Does the future exist? Started by parsonstreet, 2nd December 2019 11:15 in Religion & Philosophy

Luna said: ▲ according to the Tarot cards, I was supposed to die about 30yrs ago!

According to (one interpretation of) the quantum theory, a version of you did. Everything that could possibly have happened to you, at every moment of your life, happened. Your reality is just, among all the possible histories, the one you remember. All the other histories are equally valid. Apparently. Don't believe it myself, but mathematically it sort of works.

Here is C.D.Broad's theory of time.

Quote: If we accept that time really has direction, how do we explain it? This is where Broad’s growing block theory comes in. He argued that the direction of time is explained by the way time slices are continually added onto the block of reality. Broad writes of his theory: […] such a theory as this accepts the reality of the present and the past, but holds that the future is simply nothing at all. Nothing has happened to the present by becoming past except that fresh slices of existence have been added to the total history of the world […] The sum total of existence is always increasing, and it is this which gives the time-series a sense [direction] as well as an order.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/theforum/does-the-future-exist/

I don't know if he is saying that more events create more time.

Luna said: ▲ I forgive you in advance for tonight's nightmares

Sorry for being scary, that wasn't my intent. Rather than scary, I think it would be quite cool to suppose that there's a version of me who bought a lottery ticket the day I bought a sandwich instead and he won a fortune. Good for him.

The reason I'm uncomfortable with the idea though, is partly because the numbers immediately become absurd as soon as the universe begins, and partly because there is no chance of there being any observable consequences: To receive any information from one of the 'other' universes would violate every conservation law. I therefore tend to favour the older "Copenhagen" interpretation.

Yes!

Five Minutes From Now.

No, it’s already been and gone!

When it has Been & Gone, then the Future is called The Past.


3X3

TheDruid 3X3 said: ▲ When it has Been & Gone, then the Future is called The Past. 3X3

Not always.
From my point of view summer next year is not in the past, but from the perspective of someone living in next year's winter it's been and gone.

TheDruid 3X3 said: ▲ When it has Been & Gone, then the Future is called The Past. 3X3

The future is never called the past.
Just as the past is never called the future.