Joe, it's Tom again; I did finally get to read your essay, although not as slowly as I believe it deserves to be read. The least I can say about it is that I am impressed with it and with the agility of mind you possess, as well as with your level of objectivity. The best I can say about it is that it makes your point very well, as I understand it.
Your premise is that the present is so fleeting we have no time to change it. Correct me if that's wrong or inaccurate, please. You seem to argue time does not move at the present time, which I agree with as the definition of "the present," or as you put it, the here and now. I assume you mean, in saying "time does not move," that in the present, it does not move. If so, you seem to be saying time is indeed particulate and does not pass as a fluid.
The chronon is said to be the particle of the time "field," just like the Higgs boson is of the Higgs field and the graviton is of the gravitational field. Of course, that could be true only if time exists in particulate form, or in discrete instants. The ancients argued that point long ago without any logical conclusion.
At this time, we cannot measure the precise rate of the passage of time, but we can construct equations to compare the speeds of objects just like we do now with other measurements. Yet we know time passes because things age. I think we must agree that when we speak of time as "moving," we refer to the rate of its passing.
So long as we believe time rates are the same for everything, we cannot think "outside the box." You say there can be no simultaniety of time at different locations, but I balk at that because of my position that objects moving at the same speed at different locations anywhere in the universe will have the same time rate. Also, does not the recently confirmed theory of "entanglement" tends to support my viewpoint?
You make a number of excellent points that cannot be refuted. I think you can work to refute any other non-agreements that come up here, like mine, so that you can disagree in return or else find the way to resolve them, or else, like I've had to do numerous times, change your mind. Your long hard work has helped me tremendously by confirming some of my beliefs and forcing me to think more about some others. I thank you for that.
