Re: Temporal database - no end date

NENASHI, Tegiri wrote:

> What is the 'chronon' ?

There are two ways to view time -- discrete and continuous. If time is continuous, then it works like the real number system: Between any two points in time, there is another (in fact, infinitely many others). A discrete view says time is not infinitely divisible -- at some point we get to a unit of time which cannot be futher divided. This atomic unit of time is a chronon.

It should be pointed out that it is fallacious to assume that just because we can mathematically describe time as continuous, therefore it must be so. In fact, there are observed phenomena (such as electrons changing orbits) that fit well into a quantized model.

It's also incorrect to assume time is quantized on the basis of there being some event than which nothing can occur faster -- one such benchmark is the amount of time it takes light to cross half the width of a proton. Even if it's true that nothing can occur faster than this, it doesn't imply that time itself is discrete.

As for Zeno's paradox, again, just because we can construct a paradox as a mental model, that doesn't necessarily make it so (although I guess a discrete model of time eliminates Zeno's paradox). Just as the "irresistable force vs. immovable object" paradox has no actual basis in reality.  

Larry Coon
University of California Received on Fri Jan 19 2007 - 23:06:24 CET