I'm just sat here all alone on a night shift and was pondering a few questions to myself about time and how we perceive it. Einstein quantifies time as part of the fabric of the Universe as something physical that exists around us. This for me poses a few questions as if time is physically part of our Fabric, then there must be a way to observe it, maybe not directly but in-directly. They say that Gravity has an effect on time, with the stronger the gravitational pull the slower time is played out but if you exist in that moment in time then surely your own perspective mis never changed and you will be totally unaware if time has indeed speeded up or slowed down. So back to the question, can time be observed, well it must be able to as if it cannot be observed then it cannot exist so the question is how do we observe it?

One theory I have pondered is that we can sense time before it is played out maybe not too far into the distant future but enough for some people with the right perceptions to be able to change their choices based on the information they have picked up from the near future. How many times have you had that close call where you made an out of the ordinary choice that has saved your bacon? I hypothesise that time does exist and can be detected before it comes into the present and some people are much better than doing this than others. I think one day we will develop a scientific instrument that can quantify and detect time itself.

Does anybody understand me that was quite a ramble? Thanks for listening.

I just love this topic because I'm always trying to get my head around it. We live in a place called "Now" which it seems to me can never be measured, it's so small, a pin point in a pinpoint in a pinpoint going on forever. The tiniest measurement either side of the now we live in is either past or future. I don't think we can even understand the nature of "Now" somehow, at least I have big trouble getting the concept straight in my head. Thanks for putting this forward though...Just hope it flowers, ergo the flag

I'm completely ignorant on this topic and when the string theorists show up all I can do is listen and try hard to grasp even the tiniest part of the discussion. Having said that, if I were a betting man, I'd put a large chunk of loot on the notion that time as we perceive it doesn't exist. Everything that has happened and everything that will happen is happening always and will never cease. Somehow I think our perception is mechanical as in biologically contrived, perhaps based in the way the pulses of energy leap from the end of our nerves to the synapse of the brain. Maybe in that tiny nanosecond of transfer comes our concept of time. As for gravity being the Yin or Yang of time, could well be but I have zero idea as to how.

"Therefore time does not flow in a continuous stream but rather in extremely small steps. I hope this helps you to somewhat understand the nature of time.

Is this theory or proven science? Am I really going to understand the nature of time if I digest this information?

This is my take on it, for what it's worth. Is it scientifically sound? Heck no-- or rather I don't know-- all I can say is I had a little epiphany about this very thing one day, while I was contemplating the movement of the solar system thru the galaxy, galaxy thru the universe, etc...

The passage of TIME equates to our movement thru space. We rotate the sun, but our orbit does not trace the same path over and over (as a science book in elementary school illustrates.) Earth cannot follow it's same path because the Sun is never in the same place, as it is zooming along (orbiting) our galaxy, which in turn is also zooming along.

So you, this human on Earth, are constantly moving thru the universe and you've never once been in the same spot within the universe. Every moment of your life, you are somewhere different in the universe. Your Past is a LOCATION in space! So is your Future. So is Now. (Which is why people say things like "that's too far ahead for me to even think about" and "don't look back, that's all in the past." Think about it. Those are statements related to 'Location.')

I theorize that if you could go to a location in the universe that you inhabited while zooming along on this lovely Rock, you would actually find yourself back in time. Same with future locations. The trick is finding it and getting there of course!

You might also want to get a copy of Stephan Hawking's book "A Brief History of Time", it is a short but interesting read.