Is the future predetermined?

[Cuba]

Distance and time are equivalent measures of the seperation of events (in space-time).

 

If you think distance is "substantial" (a pretty unconventional use of the word) then so is time.

So for arguments sake if time and space are substantial and do interact what would that mean?

 

Another thought that is slightly off topic, if the future and past are predetermined wouldn't that make any form of hypothetical time travel to be pointless? If every atom has a predetermined location in every moment in time and space then wouldn't they just return to where they should have been if you go to the past and where they should be if you go to the future? Which, if you went to the past, would make you forget anything even happened. Heck if you went too far you would simply cease to exist in either direction (as yourself).

 

So if going near a black hole slows the rate time passes due to the speed at which you are traversing space and you somehow manage to break free I would assume that your memories would not suddenly hop to where they are supposed to be on the time line that you should be on in space. So by demonstrating that time can be altered and is different in different locations in space, it sort of throws a wrench in the whole predetermined future thing. How can two (or many more rather) timelines be going at once in a predetermined future without coming to odds with one another? Even if its only very minor it would disprove the whole notion.

 

At least that how my brain decided to look at it. There are undoubtedly better holes in such a theory than that.

[sam77]

So for arguments sake if time and space are substantial and do interact what would that mean?

 

Another thought that is slightly off topic, if the future and past are predetermined wouldn't that make any form of hypothetical time travel to be pointless? If every atom has a predetermined location in every moment in time and space then wouldn't they just return to where they should have been if you go to the past and where they should be if you go to the future? Which, if you went to the past, would make you forget anything even happened. Heck if you went too far you would simply cease to exist in either direction (as yourself).

 

So if going near a black hole slows the rate time passes due to the speed at which you are traversing space and you somehow manage to break free I would assume that your memories would not suddenly hop to where they are supposed to be on the time line that you should be on in space. So by demonstrating that time can be altered and is different in different locations in space, it sort of throws a wrench in the whole predetermined future thing. How can two (or many more rather) timelines be going at once in a predetermined future without coming to odds with one another? Even if its only very minor it would disprove the whole notion.

 

At least that how my brain decided to look at it. There are undoubtedly better holes in such a theory than that.

 

There are no multiple timelines, that would imply multiple universes. If you somehow managed to travel back in time, it would be impossible to change the future. However, it may have been necessary to travel back in time in order to progress to the future. So, if you travel back in time to acquire dinosaur DNA and return to the future to resurrect the dinosaurs, you have not changed the past. If, before deciding to travel back in time you came across a record of a cave painting depicting a futuristic human appearing out of nowhere and taming wild beasts, you realized that somebody was probably you. After the event, you can then confirm that it most probably was you (especially if you communicated with any artistic cave-dwellers during your time in the past, or that any even existed. Or perhaps it was you who made the drawing).

 

I'm not sure such time travel to the past is even possible. But what do I know, I'm just a stupid human being. It would probably require great amounts of energy and a new understanding of space and time.

 

 

Randomness can lead to predetermination. This is possible in liquid state physics. One example of this is osmosis. In an osmosis, two chambers are separated by a semi-permeable membrane. One side is a pure liquid, like water and on the other side is water plus salt. The pure water will diffuse though the membrane in the direction of the ionic side, driven by an entropy increase, as the pure water randomizes on the ionic side. The water is randomizing and increasing entropy, yet this randomization generates a consistent predetermined pressure called the osmotic pressure.

 

The movement of the water, at the micro-level is random yet the pressure at the macro-level is consistent and predetermined. All we need to know is the concentration of water doing the randomizing. Osmosis is a colligative property meaning it only depends on concentration and not which ions or diluents are present. It is connected to only entropy. Most of physics uses gas and solid state analogies. This example is more obvious in chemistry which deals in liquids . If the universe was modeled as a liquid, than a random micro can lead to macro order.

 

One possible example of this is the quantum universe. We live in a quantum universe. In a quantum universe, only certain predetermined states are possible. The electron spectra of hydrogen has only distinct predetermined lines. This is not random. This is different from a continuous universe, where all states are possible. A quantum universe is less random than a continuous universe, In a quantum universe, all the dice are loaded compared to a continuous universe; six sided dice become two sided. Based on liquid state physics and a random micro leading to a order and predetermined macro, quantum may be the macro result.

 

Hydrogen gives distinct spectral lines because those are the characteristics of a hydrogen atom. That's not a correct application of predeterminism, which states that the future and past are already decided. QM very much deals with randomness, albeit randomness structured by physical laws. Its main limit is observation. It can tell us what happens but not necessarily why. It fails to take into consideration that we are the result of evolution and that our perceptions of the universe are subjective. There exists a human-bias in QM which I feel needs to be reassessed.

Edited October 9, 2015 by sam77