One of the more interesting concepts being discussed lately and making it’s way closer to main stream is Retro Causality. For the purposes here, it means the future can effect the past.
Some interpretations of Einsteins theory of relativity lead to the idea of the “Block Universe”. A universe where the past, the present and the future exist simultaneously. We simply live in the illusion that there is a direction to time…forward. See the diagrams below.
Past, present and future exist simultaneously
2D, 3D, 4D (Time)
Rather than flowing forward, different points in time are represented as different dimensions within the block. Like one amorphous loaf of bread, something that happens to one crumb within (say the growth of mold) effects the crumbs next to it, no matter the direction.
Some say the Global Consciousness Project at Princeton University may have evidence to support this theory. Apparently, information about the tragic 911 attacks was accessed by our collective unconscious before it occurred.
I actually have no problem wrapping my head around Einstein’s theory of relativity as it relates to past and future. What I have a problem with is the present, because the present is fleeting. It’s simply a point in time that really has no moment at all because the moment it’s noted it’s already the past. Does that make sense?
Makes sense to me. Now is never really now. What warps my mind further is if the past, present, and future exist all at once, then does that mean that all of time is now? The future is already there, and the past is already and always there. Does that mean time travel as we have imagined it in science fiction is impossible?
“Makes sense to me. Now is never really now. What warps my mind further is if the past, present, and future exist all at once, then does that mean that all of time is now? The future is already there, and the past is already and always there. Does that mean time travel as we have imagined it in science fiction is impossible?”
That is an interesting statement. It might be that all time is now. We are just unable to see this because of how limited we are. Time is the ultimate classification of things in a way, so it would be understandable we can’t fathom it. However it may be that past present future are just categorizations we made because of our limitations. On a larger scale they may be irrelevant. To answer your question about time travel to take it a step further,and this may be a step too far that I can take, but maybe even time travel is an illusion. Perhaps if time travel were possible, and someone somewhere were using it, perhaps they just think they are time traveling and someone on a much higher plane of consciousness would be able to see their mislead belief.
That does make perfect sense. I also came to the same conclusion of the concept of the present. Were I struggle is how the future can affect the past. The past already happened and cant change in the physical sense, only in our interpretation of the event. And the future hasn’t happened, yet and has an infinite amount of possibility.
This is really an interesting thought. I always viewed time as going “forward”. What about when people create time machines deliberately messing with time? How would this effect how we see time?
You have a really good point right there. If time machines are really possible then it would prove that the past is not really gone and maybe, the future is not that spontaneous and unpredictable as we thought it is/would be. Or maybe it would be affected with the decisions, or maybe not. They’ll be also messing with destiny, I guess.
I always felt that we as a people don’t perceive time properly and in fact, it’s different moments in time that can effect not just the past but just about any moment in the past, present, as well as the future. We use our watches to tell the time, but who is to say time flows in such a liquid state, anyways?
I find interesting how physical ideas like this challenge the way we perceive reality. This idea suggests that maybe everything that we think we choose we actually don’t. Thoughts just flow through our minds and we perceive ourselves as going forwards through time. If this were true would there be a possible way to train your mind to process time in the opposite direction. If we are merely observers who have no control on the universe this could work I think.
I like the fact that ideas like that screw with our perception and how we exist in the world. It really makes you realize how little we know and how much we have to learn before we even get a tiny fraction of the universes knowledge in our records. I want more of these ideas.
It’s so difficult to abandon our intuition of time. Special relativity is really interesting to me. It seems impossible that sizes and times dilate as things approach the speed of light, yet it happens. It’s sad that most people regard it as a foreign concept and make no attempt to move towards understanding it. Imagine a world where the concept of spacetime was just basic intuition. We could eventually harness the power to move not only through space but through time itself!
This is always the kind of stuff that really makes your brain work. I could try all day to attempt at understanding a piece of what this idea really entails, but it is far beyond my comprehension. I really love when an idea can cause this in my brain. It really makes you realize how much we have left to learn in this world.
It is possible our perception of time is an illusion. Our limitations of our senses can usually cause us to misinterpret something. In a sense time could be one drawn out illusion, since it is possible for us to be mislead and believe something that is true even though it isn’t for a very long period of time.
This is really an interesting thought. I always viewed time as going “forward”. What about when people create time machines deliberately messing with time? How would this effect how we see time?
I have thought about that as well. I suppose that is where alternate universes come in. Suppose you travel back in time and kill your grandfather, that would mean you don’t exist. So then an alternate universe would have had to be created. One in which you don’t exist. But then what happens to you when this alternate universe comes into being?
This theory reminds me of “dream time” where we can be completely active, (in fact perhaps even doing things in the dream that we normally wouldn’t do or be able to do in waking life) while simultaneously doing absolutely nothing more than lying down asleep. This is one person doing two completely different things in two completely different realities at the same time. In fact, dream time has no start and stop, no forward or reverse. It just exists all at once and that is the sort of thing that this article reminds me of.
I’m not really sure if I get this theory or I even understand correctly what you just said, so, I’m sorry if I don’t.
I think that past, present and future somewhat exist simultaneously right now, no matter if you are a person, an animal or a thing. The things that happened on the past affects you directly, the present is now and in some way, you are directing your present towards the future.
I think that without really thinking about it, those three things are here simultaneously.
Well I must say that I am very intrigued by this whole “block universe” concept. I cannot say that I really understand it all that well, but I also can’t help but think it has a lot of potential for good stories and movies. I am not sure why my mind immediately went there, but it did. Anyways, the idea of the past, present and future all existing at once is really interesting, and anytime I heard things like time is meaningless I usually get pretty excited to learn more. Thanks for sharing.