Time, space, and the POV.

Time and space are one, in that the movement in time is the movement in space. In most worlds we are aware of—for example, the world of the avatar—it is not possible to move in space without time passing. It is also not possible for time to pass without movement in space.

A tree leaf can rustle because air moves as time passes. And that movement in the air would not have been possible, had time not passed.

So, time and space move. But there is no fixed past, present, or future.

That which was the future once upon a time is now the present or the past.

That which was the present once upon a time is now the past.

And also, that which is in the past can be recalled in the present over and over again. In the present, we can even recall a past in which we were recalling a future that hasn’t arrived yet, at this present moment.

In other words, our everyday awareness can travel freely through time, and thus, space—by default. Let's call this the "POV(point of view)."

To the POV, all those coordinates have equal weight—equal solidity, equal validity. By which I mean, the future is no less real than the present. The past is also no less real than the present. This is the default.

How is this so?

Let’s imagine the early afternoon of the evening described in the previous post. In that early afternoon, the bright transparent sunlight—instead of an orange sunset—was flooding in through the flat windows near the ceiling. The museum was full of visitors who brought with them the fragrances of their perfumes, hair sprays, and body lotions. The autumn breeze wasn’t blowing in then; you, the museum worker, hadn’t opened the windows yet. Instead, the air conditioning was turned on, because with this many people filling the high-ceilinged, vast space, a natural breeze didn’t provide enough circulation. All those people’s footsteps couldn’t even echo, despite the size of the museum. It was that full. There was no room for echoes. The visitors could barely look at Manet and Monet and all the other paintings by artists with pretty French names. And you, in your sweater-weather sweater that was to feel cozy in the evening, were feeling quite hot when it was still early afternoon.

But then evening did arrive, as described in the previous post.

Where did the early afternoon scene go?

To the mind.

But it was so real when it was happening live!

Indeed.

In fact, it felt like the only real thing!

Possibly so.

Let us think about this. Really think about this. Each and every second, time is passing. Therefore, space is passing, although perhaps in a nearly imperceptible way. Cells are dividing. Molecules are interacting. Even dead bodies don’t stay still. If they were to stay still, they wouldn’t decompose. Time would not pass.

Each and every second, the “here and now” disappears and a new “here and now” takes its place. Meaning, that which seems to be the one and only real thing is bound to not be that anymore in the next here and in the next now.

To the POV, all those coordinates—all those heres and nows—have equal weight. They have equal solidity, equal validity. It can freely move from a so-called “past” scene to the “present” scene to a “future” scene. If something seems more real than something else, it is only because the POV makes it so.

And we all have this POV. Even though sometimes we are so fixated on the avatar experience with a linear time flow and related space movements, even so—we all have a POV that can freely move through time and space.

This means we can be two seemingly opposing things simultaneously: the POV that is free of time and space + the avatar that is rooted to its immediate spacetime. The avatar is the one who "has" the POV; the avatar can go anywhere anywhen with its POV. And simultaneously, the POV is larger than the avatar.

The worldview tag is best read in this order. The later posts build on the earlier posts.