Interpret This Quote

[gunner154]

"Time does not count itself. You have only to look at a circle and this is apparent." - Leto II (The Tyrant)

Can somebody make sense out of this? It's interesting and thought-provoking, but somehow I don't have the intelligence to figure it out. What exactly has a circle got to do with time?

[Tezcatlipoca]

Examine it in terms of a way to view history and predict future events (both of which fit well with Leto II)

Most people look at time as a continually progressing sequence of events, marked and denoted by significant occurrences along the way. Unlike in today's world, where history is only in it's infancy, and patters in history are still quite digital, tens of thousands of years into the future, after time has repeated itself on both minor and major levels, and all the "events" that occur simply fade away into an analog continuum, it stops looking like your normal timeline, and more like a smooth circle. Not with occurrences and progress, but with an unending loop of ups and downs, rights and lefts.

A better way of describing it I think would be to compare it to calculus, instead of comparing it to algebra.

[gunner154]

In other words, history repeats itself?

What of the calculus part?

[Davidu]

History ALWAYS repeats itself...

About the quote, that guy's right. LetoII meant time. If you are inside the circle, you cannot perceive the circle. You see it as a line. If you are outside the circle you'll see it.

[MrFlibble]

This quote really allows multiple interpretations. At least twon come to my mind.

1. Time doesn't count itself. It's us humans who count it, measure it, and measure our actions with time.

2. Time doesn't count itself. What counts, is your deeds. With time, you can come to prosperity of humanity, and, on the other hand, the humanity can cease to exist with time.

And many more, I guess. But I like the idea, Dawiduh: "Inside the circle, you cannot see the circle" :)

[Davidu]

We have a saying in Romania:

"When in the forest one cannot see the forest because of the trees."

You cannot comprehend the whole, only the surroundings. Same goes with time.

[3ngel]

Time does not count itself

Time does not count because it's not a "creature". Time IS.

You have only to look at a circle

For the above reason WE are those that count, and define the time.

We make time, we make history, we make cycling history, we make a cycling time so we can see time (and history) as a circle.

and this is apparent

Because there is no circle at all. WE make the circle

;)

[gunner154]

Err, okay. So what has calculus got to do with this? Or have you already explained with the perception of the surroundings idea?

[MauDib]

Time, like the circle, has no beginning or end.

It took human kind to begin to measure time... without us, time would just keep going, oblivious to our passing...  ;)

[faradn the corrino]

Leto II wanted to say that things are always the same, because time seems to be a circuit, when cars pass the starting point again.

[SpiceGuid]

There is also the physics interpretation: as things evolve and transform these transformations are ruled by physics laws of conservation. So overall nothing changes, the water freezes, then it melts, then it's vapor but it's still water, you can freeze it again if you apply the required conditions.

Thus, when universe is considered as a whole it is stable, state changes are lures created by temporal and space locality.

[Davidu]

Matter, as well as time cannot be consumed.

As SpiceGuid said everything transforms, but on the big scale, the mass is still the same. You cannot create matter, nor time, and again, you canno destroy matter, nor time.

[TMA_1]

It is referring to infinity. Try reading around that specific quote. When in doubt of what a passage in a book means, read all around the passage really closely.