"Time and tide wait for no man." Why the irreversible binomial time and tide? German has Zeit, we have Yuletide greetings, and the Greeks had kairos and khronos. For anglophones, time is fleeting, but the tide's flood ebbs. So, Pindar wrote: "For the right moment [kairos] has a brief measure in the eyes of men." [Pythian 4.286] But, shortly thereafter: "and in time [khronoi], when the wind ceases, there are changes." [Pythian 4.294] Why? I peeked into Stewart Brand's The Clock of the Long Now which Viki is reading. And one thing lead to another: the Long Now Foundation.
Posted by jim at April 19, 2003 01:20 PM