Sunday, May 30, 2021

Great Old TV Episodes...from Through the Wormhole


This week's featured episode is IS TIME TRAVEL POSSIBLE? from the popular science series Through the Wormhole, specifically #3 from Season 1, originally aired in June, 2010. A few years ago I had The Science Channel as part of my cable television premium service...eventually one day I reevaluated some of what we were paying for and decided to delete the package of channels that included it.  But while we still received it from 2010 through 2017 this channel featured the series Through the Wormhole, narrated by actor Morgan Freeman, that probed into different deep topics of cosmology, physics, and even metaphysics.  To me this was a step up from the Cosmos series and which, while avoiding the high mathematics and science in these areas, still provided a nexus between the scientific community researching them and people at large...something our society, so much of it in science denial and ignorance, desperately needs.  One of the topics often covered is time, and one of my favorite episodes is this one on time travel.  As usual, Morgan introduces it with a poignant memory, this one from his childhood days with his grandmother, and then one supposition after another about the nature of time gets scientifically laid out, ideas many of which I had been maintaining as a non-scientist for years: it was an episode of personal affirmation for me! The two most prominent points the show made in this regard were (1) that all that ever happened, is happening, and will happen are equally a fundamental, transcendentally existing part of reality and (2) the concept of "now" is a subjective...not objectively discernible or provable...element of time.  As for the series Through the Wormhole as a whole, I always rejoiced (and laughed) at the often unbridled joy and enthusiasm of the various featured scientists as they discussed their theories and discoveries: these folks know how to live!  Unfortunately, I can't find this series on any channel right now, except for some on YouTube.  I'm considering purchasing the complete set on DVD, but there seems to understandably be a run on it and they're out of stock...also, my library doesn't have any DVDs to check out, either. But let's return to that "time" episode and an important quote from Morgan Freeman: "Time is not universal.  The strange truth is, time is personal"...    

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