This one has been bothering me even more the more I think about it.
One of the fundamental things Greene explained in the second episode ("The Illusion of Time"
is that all points in spacetime are fixed.
He gives a visual analogy which I will try to describe.
We have Mr. Newspaper Reader sitting on a bench here on Earth, and across the Universe we have Alien Person standing still. Greene says that their "sense of now" moment is identical if they are not moving in relation to each other.
However, Alien Person hops on his bicycle and starts riding it AWAY from Earth. His personal moment of "now" will now correspond to a moment in Earth's past.
And when Alien Person turns his bike around and starts heading TOWARDS Earth, his personal moment of "now" corresponds with a point in the future.
All of these lead me to think that, without actually saying it this way, physicists and cosmologists are telling us that the future is fixed, that it is not fluid.
If all points in spacetime, past present and future, are fixed, then that means we really don't have any free will, and that fate and destiny (2 things science has renounced for centuries) are in fact real.
This really freaks me out. Please tell me I am wrong, and how I am interpreting this incorrectly.
One of the fundamental things Greene explained in the second episode ("The Illusion of Time"
is that all points in spacetime are fixed.He gives a visual analogy which I will try to describe.
We have Mr. Newspaper Reader sitting on a bench here on Earth, and across the Universe we have Alien Person standing still. Greene says that their "sense of now" moment is identical if they are not moving in relation to each other.
However, Alien Person hops on his bicycle and starts riding it AWAY from Earth. His personal moment of "now" will now correspond to a moment in Earth's past.
And when Alien Person turns his bike around and starts heading TOWARDS Earth, his personal moment of "now" corresponds with a point in the future.
All of these lead me to think that, without actually saying it this way, physicists and cosmologists are telling us that the future is fixed, that it is not fluid.
If all points in spacetime, past present and future, are fixed, then that means we really don't have any free will, and that fate and destiny (2 things science has renounced for centuries) are in fact real.
This really freaks me out. Please tell me I am wrong, and how I am interpreting this incorrectly.
Death to the Regressives of the GOP and the TeaParty. No mercy for Conservatives. Burn them all at the stake for the hateful satanists they are.
Science Question
- 13/10/2012 09:01:08 PM
563 Views
In general, effects of gravity on a nanoscale system are negligible.
- 13/10/2012 09:54:50 PM
405 Views
To get an intuition of how weak gravity is...
- 13/10/2012 10:33:14 PM
354 Views
Perhaps I say it as should not, but that is oversimplified to the point of inaccuracy.
- 15/10/2012 11:16:50 PM
454 Views
You can calculate gravity pretty precisely, but let me explain conceptually how we know
- 14/10/2012 03:54:40 AM
401 Views
thanks all (and some more Qs)
- 14/10/2012 07:30:04 PM
382 Views
You're welcome and some more A's
- 15/10/2012 01:40:01 AM
389 Views
Then I have another question
- 16/10/2012 05:52:33 PM
369 Views
He's talking about the Andromeda Paradox
- 17/10/2012 07:11:01 AM
345 Views