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RE: Is the Past Real?
December 17, 2022 at 11:20 pm
What interests me @neosholastic is how physics seems to conclude that space and time are linked or intertwined.
A philosopher wants to ask how the one may be related to or "entwined with" the other. I'm not sure philosophy or physics have given us totally satisfying answers on either count.
Time is pretty mysterious. It is analogous with space in some respects. But also different.
Although Einstein shed some light on the matter (and maybe Aristotle did to)... I'm tempted to say that time is still a big mystery to all of us.
A empiricist would prefer to reduce all reality to what is sensible now. But that kinda does omit the past and future. Sure, an empiricist can infer a past or future, but it's a problem (given how empiricists insist on sticking to sensible reality) how an empiricist would make the claim that a past or present exists
I tend to like externalism. But how does an empiricist get to externalism? Sure, an empiricist is justified in thinking a prior stae (the past) must have existed. But how can an empiricist justify the assumption that the future will some day exist?
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RE: Is the Past Real?
December 18, 2022 at 12:55 am
When I set a logger to record temperature, humidity, particulate matter, sound frequencies and amplitudes, this or that gas, and whatever else, there is no need to wonder, a month or year later, when I upload the data, whether or not the moment I set the logger was real. The RTC is crystal sharp. The number of entries count as expected and when they should fall. Should anything in the recorded values or time be off, it brings me and my setup to question. Not reality itself.
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RE: Is the Past Real?
December 18, 2022 at 11:39 pm
(This post was last modified: December 18, 2022 at 11:47 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Quote: Sure, an empiricist is justified in thinking a prior stae (the past) must have existed. But how can an empiricist justify the assumption that the future will some day exist?
Without answering the question itself, I can say that this formulation of the question answers the question, itself. If an empiricist is justified in thinking that a prior state existed, then they are in a then-future state now, and so, a now-future state later is equally plausible.
My opinion, it's more difficult for an empricist to rid themselves of time - past or future...and this could ultimately be more of an issue than trying to justify why, by sense experience, we believe in or perceive time as we do. Ultimately, what we think of time may not be so - but it would still be the case that things (external and human) are arranged in such a way as to give the overwhelming impression of such. We'd be wrong for good reasons, at least with respect to what empiricism considers good reason.
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RE: Is the Past Real?
December 19, 2022 at 9:46 am
(December 16, 2022 at 10:45 am)Angrboda Wrote:
I watched this video in its entirety; aside from the lame jokes, it is completely solid physics from a theorist who is fully credentialed.
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RE: Is the Past Real?
December 19, 2022 at 12:04 pm
Vorlon exists in the/my past. I believe he was real.
Being told you're delusional does not necessarily mean you're mental.
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RE: Is the Past Real?
December 19, 2022 at 9:44 pm
Yeah, that was then but this is now....
Or now....
Or, um...now.
<insert profound quote here>
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RE: Is the Past Real?
December 19, 2022 at 10:08 pm
(December 19, 2022 at 9:46 am)Jehanne Wrote: I watched this video in its entirety; aside from the lame jokes, it is completely solid physics from a theorist who is fully credentialed.
She's got two great books out, "Lost In Math" and "Existential Physics".
Her videos are just a bit too short for my commute, but at least she doesn't talk down to you.
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RE: Is the Past Real?
January 8, 2023 at 10:06 am
If one could, even hypothetically, travel back to the past, then, the past must be real:
Quote:Loops in time
What about the past? This is where things get truly interesting. A black hole bends time so much that it can wrap back on itself.
Imagine taking a sheet of paper and joining the two ends to form a loop. That’s what a black hole seems to do to time. This creates a natural time machine. If you could somehow get onto the loop, which physicists call a closed timelike curve, you would find yourself on a trajectory through space that starts in the future and ends in the past.
Inside the loop, you would also find that cause and effect get hard to untangle. Things that are in the past cause things to happen in the future, which in turn cause things to happen in the past!
EarthSky -- Black holes are time machines, with a catch
Also seems to argue for the Many Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.
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RE: Is the Past Real?
January 9, 2023 at 2:08 pm
(January 8, 2023 at 10:06 am)Jehanne Wrote: If one could, even hypothetically, travel back to the past, then, the past must be real:
EarthSky -- Black holes are time machines, with a catch
Also seems to argue for the Many Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.
Causal loops are compatible with General Relativity, but I'm unaware of how they would generated in a Black Hole. This article gives no reference to any theory.
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RE: Is the Past Real?
January 9, 2023 at 2:27 pm
(January 9, 2023 at 2:08 pm)HappySkeptic Wrote: (January 8, 2023 at 10:06 am)Jehanne Wrote: If one could, even hypothetically, travel back to the past, then, the past must be real:
EarthSky -- Black holes are time machines, with a catch
Also seems to argue for the Many Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.
Causal loops are compatible with General Relativity, but I'm unaware of how they would generated in a Black Hole. This article gives no reference to any theory.
Yeah, and he's just a philosopher:
https://theconversation.com/profiles/sam-baron-328
If I have been wrong here, I will admit it.
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