ABSTRACT
This chapter clarifies the relationship among real time, planning and action. There follows a development of the consequences of real time for economic processes and the characterization of uncertainty. The interrelation between Newtonian and real time is examined and their respective analytical roles are specified. The central features of Newtonian time and the particular ways in which they manifest themselves are analyzed. From our discussion of the Newtonian framework, it ought to be evident what real time is not. The central features and consequences of non-Newtonian time are presented. Real time thus implies the very linkages from which Newtonian time abstracts. However, it is important to understand that real time implies a characterization of uncertainty that is fundamentally different from that prevalent in neoclassical economics. Newtonian and real time, however, are each special cases in a more general temporal analysis. Change or the succession of events is not “genuine” in Newtonian time.
