this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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To be pedantic, photons never accelerate. They only ever travel at one speed in one direction
And as they're massless, photons do not experience time. Regardless of how far a photon travels, from its perspective, the journey takes no time.
It also does not experience space, as the entire universe has been length contracted in its direction of motion into a 2d plane. It is simultaneously occupying every point along its path. So it doesn't need to experience time.
It also does not experience, as it lacks consciousness
Well now we're getting into philosophy
Are we? Like even if you believe in the sliding scale it feels preposterous to assert there isn't some breakpoint (even a fuzzy one) between inorganic thing that doesn't experience and organic thing that does
My stance is that if we can define, measure, and test experience, then it's science. But "experience" is a pretty vague term, and the way it's used is pretty human-centric. To me "experience" isn't so much a sliding scale thing that's actually measurable in nature as much as it's a human construct. If you ask me, if there's a fuzzy breakpoint, it's due to the word's ambiguous definition, not reality.
I have no consciousness and I must experience
How do you know, though? 🤔