• Question: I was thinking about going back and forth in time to see things which made me think of something fairly creepy... Although time travel is not possible, and in one way time is not either, what we 'time' is the energy in the universe, the speed of light, the way the universe always changes and works along (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOwRb584r1c , 2:18 - 2:33) . So in one way the seeing the future is true, although we can't do it. But doesn't that mean if we have a future, we haven't made it? Like in many games, and as I see it life is a game (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5jDspIC4hY , 2:50 - 4:00), So isn't our future set out for us? so when people say your desicions make your future, is that true? are we on the edge of time creating more as we go along? are we all part of the space and energy that travels along, that thing that we 'time'? or are we a repition of a future event we haven't entered yet? if we are making the future, right now as you read this, and right now as I write this that then secures time travel as a Sci-fi thing. Are we creating the future, or playing a game? (Sounds like the answer is 42 to me)

    Asked by Herp Derp to Miranda, James on 22 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: James Gilbert

      James Gilbert answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      This is far too much for a Monday morning >.<

      Free will is a particularly interesting (and heavy) topic, isn't it? If everything interacts with everything else according to fixed laws, on every scale, then even our thoughts and feelings (in a chemical sense at least) are merely the progression of a system that was always going to be that way at this point in 'time'.

      Quantum theory seems to reintruduce weirdness on a tiny scale, so perhaps there is true randomness after all. Maybe this is free will – our ability to change how things turn out based on our actions.

      I love your thinking though. I see the hallmarks of a theoretical physicist… or a philosopher!

    • Photo: Miranda Jackson

      Miranda Jackson answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Some people believe that the future is determined and cannot be changed, because all our choices were already determined. However, some scientists believe that every decision that is made (the ones made by intelligent beings like us, as well as the quantum mecahincal interactions that occur between particles) splits the universe up into separate possible realitites, and that there are now an infinite number of parallel universes produce by all these “decisions”. I think it would be impossible to determine scientifically which of these scenarios is true, unless we find a way to travel between these parallel universes and see the different realities for ourselves. For now, this is firmly in the realm of science fiction.

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