Once I was asked about time and I said, I don't believe in it. I think we use time to measure attrition. This is more or less a measurement for a world filled with mortal beings and days measured by sunlight and darkness, aging, nearing mortal end.
Here, I am proposing this simple observation - is there such a thing as present time or future?
Right now you are reading this, but by the time you are done reading those words, they are in the past. Try to do something that is present? It cannot be captured, even in a fraction of a second.
Present now?
Present now?
Present now?
Nope. Past. Past. Past.
The future? It's nothing more than a thought, an image, a hope, a projection of potential outcomes.
I am reminded of my loved ones when they passed away. They had plans for tomorrow, the next day and the next year, the future grandkids, the dream vacation. Those things didn't exist except in their heads.
When they passed away, those futures can only be looked at from a backward glance. An example, when I was 4, I watched the Miss USA pageant. I told my mom, "I'm going to be in the pageant when I grow up." She smiled, patted me on the head. Well, 15 years later, I was in the Miss USA pageant. The event was on a calendar, but it was a "future" concept.
When it was occurring, and I was there at the events and learning dance numbers, and being interviewed, it would be considered "present," but... as I opened my mouth to answer a question, the question was already in the past.
So, present can't be quantified.
Future is a distant concept.
Past is a reflection of events played out.
Once again, time is a way to measure attrition. Things that have been, days that lead toward death, sad events we tuck away.
Why is it when we think of the future, we usually are positive and when we think about the past we have regret, grief, longing, anger?
When you think of it, the only thing that actually would be in the present is something within the quantum physics explanation - God. God isn't time. No past, present, or future. Or, as often referred to, God is "I am."
"This too shall pass." If the future isn't at this moment of reflection and the present is already the past, then where are we? It would seem that at any moment of self study, we are in a vacant territory that propels us toward a future that doesn't necessarily exist, as it's always out of reach, and a past that is constantly under our heels.
The very act of being mortal means perpetually chasing what isn't yet and dragging what was like a constant shadow.
Where we actually exist is in our consciousness and that, well, scientists are beginning to realize it is not a place or thing, but our very content. Consciousness, the very thing that makes us sentient is an ongoing dialogue within by a voice that is not really our own. The soul. We think of the soul as an invisible body within our mortal body that peels away when we die. But, it is a running program that never ends, part of the eternal life force that runs through everything.
When engineers try to figure out how UAPs can navigate, it becomes more clear that technology isn't necessarily the mechanism, but consciousness is. Steven Greer, a prominent UFO researcher, explains that we can call on UFOs to show up by opening our conscious and curious pathways like a beacon. Those who have had encounters and describe "mind speak" understand this commonality between living things. The life force is what makes us all one and the same, flowing in the same river.
Ultimately, as man works on AI and robotics, finding new and better ways to calculate and gain collective knowledge at a faster rate, the real evolution of man will be tapping that conscious river that kept us motivated and connected all along.
Just know that, as you read this post, it was the past as each word was acknowledged.