Philosophy Discussion Forums

Jan Sand wrote: ↑July 13th, 2018, 1:03 am
What is it that makes the attention travel? I have not even a speculative answer.

To ask "what makes the attention travel" is the wrong question to ask, attention is the adjective describing the action of focusing on one thing in specific. Perhaps the question to ask is what is the process which allows us to experience a temporal flow?

This is in principle the same process that causes the arrow of time in every other aspect of the Universe. It is a causal relationship between neurons, synapses fire down the neurological pathways altering the mental state and creating a change. Any state that changes consequently requires time or the state would remain static.
If the brain remained static, neurological activity would cease to exist and so would cognition.

The general understanding out of Einstein's theories is that time does not flow. Attention moves. Nothing else does.The nature of that movement is the puzzle.

Jan Sand wrote: ↑July 13th, 2018, 8:06 am The general understanding out of Einstein's theories is that time does not flow. Attention moves. Nothing else does.The nature of that movement is the puzzle.

That's what I am saying by "experience a temporal flow" Spacetime is essentialy a fabric where mass exists and changes. We experience/percieve change and describe it as time.
Is nature of the question is why do we percieve change or how do we experience change?

You cannot separate change itself from the nature of a sense of movement through time. Something moves, even if it is perception alone. Just as in reading a book or watching a film, both the material within the book or the frames on a strip of film are totally static materially,. It is only the attention of the observer which moves.Einstein's static time dimension is exactly the same Nothing moves within the time dimension. Only the attention of the consciousness moves to give the illusion of movement of objects in time.

That is my point, time and change are intrinsic to one another.
I do not except the premise that the Univese is static and motionless.
You are referring to Einsteins use of "reference frames" for an observer of Spacetime without a frame of reference the change in space would appear motionless. Now this maybe a useful view in special relativity, however it isn't necessarily an accurate description of reality based on the human experience.

Our attention flows from moment to moment as information passes through our frontal lobe.
Information is influenced via external and internal causes, change occurs independent of cognition - the perception of change is contingent on cognition - making the cognitive experience of time intrinsic to the perception of change.

If time is a dimension, and all indications confirm this, motion is an illusion caused by the change of temporal location of the observer. This is far more basic than the patterns of action and reaction in consciousness.