When you wake up in the morning and look outside the window, it is now–no, no, it isn’t. In the fraction of a second that it takes the brain
to make the perception, that now has changed to not now. The perception is not instantaneous and motion is continuous. The change may
be small or huge, but the change is a result of motion and non-instantaneous perception. But how can now be made now? Instead of now
as a perception, it should be considered as a conception as shown in an earlier post as follows: Now is the continuation of a changing
existence by motion–mass, fields and waves in immaterial space being the existence in reality. Now is not perceivable, but the brain does
not seem to miss now by much; it is fast. Even without the perception of now, the philosopher is confronted with naive reality… It seems
as though the first duty of consciousness is to monitor reality; the concern is not now or naive reality but survival.
Yes, we are conscious of existence after the fact.
There’s a lag between our acting and our perceiving.
This gives the impression of another will being in control of our own existence.
This is also why some deny free-will.
They have already chosen to act, and perceive the choice as if it was inevitable.
Mind perceives patterns and interprets them.
Adaptation is training oneself to automatically react to specific patterns.
Now is perceivable, because what you perceive is always the now of perceiving. Perception is immediately given to itself as such and outside of time.
Sure, the contents of what you are actually perceiving are probably out-dated by a fraction of a second. Doesn’t mean they aren’t still valid and real, evidenced by the fact we use our perceptions to successfully navigate the world without dying.
You are always perceiving an immediate ‘now’ of something. Time is a bit fictitious anyway, it is merely the idea of change. One changing thing being compared to another changing thing is what we call “time” or the measurement of time, and one thing that is changing in exactly the same ways as something else we call “unchanging” or no measurable change detected. Speed and direction being relative, so is time and the experience of time.
What do you think really exists out there beyond our perceptions? Our eyes give access to photons which the brain interprets as colors and shapes. Do those colors and shapes really exist like that? What is out there? Closing your eyes doesn’t make reality go away. Knowledge bridges the gap between what we see and what is ‘seen’. Knowledge is an extended manifestation and derivation of reality. At first you have naive being, being being limited by brute force reality all around it. Perceptions may align or not, but reality will impede. Over time these experiences create knowledge, a second reality. Knowledge is now what we interact with alongside reality, in mediated arrangement and co-occurring supportive relationship with. So the question arises: that if we cannot know reality immediately in the now, can we at least know knowledge immediately in the now? Yes certainly we can. Because knowledge is a given substance of reality embedded in and as our own minds. Consciousness is its own contents. A loop continuously closing upon the infinitely reducible instant of ‘now’.
Now…Here…I…all abstractions referring to a segment of space/time, determined by the individual’s cognitive speeds and acuity.
All is energy…all is active.,…all is dynamic and fluctuating.
So, how do we identify anything?
Mind reduces all to abstractions - mental snap-shots. Mind interprets what is present.
The quality of the mind determines the quality of the interpretations - gauged through application, from the consequences.
Human brains have evolved a priori methods of interpreting existential flux - effective because they sufficed.
Consciousness is always lagging, since perceiving, processing, interpreting, requires a period of space/time.
So, we are always perceiving the past - the speed of the brain determining the lag period.
We react to consistent, repeating, patterns.
Now is a cognitive snap-shot of what is no longer present, but has fallen into the past.
How far into the past it has fallen is determined by the mind’s cognitive speeds.
Now is a spatial/temporal slice of existence.