Is that a particle and a wave?
Max Tegmark in his Level IV universe would see that man's mortal life as a bowl of tangled spaghetti representing all of this, the wheres/whens he exists.
None of which can a man comprehend in terms of the entirety of his own mortal existence, because he is in the position of a "moving present" on a linear, serial, irreversible time series of "quantized moments." Only God can see wholeness in a process like this, because he is not a captive of this particular notion of time.
Which is probably as clear as mud....
I've been grappling with time issues lately. I've received major stimulus from the work that MHGinTN has done on this subject. He postulates different (yet not mutually exclusive) time orders designated as planar and volumetric.
For the sake of argument, might I propose that, on my understanding, planar time and volumetric time designate two temporal categories that "do not operate on the same plane." That is to say, the idea of temporal hierarchy is introduced here, in such a way as to suggest that the planar might in some way ultimately prove to be a function of the volumetric.
For insight into planar time, the model I gravitate to is the Cartesian Plane. This is a two-dimensional mathematical construct built on an X- and a Y-axis.
To represent a man's life in terms of a "timeline," we only need the X-axis. It proposes a model of time divided into discrete steps moving irreversibly, serially, linearly, from past to present to future. It is a number line composed of positive and negative real numbers, "divided" by Zero (0) [which is NOT "nothing"] "in the middle." "Humanizing" the number line on X, we have, to the "right" of Zero, the future. To the left, we have the past. Zero itself represents the "present moment" — which likely flows along in wavelike form to someone who can view matters in that perspective. [Which is probably why the Y-axis is so important.]
The problem seems to be "the present moment" — for it is so terribly fleeting. The present moment slides away into the past at the very moment we think of it in the present.
Linear time — the X-axis of planar time — is seemingly the "time" that most human beings sense, almost all of the time, evidently quite naturally. But that would be a predisposition, quality, or qualification, that cannot be explained in terms of linear time. Hence our need to better understand what the Y-axis entails....
Whatever. We haven't even gotten to volumetric time yet — which is NOT confined to two dimensions....
I suspect volumetric time is the matrix into which linear time is nested. Mostly, it is never directly perceived by human beings. Yet my main point here would be: At some logically irreducible level, humans' ability to perceive at all utterly depends on it.
Dear MHGinTN, if I have misunderstood you in any way, I truly would welcome correction from you.
Alamo-Girl, dearest sister in Christ, thank you ever so much for your wonderful insights!