Strega

Time “marches on,” “flies,” “waits for no one” are not ontology. They are just descriptors of how humans feel but not how the Universe works.

Here are my thoughts on “Time and Momentum”.  It is not Time…but Momentum that counts. Without the latter, i.e. relational events, the former is not required. Time would not have been conceived of w…[Read more]

“Now” is already gone the moment you say it. The instant you think now, neural processing time in your brain has already elapsed so the concept of “now” is reconstructed after the fact. “Now” immediately becomes a memory, not an event. The Andromeda Paradox destroys the idea of a universal cosmic present. Even two people standing a meter apart do…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

Unseen wrote:
No, you feel you have a certain amount of agency.

What I’m saying is, we treat ourselves and each other as if we have agency, whether we “really” do or not. It’s on this level that we’re held accountable.

See, you can’t talk about agency without implying agency where there really is none. And I mean you you,…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
No, you feel you have a certain amount of agency.

What I’m saying is, we treat ourselves and each other as if we have agency, whether we “really” do or not.  It’s on this level that we’re held accountable.

How long is now?

Simon Paynton wrote:
As far as accountability and free will go, I’d say that we all operate in an everyday world of “as-if” free will – we have a certain amount of agency over our actions – and we’re judged and held accountable on this as-if agency.

No, you feel you have a certain amount of agency. If you are sure there’s any agency at all, exp…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Some will say, “But that’s nihilistic. That means there’s no point to anything. The child abuser, the family annihilator, the terrorist…they’re no better or worse than the hero or altruist or selfless caregiver.”

I don’t know what to tell you other than…”Yup! In a very real sense, we’re not the author of our actions, no matter…

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Okay, Enco, but we do all that shit in the present, which appears to have no duration whatsoever.

It seems like everything we do is in a world defined by Zeno. You know, that paradox guy.

Simon Paynton wrote:
I think it makes more sense if we consider a structure of the universe as being one of deterministic cause and effect.  The proposal is that the universe, from start to finish, was formed in one go.  All events and timelines of objects’ spatial movements were put in place by this process that formed the block det…

[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
The notion that the big bang, the trillions of galaxies and septillions of planets, the inception and explosion of life forms on Earth or anywhere, the construction of the Pyramids and The Sphynx, the sinking of The Bismarck, and that time my cat destroyed my tablet by knocking a coffee mug onto it, as well as everything included in…

[Read more]

It seems to me as an  atheist that the presentist universe makes more sense because the block universe is far more compatible with the intelligent design view.

The notion that the big bang, the trillions of galaxies and septillions of planets, the inception and explosion of life forms on Earth or anywhere, the construction of the Pyramids and…[Read more]

Block universe on the one hand or a universe governed by the inescapable necessity of physical laws, it makes no difference. It makes no matter how you respond to either situation. In the one case, your response has already happened in a sense while in the other, however you respond, your response is what had to happen.

Some will say, “But that’s…[Read more]

I agree almost entirely with this idea. I am a big fan of Carlo Rovelli and “Relational States”. There is no “Now”. All events exist “tenselessly”, i.e. without the concept of past, present or future. “Earlier than” and “later than” are structural facts, not things waiting to happen. We don’t experience the “whole loaf”.  We are just a local pr…[Read more]

You may be wondering what evidence exists for the block universe theory. As the Gemini AI explains it:

The evidence for the Block Universe theory isn’t based on a single “discovery,” but rather on the logical conclusions we are forced to draw from Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity.

If the math of relativity is a correct description of t…[Read more]