Time a universal currency?

[DarkRange55]

I was just reflecting a little on another thread and it made me think about something a friend said a long time ago. Or he said it was the universe's currency. I think he said it was universal currency. I have my own thoughts on this but I'd like to yours

@sserafim seems to have checked out

 

[Forever Sleep]

Interesting idea. I wonder whether there was ever a point where time didn't exist. If nothing existed at one point then, I imagine time wouldn't exist either. I think I read another quote saying that time was simply a device to stop everything happening all at once. As soon as there's stuff floating through space, I imagine there's time.

Based on no scientific data, I feel like there probably always was stuff floating about in space. I find that more plausible than going from absolutely nothing to a multiverse. In which case- time stretches back infinitely. In which case, all sorts of things could have happened before the big bang even.

Currency though? To what end? Is the universe consciously trying to achieve something do you think? I find it more likely it has less purpose than that. I think time is just another natural phenomena like gravity. It exists and we have an awareness of it. We've even become clever enough to measure it.

I only found out relatively recently that animals experience time differently to us. Dogs and flies experience it slower. Cats experience it faster. It changes in speed for cold blooded animals with regards to their temperature. So- if the universe or a God is conscious of time at all and are using it as a tool, maybe they have a different perception of it too. Makes sense if God was able to create the world in the space of a week! Maybe several million years feels like an afternoon to them. Would make sense why they faffed about with dinosaurs for so long if their main goal was to create a species that would be capable of worshiping them.

But nah- personally, I think it's just a thing. Maybe a tool but it feels like an unconscious tool to me. I'm not sure the universe has need of anything. Does the universe 'need' life? Does it need recognition that it exists? Does it feel the need to exist? Is it afraid to die? Seems like quite a weird concept to me. To attribute human needs and fears to a universe. Again, I think it just is. I'm not sure it cares that much about anything. So, why would it need time to evolve things and change things? I'm not convinced it's changing things consciously either. So, if it is going on spending sprees with time, it's maybe made some poor consumer choices along the way.

 

[sserafim]

Time is more valuable than money. "An inch of time is worth an inch of gold, but an inch of gold cannot buy an inch of time." Time and space are the dimensions of the universe. There's the fabric of spacetime

 

[Blurry_Buildings]

I agree with forever. If time was a currency it would be something that could be owned and exchanged (or transferred).

Do you truly own your own time though? It moves forward at a constant rate whether you want it to or not, and there are time-based consequences for your actions that restrict how you can use it. You can sometimes choose how to spend your time, but you are forced to spend time no matter what - you have no control over this. You also have relatively little control over the amount of time you have (a 20-something can't just choose to live to a 1,000 or die at 5 years old at least)

Ownership of time can't be transferred either. An employer might have laborers working for them for some time, but the employer will never experience that time from the employees perspective themselves - it'd be physically impossible.

 

[DarkRange55]

Crude matter is much too expensive to move from star system to star system, so information is the likely interstellar currency. However currently information is a commodity.
In one of my story sci-fi ideas, each spacefaring species uses its own history (including evolution, ecosystems and mythologies) as its "currency" in trading. Many of us already enjoy reading pieces of such information!

 

[DarkRange55]

Time is more valuable than money.

Yes, but having both together is even better.

"An inch of time is worth an inch of gold, but an inch of gold cannot buy an inch of time."
Time and space are the dimensions of the universe, there's the fabric of spacetime?

So it appears.

If time was a currency it would be something that could be owned and exchanged (or transferred).

Do you truly own your own time though? It moves forward at a constant rate whether you want it to or not, and there are time-based consequences for your actions that restrict how you can use it. You can sometimes choose how to spend your time, but you are forced to spend time no matter what - you have no control over this.

Yes.

You also have relatively little control over the amount of time you have (a 20-something can't just choose to live to a 1,000 or die at 5 years old at least)

You can shorten it easily, but extending it is harder and currently still quite limited.

Ownership of time can't be transferred either. An employer might have laborers working for them for some time, but the employer will never experience that time from the employees perspective themselves - it'd be physically impossible.

Yes.

I agree with forever. If time was a currency it would be something that could be owned and exchanged (or transferred).

Do you truly own your own time though? It moves forward at a constant rate whether you want it to or not, and there are time-based consequences for your actions that restrict how you can use it. You can sometimes choose how to spend your time, but you are forced to spend time no matter what - you have no control over this. You also have relatively little control over the amount of time you have (a 20-something can't just choose to live to a 1,000 or die at 5 years old at least)

Ownership of time can't be transferred either. An employer might have laborers working for them for some time, but the employer will never experience that time from the employees perspective themselves - it'd be physically impossible.

Time is more valuable than money. "An inch of time is worth an inch of gold, but an inch of gold cannot buy an inch of time." Time and space are the dimensions of the universe. There's the fabric of spacetime