Once upon a time, there was an M&M. He was yellow with blue spots (Easter-Egg style, though he didn't know it at the time. M&M's have no sense of time). His "m" was somewhat faded, and he lived in a big bag with lots of other M&M's like himself on the shelf of an Albertson's.
What made this M&M special wasn't his appearance, or even what's on the inside (because we all know that M&M's have the same good stuff on the inside, no matter what color they are. Only eating green M&M's is childhood superstition). Blue-spotted yellow M&M was special because he would end up being the very last M&M to be eaten from his bag. (M&M's don't mind being eaten - its what they are there for - so please don't feel sorry for them).
Of course he didn't know that at the time. In fact, he didn't think he was very special at all. The day his bag was purchased, he was just exuberant with joy. Ecstatic even. He was going to fulfill the purpose of his life! As the bag jumbled about in the shopping cart, and then the grocery bag, and then the car ride home, all he could think about was how his day was finally here. He was going to be eaten!
Of course once his bag was removed from the grocery bag, it sat on a new shelf inside a dark and somewhat musty pantry for several more weeks. But since M&M's don't have a sense of time, that didn't matter to him. He was just happy to know that his bag wasn't going to be among those that get tossed out by the Albertsons shelf-stocker because they've expired their shelf-life date.
One day, blue-spotted yellow M&M sensed a warm light appear on him (he has no eyes, so he couldn't see it, but he could surely feel it - can you imagine if he could see? I don't think he'd be as happy about being eaten if he had eyes). His bag was being open. One by one, his friends on top of him disappeared. Every time the hand reached in to grab another M&M, blue-spotted yellow M&M could feel the sides of the bag shake and shudder - sort of like what an earthquake feels like to us humans, except not as scary or unnerving, because M&M's know when their "earth" shakes, it's leading them homeward.
As more and more of his fellow M&M's disappeared, blue-spotted yellow M&M felt that warm open air begin to melt his coating a little bit. At one point, he thought maybe he'd lose his coating all together and never get eaten, but then - it happened. The hand reached down and wrapped his little blue-spotted yellow melting body into its fingers and lifted it out of the bag. Blue-spotted yellow M&M began to shake with excitement. This was it! It was his turn at last!
And then the hand stopped moving. He was no closer to the mouth than when he'd been lifted out of the bag. But he heard (thankfully, M&M's can hear even though they can't see. The sounds of a stomach aren't too bothersome when they can't see what's going on) a small, quiet but shrill voice say, "Poppie, can I have one?"
And then M&M felt himself being placed into a smaller, gentler, yet somewhat sticky hand whose fingers could barely grip and hold onto him. He wondered if other M&M's had experienced this sudden change of hands as well.
Then his moment came. Our very special blue-spotted M&M had the pleasure of fulfilling his purpose in life and bringing an added measure of joy to a small child on that day, Easter Sunday, 2006.
THE END
The Philosophical Question: Can someone "anticipate" when they have no sense of time?
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11 comments:
do you mean no sense of time being out side of time? or what?
If like our M&M, one has no conscious awareness of the passing of time, can you experience the feeling of anticipation?
well I know when I am hanging out with my friends it feels like no time has passed at all but if something is coming up I will anticipate it. For example, if I am going surfing at the beach with some friends, in the car I don't realize that any time has passed, but the entire time I am anticipating going surfing. Is that kinda what you are talking about?
Your example is a good one. It demonstrates that you can anticipate something even though you're not thinking about how much time is going by.
However I want to know: if someone just had no clue, didn't even grasp, that time existed - would they still experience anticipation?
In other words, is time a necessary element in the experience of anticipation? If someone had zero consciousness or understanding of time, would they ever at any point experience anticipation without that sense of time?
does that clarify?
Ay, but could any one ever truly find that out. There are no humans(to the best of my knowledge) which have had this truly happen to them. Some word from God would be the only way to really know.
This, my dear, is why it's a philosophical question...whether we could verify it through experience isn't the point. The point is to take what we do know and ponder what kind of possibilities are out there...
=)
Hope someone else throw their thoughts here soon...
Perhaps, you don't know me as well as you should, my friend.
What do you mean?
It is something you will one day find about me. When you do, you will know me well.
A few comments to think about:
What is an event in time? It seems like an event in time is (at least characterized by, though possibly identical to) the having, gaining, or losing of a property.
Second, what is the awareness of events of time? If there is a changing of mental properties, then one has a conscious awareness of the passing of time.
The M&M had experienced the changing of mental properties. If said M&M was capable of mental properties (dubious at best), then it would experience a change of mental properties (he recognized he was in the bag, then he recognized he was no longer in the bag). And thus, he was aware of time and thus capable of anticipation.
Just because one is aware of time does not mean one is always aware of quantified time (5 mins, 3 hours, etc.). That may be a Western concept. But if something has a mind with mental properties changing, then one should be experiencing time.
The question now is does God have a mind such that his mental properties change? I think yes, to a limited degree.
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