So I was watching a show tonight on really big things. One of them was the largest binoculars in the world (telescopic binoculars, natch). In the soundbite, the scientist said that the lenses were capable of pulling in a million times more light than the human eye. Pretty cool, eh? Yes. But then he said "the light that we're seeing is over five billion years old so that we're, in essence, looking into the past."
I thought back to yesterday's post on whether time exists and snickered.
Is it really the past? I mean, it could be argued that even at the smallest intervals, it takes some time for the light to travel from its source (or reflected surface) to our eyes (or a telescope's lens) and therefore, everything we witness (in terms of light and sound) is in the past.
Or is it the present? The light is here. Now. What we're witnessing is what the light looks like at this moment. That being said, we're looking at where the light came from five billion years ago.
So, which is it?
(We know it's not the future, as that never arrives.)
Alright, enough with the big questions; let's get on with the mundane.
I rode to work (and home as well!). It was hot. We went to Chuck E. Cheese's for dinner (M's official "birthday dinner"). I read two chapters in The Princess Bride (the second of which was only a page long and the kids begged for more).
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