exceeding the acceleration required to escape the pull of gravity and still survive, can they not?
Therefore, to say that TIME must exist because Physicists have defined it to be so simply because that is how they have been taught to observe and record events is, in my opinion, merely catering to the ' little boxes' ideology at best.

@TheAstroChuck And, as such, it is the Inalienable right of anyone to disagree, ergo I respect your right in doing so.
But can or will you show me that same respect and, perhaps, just perhaps, ponder upon my philosophy re- the matter under discussion, seriously giving it some 'open-minded, unbiased' consideration at the very least?

@TheAstroChuck BUT, are NOT those very same 'Laws of Physics' themselves firstly postulated by men?
And are NOT those Laws just men attempting to rationalize, for need and want of far better terminology, in their own minds what they have observed with their own somewhat limited human brains?
After all is said and done, we have NOT evolved enough, as yet, to be capable of utilizing our brainpower to its fullest extent, have we?
Who then is to say that the Universe HAS TO operate according to those Laws as posited by humans in the first place?

@TheAstroChuck Yes, we all know and understand how Gravity attracts objects, such as a ball dropped from the shoulder will hit the ground/surface of the earth.
Yes, I know Scientific Theories are tried and tested over and over again, I am quite interested and enjoy things scientific as I always have from as far back as I can remember, however, that being said has ANYONE ever actually PROVEN empirically that the Universe has an ACTUAL method of measuring and reconciling ' TIME' as we humans see it?
It may also interest you that many of the Philosophers and Philosophies from ancient ages past were the bases upon which science theories were developed, for example Galileo observed and philosophized that the Earth was NOT the Centre of the Universe but he did that some few hundred years AFTER a woman in Egypt at the time of the Xtianity surge had also observed, experimented and documented exactly the same philosophy.
Innumerable Ancient Greek Philosophers also made philosophic observations that are to this day the foundations of the sciences we take for granted.
Yes there have been some extremely ' weird' philosophies put forward over the years including the " Butterfly Effect, etc, etc," most amusing and quite erroneous BUT they only cause others to see philosophy as a source of amusement, something which it is most assuredly NOT.
Can it not be said that when a Scientist offers up a THEORY then that Scientist is also merely offering up a philosophical observation as well?
As for the analysis of Data collected, ARE NOT these self-same analyses done under the rules, concepts and ideologies of merely the parameters determined ONLY by the Human mind and HUMAN based observation from a very, so far, limited view?

@TheAstroChuck Whatever you reckon, my friend, whatever you reckon.

Sure, but you can’t deny that now exists. In fact, it’s implicit in the statement, “now is over before you finish...”

@jrome043 BUT, how exactly do you know implicitly that " Now is Now?"
Are you not just rationalizing it because that is the basic human desire to rationalize everything around us?

From an abstract at [link.springer.com] (you would need to subscribe to read the whole article; I haven't):

Evidence concerning ( a ) the objective duration of sensations in various sensory modalities, ( b ) the time necessary for sensations to enter consciousness and ( c ) the variability in the subjective sense of time's passing under different conditions is used to conclude that the duration of “now” can actually vary under normal conditions from about 10 ms to several seconds and in extreme cases up to several hours.

If time is infinite, why can’t we see the future? If space is infinite, how is it that we can observe the cosmic microwave background, or CMB? That and the discovery of the Higgs-Boson suggests that all galaxies were on top of each other at one point.

@jrome043 What does infinite time have to do with seeing the future??? Your statement makes no sense.

@gater Okay, well with infinite space it makes sense that we could look in any direction to farther and farther distances and never see the edge, or end of space. So, every inch of infinite space is already here, no more, no less, ready to be observed. With time, we can observe the past by looking through those same distances, but not forward. With time, it’s not all here yet. There is more time still to come, indicating that it is finite. That time has a measurable existence. I would argue that space also has a measurable existence and is also finite.

@jrome043 Dude - put down the bong.

@gater says the guy who thinks explosions don’t expand. Not to say the Big Bang was an actual explosion. More like an expansion.

@jrome043 Of course explosions expand - space does not expand.

@gater Hubble’s law. More specifically, Hubble’s constant. It is one of the most profound discoveries of our time. The velocity of recession is directly proportional to the distance of the observed galaxy.

[cfa.harvard.edu]

But WHAT exactly is TIME?
Is time tangible like the earth beneath your feet, the sunlight on your face, etc, etc?
Time is only a concept of the Human Psyche, invented because Humans need to be able to measure things and comprehend them.
What is Infinite and what is Finite, are they too not just concepts devised by the Human mind just as is time?

@TheAstroChuck Clueless Chuck still doesn't understand basic physics - sad

@Triphid Time is simple, its simply the passing of moments.

@gater And humans need to be able to measure and rationalize the passing of such things, BUT, other animals have no need for such measurements, etc, do they?

@Triphid a lot of animals have built in "clocks" that tell them when to fly south, etc. They don't require the precision that humans do. Time is not a dimension like Crazy Chuck will tell you. Think of time as a timeline, we are all always experiencing the same moment in time and yet its always moving forward. It will continue to move forward forever, and there was no beginning of time. Hard for some to comprehend, but its true.

@gater the " built in clock" analogy is yet another Human concept, animals govern their actions, etc, solely, in most parts, by the changes in the climatic/weather conditions as per the position of the sun and the influences it has on the climate, etc. I.e. they regulate themselves by the Solar position.

You know this how?

@gater That is a beautifully simple explanation indeed. Except ... what are moments?

Ha!! One of my all time favorites. Well done!

Thank you!

Not all theories are scientific. Some are philosophical, some are theoretical, some are developmental, some are thought experiments. Some theories turn out to be false and some seem nonsensical, but since our knowledge is currently finite - I like to consider ideas. To me the exploration of any theory or hypothesis is evidence of an open mind and that is something I appreciate.

@TheAstroChuck it predicts that space and time are, in fact, one in the same. We have electromagnetism as a hard fact. Electricity is to magnetism as space is to time. Electromagnetism and space-time continuum.

@jrome043 lol omg Space and Time are the same?? what are you smoking??? Id like to get some.

@gater Yes. Certainly you’ve heard the term space-time. Space and time are often referenced together. Just as electricity and magnetism were often referenced together, before Maxwell came up with the equations that unified them as one electromagnetic force. I’m sure people thought he was smoking something too.

@gater maybe read the book

There is observable evidence that indeed, galaxies are moving away from each other. We know this due to the Doppler shift.

@jrome043 yes - and that's all it is - moving galaxies - space does not, can not, expand!

@gater I urge you to google, or otherwise research the cosmic microwave background radiation. It is observable. You can see it with your own eyes. It is the remnant heat left over from the Big Bang. It’s proof that our universe was very hot, and then gases cooled as it expanded. It has not stopped expanding.

@jrome043 There might have been some big explosion 15 billion years ago - so what? - that proves nothing. The Universe was infinitely old when that happened.

@sweetcharlotte Physics indicates that we are participating in creating our own universes/reality.

“Consciousness is fundamental, and matter is derived from consciousness." – Max Planck, theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics

Quote:
“The stream of knowledge is heading toward a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter, we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter..

A fundamental conclusion of the new physics acknowledges that the observer creates the reality. As observers, we are personally involved with the creation of our own reality. Physicists are being forced to admit that the universe is a “mental” construction."

– R.C. Henry, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University

@birdingnut There is so much to learn, but what you have quoted here certainly is the advancing theory from what I understand. It also makes sense from a philosophical perspective.

@birdingnut Great quotes from reputable folks! This is indeed a tough one for me to wrap my head around. I have questions, but I’m finding the words to ask them correctly are elusive. Here goes nothing, and forgive me if I sound archaic.

How did matter exist before there was anything to observe it, or does this question have no meaning? It’s easier for me to accept our thoughts as a governor, but how is it that our thoughts could create matter? Again, please let me know if my questions need better direction, based off of what you know. Would it be accurate to say that matter has appeared and has been created the same way as a thought appears and is created in my mind? Seemingly out of thin air, and due to small electrical signals?

Last thing, are there any books you might suggest I read to learn more? It’s quite interesting indeed.

@jrome043 "Matter" isn't real..it's only another form of energy. Physicists say that in the end, all time and space is one point, and all energy is only one photon. We are literally, as the Buddhists say, one with everything, and everything we do affects the entire universe. For all we know, we are only the product of the mind of some alien, or a computer construct.

Current technology doesn't allow for enough storage to recreate the entire universe, but we don't know if other dimensions and other life forms can do so. You do know there are different space dimensions with infinite parallel universes that could cover all possibilities.

"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics." quoted from "The Character of Physical Law" -(2014), Richard Feynman, late Nobel Laureate in physics