The psychophysical structure of temporal information
pp. 259-273
in: Fraser, Francis C. Haber, Gert H. Müller (eds), The study of time, Berlin, Springer, 1972Abstract
As a concept for ordering and analysing real events with variable amounts of information "time" is much more complex than a simple clock-measure. Psychophysics has traditionally dealt with one-way processes from stimulus to sensation, creating information. In human action the reverse process occurs. The information in a plan of action anticipates the outcome. The latter is subject to uncertainties and the planned timing must be elastic, requiring a topological calculus for the relative timing of planned processes. Human actions can now have consequences of planetary orders of magnitude, giving unpredictable quantities in astronomical space-time, and local thawing in the frozen framework of The Minkowski continuum.Quotations are from "The Principle of Relativity" by Lorentz, Einstein, Minkowski and Weyl (1923 translation, Dover Edition).