On 4/21/2015 4:11 PM, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
On Wednesday, April 22, 2015, meekerdb <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:On 4/20/2015 10:29 PM, Alamin C wrote:Present- is now Past- was then Future- will be Each has it's own characteristics, that are associated with action. My question is, about this third option of the present. In experiencing it or being conscious of it we loss it. So does it actually exist? Does the present actually exist, and if so when does it become neither the past of the future?I happen to be reading this paper: /Physics in the Real Universe: Time and Spacetime// //George F R Ellis// // // The Block Universe idea, representing spacetime as a fixed whole, suggests the flow of time is an illusion: the entire universe just is, with no special meaning attached to the present time. This view is however based on time-reversible microphysical laws and does not represent macro-physical behaviour and the development of emergent complex systems, including life, which do indeed exist in the real universe. When these are taken into account, the unchanging block universe view of spacetime is best replaced by an evolving block universe which extends as time evolves, with the potential of the future continually becoming the certainty of the past. However this time evolution is not related to any preferred surfaces in spacetime; rather it is associated with the evolution of proper time along families of world lines // // //arXiv:gr-qc/0605049v5 / Which is a good exposition of the evolving block picture and why it's a better metaphysics than the block universe. Two quick comments on that paper: It relies on the claim that the future is indeterminate, but under the MWI it is not.
No, it relies on the claim (a well supported claim) that the future is unpredictable.
In an evolving block universe howdo we know that we are now standing in the present anticipating the evolving future rather than in the past anticipating an already set, but later, past?
On a mailing list that puts so much weight on consciousness I think it would be obvious that "We're conscious of the present."
Brent -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
