Distance affecting time of perception is perfectly valid. There's nothing in it to suggest sentient beings don't have a choice though and there's still only one direction we can view time in.It isn't a vague argument. It's a direct consequence of special and general relativity. That there is no universal "now" is no longer debated, and then the rest pretty much follows.
The only thing that we can't get our heads around is why time seems to "flow". Why the past seems in the past and the future seems to be in the future. As far as I am aware, no-one's managed to explain this.
If the future already exists, then there's EVERYTHING to suggest that we don't have the sort of free choice to describe. How could you possibly, if the future is already determined? As indeed it may very well be.Distance affecting time of perception is perfectly valid. There's nothing in it to suggest sentient beings don't have a choice though and there's still only one direction we can view time in.
If the future already exists, then how do we see it? We can see billions of years into the past because of spacetime.If the future already exists, then there's EVERYTHING to suggest that we don't have the sort of free choice to describe. How could you possibly, if the future is already determined? As indeed it may very well be.
That you struggle with this, does not surprise me. Often people do. And no amount of "well I don't believe it" makes it any less likely.
Physics applies just the same to sentient beings as it does to lumps of coal, unless you believe in Daleks and Time Lords?
I thought we might get into this "argument" though. What you fail to consider (I think) is that it is very possible that whereas you thought 5 minutes ago, you were going through your own free will, post what you did - that in reality you were *always* going to post it. And what you "choose" to post next, is also predetermined.
How would you know otherwise? Serious question.
If the future already exists, then how do we see it? We can see billions of years into the past because of spacetime.
No. I don't know too much about Asimov, but is it not pure sci-fi (which incidentally I do like as a genre)?Have you read Asimov's Foundation books?!
No. I don't know too much about Asimov, but is it not pure sci-fi (which incidentally I do like as a genre)?
Not sure it's a sidetrack ;-) And thanks for the heads up.Yes, it is. The idea in the first three (I've not read the later ones) is that someone predicts what will happen in centuries and across space such that the right people show up at the time a vault opens and someone speaks to them.
I was struck by the idea of Asimov that someone could predict future events from study, and how parallel it was to your postulation (as I see it) that there is pre-destination, but as we can't perceive how Fate is laid out, then we may just not be able to recognise what is happening.
Random sidetrack ends.
Read the firdt 3 of the "Foundation" series in the late 60's/early 70s - that Hari Seldon and his theory of "future history" took a while to get my head round, but by the 4th or 5th book of the trilogy, years later, it began to sink in.Yes, it is. The idea in the first three (I've not read the later ones) is that someone predicts what will happen in centuries and across space such that the right people show up at the time a vault opens and someone speaks to them.
I was struck by the idea of Asimov that someone could predict future events from study, and how parallel it was to your postulation (as I see it) that there is pre-destination, but as we can't perceive how Fate is laid out, then we may just not be able to recognise what is happening.
Random sidetrack ends.