"Gordon Eklund - Serving in Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eklund Gordon)

pipe from his trouser pocket and ignited a flint lighter. "The
point is," he said, "that time doesn't really have a beginning or
an end. It doesn't have a middle, either. It simply is."

"I don't understand."

"No reason why you should. Let's take this particular instant
right now and use it as an example. Except that you
can'tтАФbecause the instant is already passed. So let's pretend it
isn't. Let's take it and examine it and study it and see that this
instant, as it is occurring, is timeтАФ all of time. It, the instant, is
past, present, and future all rolled into one, because none of
those things really exists except for the one true now of the
present moment. Time is not a straight line, with a definite start
and finish. Rather, it is a single dot, a point, an infinitesimal
pinprick.

"Then what you are saying is there is no past. But what if I
can remember one? Am I wrong?"

"Of course not. But when are you remembering the past?
ThenтАФor now? The past, you see, is always part of the present. It
exists only in the form of memory. The future, tooтАФwe call it
vision or expectation or hope. Now take the stars, for instance."

Jan followed Phineas's pointing finger high into the sky.

"Take that one thereтАФthe very bright oneтАФthat is Sirius. It
happens to lie something like eight light years from Earth, which
means that the light we are now seeing actually left the star eight
years in the past."

"Then there is a past," Jan said. "That light is it."

"So a person might thinkтАФat first. But actually that light, for
us, did not even exist twelve years ago. We knew nothing about
it. Now, for the creatures, if any, who reside upon Sirius's
planets, that light did indeed exist then. But it doesn't now. To
them, it's long since gone. So, you see, that proves my point.
Everything only exists in the nowтАФit must be considered as part
of the present. You should believe in nothing else, Jan, and
accept nothing else."

"Why?"

Phineas shook his head and suddenly chuckled. "A good
question. But I suppose you'll find out someday. Either you will
or you won't, but that'll be in the future and, as I just told you,
the future doesn't really exist." He tapped his pipe against his
knee, then stood up and crushed the glowing ashes. Now,