4.4 Time's windows

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Map 4.4.1 response times and rates of change

Since stretching and compressing time appear to be helpful in portraying reality (4.2), we will make use of 'time-scales', a series of magnifications with which we view our world, from the cosmos to the immeasurably small. It is similar to the Boeke/Eames procedure of "twenty steps", the difference being that the accent is now on time, not space, and the number of steps is limited. The tele-microscope acts as a time-lens and enables us to dilate and shrink space-time and thus to obtain a view of otherwise unaccessible phenomena in nature. An interval on the time-scale is called a window.

The three wide windows in Map 4.4.1 represent parts of the universe from a human point of view, from macro systems to microsystems. The three frames contain all other windows that represent periodic events: the pulsations of galaxies, the birth and death-cycle of stars, the movement of the planets within our own solar system, orbital rhythms (caused by planetary interactions) that give rise to periodic climatic changes on extensive parts of the earth, the seasonal and diurnal cycles on Earth, oscillations within cells and populations of cells, they all occur in their own time-frames.

Night and day, and the seasons, are environmental factors of great significance for most forms of life on earth, also for man. Sleep and wakefulness and metabolic adaptations to the seasons are examples of entrainment of our physiological rhythm to that of the cosmos. The middle window is the one with which we are most familiar: life on the planet earth. In the centre the 24 hour time-slot through which we look at events of daily life, with its rhythm of night and day. On the right side the 'fleeting moment' of short term memory with which we shift our attention from one moment to another. This is in the order of one second, the tempo of 'andante' in music, the pace of a man's purposeful stride and of a quiet heartbeat. We'll call the time period of one second our unit of experienced time.

The events in the central part of the time scale are the only ones which we experience directly. Those outside are known to us as a result of observation and reasoning, but not by immediate experience. They cannot have the character of an incident or event, because their periods of change are either too large or too small for us to observe. Too large: the solar system seems to us stable and constant because the duration of births and decays of the system are beyond our human experience. Too small for immediate observation: the atomic nucleus and its cloud of electrons are hidden from our view. We have however indirect evidence about their behaviour and we use the knowledge to understand physical properties and chemical reactions.

There are ways to come near to understanding the forces of the atomic world: by simulating the environment in which they operate in the human time-window our brain can 'handle' them. The simulated behaviour of a macro-molecule, as we have just watched it on the screen of a computer, is an example. As Root-Bernstein describes it: 'the act of understanding is not purely an intellectual experience but a sensual one as well'. And in the words of Polanyi: 'Understanding begins with ... the ability to mentally extend or project oneself into the object of study'. Watching the computer-screen you feel the forces of attraction at the atomic level. This sensual experience helps you to understand what is going on when a long protein molecule folds back on itself, or when receptors on lymphocytes make their contribution toward an effective immune defence. The same ability helps the physician in his diagnostic probing and tentative therapy. It is then called empathy.

Map 4.4.2 Three systems for adaptation and defence: the GAD, the LAD and the NAD and their response times.

4.5 Time as an organiser of matter and mind.