On Sat, Nov 24, 2012 Jason Resch <[email protected]> wrote: >> You can identify your past state as one that produced your present >> state, but it's hard to identify with your future state when you don't know >> what it will be. >> > > >I don't see why one's knowledge (partial or complete) is required to > identify with something. >
And I don't see how you can identify with something you don't know anything about. I know for a fact that a memory of John Clark of yesterday exists, but as for John Clark of tomorrow, I can hope but I don't even know that he will exist. I maintain that nobody feels in their gut that he is the man he predicts he will be tomorrow but rather the man he remembers being yesterday. > we can say "I am some program", and "My next experience will be that of > the future evolution of this program" even when we don't know what program > that is. > In other words whatever will be will be because the next step in your program could be STOP, you just don't know. But at least on this step I still have memories of the past states of the program. > In some contexts memory is more reliable than prediction but not in all. > I would put more faith in the sun rising next morning than in my correct > recalling of what I ate for breakfast last week. > Very few things are as predictable as the rotation of the Earth, and even then if there had been a category 9 earthquake anyplace on the planet since the sun went down sunrise could be a few milliseconds earlier or later than you expected. In general there is no doubt that we know the past better than the future and that's what gives time a direction. John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
