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He's talking about the Andromeda Paradox Isaac Send a noteboard - 17/10/2012 07:11:01 AM
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.


It's one possible interpretation, keep in mind that SR and GR are classical mechanics, not quantum, and in classical things are predetermined and we've known that back to Newton. QM is what makes thing not be predetermined. It's generally accepted that Quantum rules out pre-determinism, and that outside of Quantum stuff is essentially pre-determined, we've not really matched up Relativity and QM yet. Worth noting physics is full of paradoxes we haven't resolved yet. There are buttloads of arguments and analysis on the Rietdijk–Putnam Argument and Andromeda Paradox, I don't know any that are simplified though.

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.


Well, defintely not 'centuries', since a century ago it had been accepted as a given that physics indicated everything was predetermined and had been so for a long while, again it was Quantum, not Relativty, that screwed that idea up.

This really freaks me out. Please tell me I am wrong, and how I am interpreting this incorrectly.


No, not really, nobody's ever ironclad killed the Andromeda Paradox, or proved it either, there's a lot of those things, many contradictory too.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
- Albert Einstein

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This message last edited by Isaac on 17/10/2012 at 07:13:59 AM
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