[tman_ndsu08]

Two things that I think we can all agree on.

1) The future does not exist until it becomes the present.

The future describes the image of the universe including the position and momentum vector of every particle within at a time equal to the present time plus time.

Such an image does not co exist with the present image in the same space in the future.

That image isn't real until the future becomes the present.


2) It is impossible to predict the future.

If we knew position and momentum vector of every particle in the universe, we could predict where those particles would be in a future time.

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, however, says that we change either the momentum vector or the position by determining the opposite. IE, we can't know both at the same time.


The inability to predict the future does not rule out the possibility that the future is predetermined, though.


This is something that I find weird. The universe is just a big billiard table and all matter is just billiard balls bouncing around and colliding with each other. To me, that suggests that the future is predetermined, even if we can't predict it.

So even if you think you have a million difference choices, whatever choice you pick was bound to be the way it was going to be since the beginning of time. Even if you think that you're going to do one thing and then do another thing that you think is random, that was still the way it was always going to be.

Of course, not all particles in the universe follow linear paths. Gravity bends the path of some particles. But that can still be predicted mathematically. It's not a random change.


The only hope for true free will is if there is something in the universe that can affect the path of a particle and can't be predicted mathematically. Something random.

We don't know that much about our universe, so that possibility is out there I suppose. Perhaps God allows free will by changing things in a way that we can't predict?


Anyone have thoughts on this?