- #1
Undomiel
- 9
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Hello, I've just joined this forum, and I hope this is the correct place to ask these questions ...
Anyone want to talk about time? I love thinking about this notion ...
Einstein believed in ‘block time’, that the future is already there, that there’s no difference between the past, the present, and the future, it’s just that we are evolved to perceive it as flowing when it’s really not ... it’s really all there already ...
Is there only one possible future? Is free will an illusion?
I read somewhere that Einstein said, “we can do what we will, but we cannot will what we will"! Brilliant! Does anyone know WHERE he said this, because I’ve been trying to recall and find in which book I read this, but I’ve had no luck. Anyone know?
If you instead believe there’s many possible futures (or no future yet), that we choose and affect the future, then what about the past? Are there many possible pasts in existence too (Joke: historians seem to believe so!)? And it’s just that we don’t know how to access them? (I.e., time travel!)
Personally, I think that even though time is indeed a dimension, and so theoretically it should be possible to move through it, the reason that we’ll never be able to do this is because there seems to be only one time dimension, and so that’s why it’s not possible ... because we can move through space because there’s three spatial dimensions that we have access too ... if we only had access to one spatial dimension, we wouldn’t be able to move through this, either ... you need several dimensions in combination to be able to move through them, as we have with spatial dimensions (ie, width, height, depth). So if there’s only one temporal dimension, we are helpless in its hold, because you need more than one dimension of its type (either spatial or temporal) in order to get any control or mastery of it. I hope I’m explaining my idea well enough for you to understand ... I’d love some intelligent, scientific feedback on this ...
And this leads to the thought ... what exactly is the difference between a spatial dimension and a temporal dimension? Einstein thought nothing (maybe someone will correct me on this too if I'm wrong!), but there must be some distinction, otherwise the single temporal dimension would not be differentiated from the (three in our perception, or ten in M-theory) spatial dimensions ... why do physicists differentiate between spatial and temporal dimensions if they believe Einstein is right in NOT differentiating between space-time?
Anyone want to talk about time? I love thinking about this notion ...
Einstein believed in ‘block time’, that the future is already there, that there’s no difference between the past, the present, and the future, it’s just that we are evolved to perceive it as flowing when it’s really not ... it’s really all there already ...
Is there only one possible future? Is free will an illusion?
I read somewhere that Einstein said, “we can do what we will, but we cannot will what we will"! Brilliant! Does anyone know WHERE he said this, because I’ve been trying to recall and find in which book I read this, but I’ve had no luck. Anyone know?
If you instead believe there’s many possible futures (or no future yet), that we choose and affect the future, then what about the past? Are there many possible pasts in existence too (Joke: historians seem to believe so!)? And it’s just that we don’t know how to access them? (I.e., time travel!)
Personally, I think that even though time is indeed a dimension, and so theoretically it should be possible to move through it, the reason that we’ll never be able to do this is because there seems to be only one time dimension, and so that’s why it’s not possible ... because we can move through space because there’s three spatial dimensions that we have access too ... if we only had access to one spatial dimension, we wouldn’t be able to move through this, either ... you need several dimensions in combination to be able to move through them, as we have with spatial dimensions (ie, width, height, depth). So if there’s only one temporal dimension, we are helpless in its hold, because you need more than one dimension of its type (either spatial or temporal) in order to get any control or mastery of it. I hope I’m explaining my idea well enough for you to understand ... I’d love some intelligent, scientific feedback on this ...
And this leads to the thought ... what exactly is the difference between a spatial dimension and a temporal dimension? Einstein thought nothing (maybe someone will correct me on this too if I'm wrong!), but there must be some distinction, otherwise the single temporal dimension would not be differentiated from the (three in our perception, or ten in M-theory) spatial dimensions ... why do physicists differentiate between spatial and temporal dimensions if they believe Einstein is right in NOT differentiating between space-time?