October 26th, 2007
As time goes bye
There are two things that interest me about the Doomsday Clock. The first is that it goes backwards.
The theoretical clock tells us how close we are to total annihilation, initially by nuclear war, but now by almost anything. When the clock strikes midnight, we’re done for.
At the third pip the time will be precisely five minutes to midnight.
Compare that to 1995 when we were hovering around the quarter-to mark.
The second thing that I like is the fact that, according to some, time is essentially a man-made construction. That means when we go, it goes. There’s a nice symmetry to that.
Personally though, I like to set my clock a little fast, it helps me get up in the morning.
cool, it sounds like some warped Dr.seuss
I like the pun in the title. By the way, I have been reading this webcomic for a couple of days now, going through the archives, and I wanted to tell you how well thought-out and fantastic it is. And since I have read the other comments as well, I felt like I should make it known how much I enjoy this as well.
I sit my clock across the room from my bed so I have to get out of bed to turn it off. To do that I usually have to wake up enough to not be able to get back to sleep.
I usually sleep with my clock next to my head so that I can’t ignore it. Though it’s much better if I get enough sleep. >_>
Hallo Author; wonderful little webcomic you’ve got here. Might convince me to start using RSS readers. I’m enjoying the commentary that goes up with each page.
Yeah Joe, I tried that, but I like to sleep to much and I can no longer bring myself to do that.
Adam, that is fairly morose.
I really don’t understand how time can be a man made thing.
Our definition of it could be wrong, it may not be linear, it may/not be relative, but I think that it exists regardless of us.
I have a cool little animation on my mobile of a n-cube, which is apparently meant to help explain/visualise time in relation to the other 3 dimensions.
Find it here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/55/8-cell-simple.gif/180px-8-cell-simple.gif
It is really cool to watch, but I don’t think it is particularly accurate.
It would make sense that time is manmade, since it clearly does not flow at a constant rate.
What I like about the Doomsday Clock is how diligent the committee is in deciding when to change the settings, and for what time.
What I don’t like about it is that, when the clock is supposed to strike midnight, I don’t think anyone’s going to have changing the settings particularly high on their list of priorities.
i dont see how anyone can come to a consensus as to which events require the clock to be moved, and exactly how far to move it each time.
Beautiful. Now I have something
tangible to worry about. Thanks
for completely ruining my day…
Hello there, especially ot the first time commenters.
The idea that time is man-made is controversial, but it stipulates that time is not something that can be measured, rathr it is a construct of the human mind by which we measure other things (perhaps entropy)… I think it might have been Kant, but I’m not sure.
The setting of the clock is rather interesting. Unfortunately, the committee don’t convene regularly enough for it to respond to flash incidents like the cuban missile crisis – possibly the closest we have been to throwing nukes around.
They should replace the committee with an efficient computer system that measures all the factors that could conceivably lead to the destruction of our species and keeps the clock constantly up to date.
And I totally believe time is a man-made concept. How can we know that any other creatures even perceive it the way we do? How do we even know other people perceive time the same way? How do I even know other people exist? Sometimes I wake up and I think I’m going to look out my windows and see the surface of Mars. That would be cool.
Oh, Joe, I definitely agree. I’ve pretty much convinced myself that the way I see the world is incredibly different from the way it really exists. I really love the idea of trying to figure out how the world/universe/reality works, but at the same time I think the entire thing is incredibly hopeless, since we’ll always be limited by our perceptions. And obviously, no two people see the world in the same way, which basically means that “reality” is different for every person. So why would we even bother trying to understand how things “really” are? Sometimes I feel so inexorably trapped within my own mind. That whole idea contrasts so sharply with Ayn Rand’s philosophy. And the fact that it does basically proves my point. My reality that there IS no reality is in direct confrontation with her interpretation of reality. And now I’m even confusing myself. What fun these philosophical discussions are!
Well, clocks just went back for daylight saving time. well, to some people they did
i tend to leave the main clock in my bedroom an hour ahead, partly because i am lazy as fudge, partly because it gets me outta bed on time for a few weeks after the clocks change. i’ll only reset it if we have a powercut. i’m really that lazy.
And a note to the great joe bivens-
there’s this really cool alarm clock you can get thats on wheels, and when it goes of and you switch it onto snoze, it rolls off into your bedroom and hides, then goes off again and you have to get up and find it to switch it off, which i think would pretty successfully wake a person up, no?
It’s interesting how the Doomsday Clock measurements seem to be set up to induce anxiety. ‘Five minutes to midnight!’ is much more dramatic than ‘Oh, about three and a half hours’. Admittedly this was part of it’s initial purpose; to provide a concrete metaphor for the dangers of nuclear annihilation. But these days, when it encompasses so many threats, the timescale seems a little restrictive.
Also, I agree with the suggestion that it should be replaced by a computer system. However, they should go the whole hog and have something that resembles a Stargate, with hissing steam and ominous rumblings. Suitably dramatic, I think.
It has been interesting to read all these essay length answers about how readers here percieve time.
I think it would be nice to have a pud (meet up), a few bevvies and a heated debate about the workings of time.
Personally, I feel that a doomsday clock takes alot of the fun and excitement outta annihilation.
But then again, at the end of it all, some will say “the end is near”, reply will be “how long do we have?” “dunno, wish we had some kind of measuring device to tell us” “hmm yea… eeeeeerrrrrrrrrkkkkkk (sound of being irradiated by a megaton nuke)”, so maybe it has a time and place in society.
I’m just very excited that someone mentioned Ayn Rand.