Positive determination?

The topic for today is something that’s been on my mind lately, but I've had these thoughts for years and years. It’s kinda philosophically natured, so if you don’t like that, just skip this one. Go outside. Or read a book. Or do something useful. Anyway, on to the ontological question of the concept time.

Time: does it flow freely, unrestraint by environmental factors, going wherever it pleases to go? Does it care about us? Should it? Or is time something rigid? Something that is nothing? Or maybe we can’t perceive time too well? Can we, then, ever arrive at the true definition of time?

These are some of the greatest questions man has ever asked himself. I myself have a personal opinion on all this: I truly think that all time exists at once, but we see but a minor fraction of it at this very moment. We can’t see past our momentary constraints; to us, time passes and there’s nothing we can do about it. The present is what we perceive at this very yoctosecond.

I hear you think: dude, what about past & future? They should exist as well, shouldn’t they? My answer is: yes, but only in our perception. We can look back on what we’ve done – you can always correctly answer if I ask you e.g. what you had for dinner last night. We, in short, perceive a past.

You can be wrong if I ask you, on the other hand, what you’ll have for dinner tomorrow; but that’s only, I speculate, because humans can’t see the future. Imagine, if you please, a humanoid species that actually can see the future like we can see the past. Imagine that you are a member of this species. If I ask you now, what will you have for dinner tomorrow, you’ll answer 100% correctly. Every time. Note that I’m not saying that you, as part of this species, cannot predict the future in an absolute manner: you may not know the answer if I ask you what you’ll have for dinner in 3 weeks (just as you may not remember what you had for dinner 3 weeks ago). In short: future exists in our minds, but our human perception can neither apprehend nor understand it.

Now I hear you think: you said we perceive past and future. So are they real or not? Do they exist? I believe they don’t: that they’re just concepts we think are real; but, when faced with the real answer (which will, sadly, probably never come), we will learn that everything we thought we knew is wrong (you’ve actually been cheated like this before: think of all the lies you were told as a kid, ranging from Santa to the birds and the bees).

I simply don’t believe in time as we perceive it, I think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction. We are caught in the river, inexorably dragged along, down to our personal waterfalls. We inevitably haven’t got much control of where we’re going either. We can also look at parts of the water where we were, and we sometimes catch glimpses of the place we’re going to next; but all in all, we see but small segment of a giant river.

Someone standing outside the river has full control over what he’ll see next, he can look at the spring of the river (and see the big bang) or he can go to the estuary (the apocalyptical end of time), or anywhere in between. He can view episodes of life over and over again. He can see you falling down the stairs as a kid, the construction of the Pyramids of Giza, the dinosaurs, the Battle of Waterloo etc.; much like we can view any scene from a film over and over again – just go to any random YouTube video and try to skip back and forth a couple of times. See how it’d basically work? (Note: this deity-like figure is purely exemplificative and doesn’t represent my theological views.)

2 demurs people can have inevitably follow from this idea: for one, there is no place for parallel universes. Everything that ever happened, happens or will happen, does so in but one universe: ours. No exceptions. Sorry. Another one is a widespread concern: this is dangerously similar to the pessimistic philosophy determinism: nothing matters for, whatever you do, you won’t be able to alter the future. I say, no, you are able to change the future. Each and every of your actions will resonate in the future, you simply don’t know how. Yet. So it’s interesting to do things and to see where they’ll lead you to. As such, I very much like the name Positive Determination for my views.

Some afterthoughts: some of the more literary-centered readers will certainly have noticed this post being influenced by Vonnegut’s thoughts.  I’ve always liked his writing – even though it’s stacked with sci-fi bullcrap. And again, for the last time, I’m not saying that I’m right or if what I’m saying here is real. This may very well be complete and utter nonsense. We'll probably never know.