cybrpunk.com

Is time lying to me?

My clock is wrong. Wrong for my time zone. The hours are wrong. The minutes are wrong too. But which is truly wrong? I have two clocks sitting side by side. One ticking away on my desk and the other being displayed on my computer monitor: both with different times on them. But which clock is wrong? I assume the computer clock to be correct because the computer simply reads the system clock and tells me the results. The ticking clock has hands that move and a single power source of a battery that can fade and die with time. The computer is plugged in and has a battery backup for such things as system time. Because time is so very important. Time is what makes a computer work. Time is what keeps the processor churning away on all the ones and zeroes that are thrown into it. A shredder in reverse.

But how do we know the time is right? It was set at one point and since forgotten. Anyone could change the time when you walk away from your computer. The computer wouldn’t care. It’s the flow of time it cares about and not the counting of the instants that pass. The time on a computer could be any combination of hours, minutes and seconds. But not so on my ticking little clock. It’s only concern is the display of the time. But it also could be changed. Changed by hand, changed by malfunction, changed by the dying battery. Time can slow on the ticking clock. A pass of the second hand around the face counting out sixty ticks could in actuality take seventy seconds. Or the clock could be made improperly and those same 60 ticks could take a mere 56 seconds. Either thus changing the percieved and presented time without ever being the wiser. If time slowed. If time sped up. If time halted so would the computer. The ticking clock would not. Happily displaying the wrong information for all to see. It tells us with blind faith that what we see is the honest truth. It is not lying. In it’s world it is always correct.

So which is wrong? Can I verify it with an atomic clock? Sure, assuming that the clock was set right in the first place. What if the first atomic clock was set seventeen seconds fast when it was first started? Another clock setter uses the atomic clock as a reference and sets their digital clock to the same hour and minute as the atomic never realizing that the seconds were not the same. Adding their own error to the equation by not waiting for the minute to change before setting their own device. What if both my clocks are right? Is that even theoretically possible unless I were approaching light speed? Both are probably wrong. That makes the most sense but how do I check? How can I know for sure? Maybe they both lie intentionally.