Re: past/future in present

Eva Ekeblad (eva.ekeblad who-is-at ped.gu.se)
Tue, 2 Sep 1997 19:00:54 +0100

At 10.17 -0700 97-08-29, Rolfe Windward wrote:
>the issue
>Edelman raises in "The Remembered Present" that neuropsychologically the
>present is actually never quite where we are. We don't, semiotically at
>least, 'live' there; we recognize it (given the appropriate
>cognitive/somatic mappings) after it has passed.

Now I have probably been too slow to catch Rolfe before he went out the
door of our virtual auditorium. Not having gotten around to reading Edelman
although his ideas have been "in the corner of my eye" for years, I can
still imagine the sense of the statement that neuropsychologically we are
never quite in the present. I can also agree with it. But can somebody tell
me whether I'm wrong to assume that the *present* referred to here is the
atomary time unit of some powerful measuring device or other?

The reason I ask is because for other purposes, I would like to be able to
say that the present, where we _indeed_ are has a timespan that is both
longer and more "viscous" than the seconds on my wristwatch (not to mention
milliseconds etc.)

Eva