Today, as I'm feeling slightly better, I'd like to take a look at something which affects us all greatly. We can never get enough of it, we're always running out of it, although we can't see, smell, taste, hear, or touch it, and yet every single thing we do depends entirely upon it. I am of course talking about... Time!
What is time then? I don't have much, so I'd better get on with it. Time is a device we created to measure the passage of the seasons. The first measurements of time were probably developed around the same time as neolithic people began to experiment with agriculture. It's widely considered that the Neolithic stone circle builders were creating gigantic measuring devices, aligned to the Solstices, which would allow them to plot accurately the correct times for sowing their crops.
But, since time is a subjective matter, merely our mapping of numbers to the Earth's rotation and its cycle around the Sun, what if we were to be removed from time? That is to say, plunged into an environment where the passage of time could not be measured. And, what if our theories about time are wrong? If time is not a constant at all!
What got me thinking more carefully about time, was some material I stumbled across on the Net, a year or two back, regarding the Serpo Project. It's the type of material most people would disregard off-hand as a hoax, but I'm open-minded, so I read through it. The basic premise was that alien technology was recovered around the time of the Roswell incident, of which, certain equipment allowed NASA to make contact with an alien race. An exchange program was set up and a dozen Earth astronauts travelled to an alien planet known to us as Zeta Reticuli. The crew members all kept separate diaries of their stay there. With me so far? I know, sounds far-fetched doesn't it?
The really interesting bit for me was the obssession with time that emerges from the "diary entries". They report that the planet is a binary star, that is, it has 2 suns, and because of this time behaves bizzarely. The astronauts lose track of time altogether and cannot adjust to the clock-cycle used by the natives (Ebens). If you have some spare time, I would recommend you read through some of that material, especially if you're a Sci-Fi fan. It really is like something out of Star Trek (with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy of course... always)!
