Philosophy The Value Of A Single Moment

While playing basketball in gym today, I thought up a rather interesting question (at least, it's interesting in my opinion).

What is the value of a single moment?

In my scenario (i.e, what happened while I was playing basketball), I was shooting baskets, and I made a perfect basket. It only took a second, and nobody was looking. It could be forgotten in the next instant. Does it get forgotten, or is it imprinted on the memory of the universe?

In a single moment, so many things can happen... People die, children are born...

So what is the value of a single moment? Does any moment have value? What if we lived a moment longer, or a moment less? Would it make a difference?

If our lives are made up of a series of moments, then what if we start taking away just one moment, and then another, and then another? What happens?

 

believe that a one singel moment make up our life and if we were to lose it i guess we would die or just be nothingness because if u lose the moment then i would be like losing ur life

 

"Live now. Make now always. The most precious time. Now will never come again." -- Captain Jean-Luc Picard

This is my view of every moment. But, don't they have time travel in Star Trek? :sweat2: I do think that one change in a past moment could create a disturbance in the future. If the circumstances that brought my parents together did not occur then myself and my siblings and nephews and nieces would not exist. If the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs missed the earth during that moment then it could be possible that none of us would be here, it may have been highly evolved reptillians that would rule the earth today.

 

i agree with u

 

Also, How would time travel into the past(or the concept of it) affect today? That's another question I've always wondered. Would even our presence affect the flow of time, changing future moments? Or maybe our presence there would be part of the flow of time(maybe part of fate and predetermination) and if we did not go back in time then it would have changed the future.

 

Time.

It's kinda hard to imagine "time travles" etc. considering we came up with the expression "time".
I doubt you can travel through time since it doesn't really... exist (..?)
We just live... in a some kind of unstopable flow.
I belive. Despite all theories of other dimensions (E.g. the one which says that there are billions of billions of universes/dimensions, each created if you do something different. for example, if you drop a sandwich, then in another identical universe you don't ... heh. too tired to explain it thoroughly)

...

 

I suppose that before we can measure the value of a moment, we must first determine whether time exists or not(since moments are a part of time). 'Twas actually St. Augustine who came to the conclusion that time was measured in the mind. Here's a better explanation:

cited from:http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hall/5803/does.html

Any other opinions on the existence of time?

 

Time is not even fixed; check out the effects travelling at high velocities can have.

As far as moments go, these are, of course, simply divided arbitrarily by mankind itself. It does not matter if I call it a microsecond or a jorbanagloob; the events that transpired in that time happened. Remove those measurements, and the events still happen.

 

This is all very good, but suppose I rephrase my question...

What is the event that happens (or doesn't happen) in a single moment worth?

Would it matter if the moment were taken away? Such as a death or a birth, or an accident. What if say...September 11th had never happened? What then?

 

Well, if you look at it from our perspectives, if September 11th had never occurred then our world history would've been altered. But that's more politics then anything...

I may have the concept of this question wrong, but to me the actual moment is meaningless. The events that took place during the moment is what makes it meaningful. What if somebody found the cure for cancer during a moment? Or nuked a country? The moment itself didn't have any effect, but the actual events did.

Regarding the existence of time, I'm not really sure (but then again, nobody is). I've always scoffed at the idea of time travel, saying that it's impossible since what's occurred in the past has happened, and as (to me) time is constantly moving forward, there's no way to rewind. But that's just my personal view, it may be quite possible to break the space/time continuum, should it exist.

And I have no idea what I just said....

 

Politics AND countless people.

Perhaps but perhaps, also, the moment makes everything. Example. Let's take MT's shooting a basket, let's say it was in a real game and at the buzzer and went "swish!" right through. If it were a moment later, the game would have been over and the shot would have been meaningless. Sure, it would have happened, but any purpose that it once had was just gone.

Or when George Washington led an attack on Christmas (Christmas Eve?).. sure, he COULD have just waited until after that moment, let them finish their partying... but do you really think it would have been as effective if it weren't for the fact that it occurred at that moment?

Just some things to think about.

 

If the amount of time you are using is small, you can make reasonable predictions. However, extend your measurement to include more and more time and your prediction accuracy will lessen.

Let us use, for example, MTs basket. As Amon said, if we look at it within the span of a few seconds, either MTs basket makes it in time or it does not. If we extend our measurement, making the basket count could induce increased confidence, a temporary boost of popularity, perhaps a reward even.

As for as 9/11 goes, you can't just pluck it out of existence, you need to pluck many moments out of existence. Not just the event, not just its planning, but also the motivations and some of the history influencing it. Keep going and you could literally alter hundreds of years if not thousands.

 

'Worth' is yet another word created by human belief, and thus it cannot be defined. If you compare a moment's true impact on the string of time, it would not change. Time has one fact over all others, and that is that is keeps going. No moments can change that fact - it can only change it for you. A moment's worth is determined solely on what you thought of that moment, how your personality would erode the importance, and overall, how much of an emotional impact it made. Say, a proposal to marriage would be much more of a staying moment than getting a 100 on a random exam...

 

I think that's a very good point. A moment's worth must be different for everybody because of their personal experiences, and how they view things.

However, what if some people never get that marriage proposal, or that 100 on a random exam. Could a moment like a basket while playing basketball be more important to them than marriage or an exam?

At my young age, I've gotten 100 on exams, I've gotten baskets in basketball, but I've yet to get a (serious) marriage proposal. So I wonder if that marriage proposal is more important to me than what I have achieved. In some society's views, love is one of the best things you can achieve, and marriage is a symbol of that. Without having any of these events happen to me, I could say which one of these events I judge to have the most worth.

Academically speaking, suppose that random exam gave the credits needed to pass a course in College, or even University?

But then, suppose school doesn't interest somebody, then marriage or basketball could be more important.

So which is the more important event? Without personalities, life experiences and everything that makes an event important to one person, can we judge? I mean, when people pass University, it doesn't get mentioned at all in the news, but when Britney Spears got married, how much news coverage did that get?

 

Again, as stated, 'worth' is an eternally variable thing, solely controlled by the general consensus of the people. One may think that the exam is more important than the marriage, though the majority of the world would agree that the marriage would have more impact on one's life. You never know. The marriage could be a boring thing compared to your college experience, and you may favor that more. It is more a matter of opinion than anything. However, it is quite obvious that opinion means nothing in the general public without another belief-born idea - 'social standing'. But I'm trailing off, so heh.