RE: A crazy thought: Could causality not be real?
May 13, 2014 at 12:18 pm
(This post was last modified: May 13, 2014 at 12:27 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(May 13, 2014 at 4:44 am)Freedom of thought Wrote: A philosophical thought came to me while I was in the shower of all places, causality might not even be real.
According to Einstein's theory of relativity, all actions/events are relative to each other, there is no such thing as an absolute reference frame. All reference frames are just as real as another. When I throw a ball, I am causing it to move when I push it, right? Well, the reference frame on the ball says the ball isn't being pushed at all, the ball is staying still and the person who is throwing the ball is moving away. Thus, all reference frames cancel each other out, the balls frame of reference is just as real as the ball throwers frame of reference, which means there is no such thing as causality. When we push an object we think it causes it to move forward, but from the reference frame of the object, everything else is moving around it. What do you all think? Am I onto something, or am I just crazy?
Ah, No. You are confusing identity of the agent of casuality with existence of casaulity.
In this case, agent of casuality is not frame dependent. Einstein did say an accelerated frame of reference, which is what would surround the ball you throw, is not the same as an inertial frame of reference, which is what surrounds you. So they don't cancel each other out. The ball in an accelerated frame of reference will know it is in an acclerated, and not an inertial, frame of reference. Therefore you throwing the ball does not cause the ball to feel as if it was the ball that is throwing you. There will be no confusion as to the agent of casaulity
