Of all my drafts, this is my personal favourite. It is the deepest I have treaded in metaphysics, and I am honestly proud of it. The draft explores the nature of time, space and how one contributes to the universe.
Time: the continuous unfolding of events, a measurement, a never-ending sequence. Clocks measure time by seconds, which were developed from the cycle of day and night on Earth. Alarm clocks and stopwatches measure time within a boundary set by someone for some purpose.
How do clocks measure time, exactly?
Events: changes in space, defined using forms.
Time operates by sequence, indeed—one event from another, a consequence of each other, forever going and never ending.
Billions of years ago, according to the Big Bang Theory, the universe started as one, and only one, thing. That is the core: the most basic and pure state of being. Then, by motion, the universe began to diverge. The results of such diversion are forms: states of beings that are proportions of the core and, as a whole, construct it. While the core is static, forms are everchanging and produce infinite possibilities—to stars and orbits, what are the odds humans were given the perfect conditions to thrive?
I have yet to actually research the Big Bang Theory...
←(form)—(form)→
← e v e n t s →
Start: the most basic state of being where no simpler state could have existed before it.
End: the most complete state of being where no greater state could emerge after it.
^^ Both are abstractly-defined points in time to record a start and end of a set of events. Both are static.
Interval: the time between a start and an end.
Form: abstract point in time or space (or both) that describes an event.
Object: all that brings a change in space in the present moment.
Properties: attributions of a given object that distinguishes it from another object in the present moment, the simplest of which being its location in space and time.
Relation: the way of interaction between an object (or a group of objects) and another (or another group) or itself (or themselves), subsequenting a change in space and time.
future
←(c)//forms//(e)→
past - present - future
←(c)—x//(e)→
past
←(c)——(e)→
the y-axis represents all the potential forms. They disappear after the future moves into the present, for what has happened has simply happened.
Absolute whole: the sum of all events that have been, are being and will be.
Present whole: the sum of all events that have been and are being.
Point 1 in Time, *, Point 2 in Time...
Form: Y, ∞, Z...
*A hypothetical gap in time to illustrate possibilities.
Between two points of time are infinite possibilities for a form to be, but whatever form was brought into time is its ultimate form, for that there is only one present moment and one direction in time. Thus, change is merely an illusion, for that one thing does not become another (though we make it so for some purpose) but simply takes a different form.
It is important to note that the one thing in which we name the universe is not a definite core on its own, but only one part of a greater whole that is beyond human comprehension. The universe emerged as a form, but I only described it as a core to illustrate my point of things branching out. As the universe's past (in line with the past of other 'cores') stretches into infinity, so does the current forms' future. Any form could be labeled as a core, so that anything emerging from it is its subsequent forms.
Hypothetical Forms → Hypothetical Forms, including the 'Core' → Forms
Forms → Forms → Forms
This goes hand-in-hand with a concept in physics and chemistry, named the law of conservation of energy or matter. It states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but that it only takes a different form.
Research this law of conservation.
Our mere existence, no matter how supposedly insignificant, produces other forms, from the transaction of breath to our inevitable death. We all are sources of inspiration to each other. every action we opt for does not simply happen and get done, but it takes on a journey of its own, fusing into other forms and going further than we could ever imagine.
Everything is predated to everything by nature of sequence. It is one single change in space, but also thousands, moving in the linear direction that defines time. Everything is in one space and is thus a whole, as well as parts of a whole. All is one, all is many, and all is everything, as a whole and as parts of so.
Life only goes forward. When one lives, one gets more experiences, never less. When one dies, one loses nothing of experience. Possibilities of more experiences, perhaps, but still no definite losses. One cannot lose something they have not experienced; in fact, one cannot lose experience. (It is worth mentioning that memory loss could possibly lead to the loss of experience. In spite of researching, I do not know enough about such hypothetical phenomenon and will therefore not speak of it.)
Considering that the present moment we are experiencing has only one possibility in reality, there is no such thing as "it could have been" or "if only I did x, y, z". Those possibilities are only that: possibilities. Any one of them could have happened, but they did not. What happened leading to the present moment has simply happened, full stop. There is nothing you could do about the past, let alone possibilities in the past, so why pitifully wallow yourself in them? One is ought to express how they feel, indeed, but do know that we only exist in the present moment.
Knowing this, you may accept any event (a change in space that you defined by your own terms) by tracing its sequential history and seeing that, indeed, one thing led to another. (This is a passive attitude.)
Though such perspective may be helpful, it is not a tonic. One lives only in the present, and one is thus not an otherworldly observer of these changes in space and time but a contributor to it, no different from anything else. One can also choose in the present, even if the emergence of such choice can be traced to sequence. One's decisions contribute to the changes in space, interplaying with other changes in space, defining time as it rivers forward.
See what you can do: you can impact your future by your present decisions. To give an anecdote: I have spend plenty of my precious time on...certain websites. I had no reason to do so other than mindlessly look through art. Now I recognise the value of time, and I can share that with others like you.
We all influence each other, directly or indirectly. The universe moves in flux upon itself. Between humans, influences leave an aftertaste to the mind, in that their affect can stretch out in time (though with lessening strength unless recharged.)
Everything occurring in space brings future to the present, and the present to past. You are part of everything. You can choose what to do next. You define the present moment with all of your actions, and that is something you can control. Make no mistake, you cannot control time, but you can control how you will shape it. Act wisely.
When you encounter anything, ask "How is this valuable to me?" If no answer arises, cease your contact with it.
When analysing an interval, identify first the core, then the end, then the forms, then the relevant context, and by that identify the objects, then their properties, then their relations.
Your continuous actions echo into your habit, too.
Everything and nothing are one and the same.
Research entropy, infinity (or the concept of it) and "Time is an illusion."