Only the Future Exists

Sorry time travel fans much as I like good science fiction like Dr. Who the reality of existence in this universe will not allow it - I'll leave the issue of parallel dimensions and universes to another post. Some might say we exist in the here and now but I counter by saying the here and now can not be defined as it already has passed as soon as you try to nail down its location. The past on the other hand no longer exists and is only a memory of what you perceive to have happened - a ghost image if you will. The future on the other hand is the only real existent state as it occurs in real time and in fact is happening. So we might suppose that to a limited extent some time travel may be possible into the future as that future may still occur. In the mean time and in real time only the future is real. Agree?

reply to post by AlienView

In the mean time and in real time only the future is real. Agree?

Nope. The future is always, well, in the future. It's always just out of reach. The only thing we have is now, and our present time memories (past) and our hopes and fears (future).

reply to post by AlienView

The future on the other hand is the only real existent state as it occurs in real time and in fact is happening.

How can you say this in present continous tense instead in future tense?
How the future is happening? You need to be in the future to tell us that future is happening

reply to post by zilebeliveunknown


It is always the present - it is a gift.
The present is alive - it is moving and cannot be grasped but that which knows this never moves.
There is motion and rest.

The rest watches the movie.

'Time marches on' - It does not stand still and is irreversible.

reply to post by AlienView

Agree?

Disagree.

I agree with the title of another thread of yours

That being

All of Existence is Dependent Upon Mind and Without Mind Nothing Exists

So the future only exists in this case because its a creation of the mind.

But then same can be said for the past and present.

These are all concepts that have come from the mind being aware.

InhaleExhale
These are all concepts that have come from the mind being aware.

Space like present awareness produces concepts which form the mind.

it's not entirely correct, we can only view the pasts of stars... we can not determine their future or the probability of the life of the star with 100% accuracy.

for the future to exist one would have to step beyond 13 billion light years distance from earth... at present the furthest we can see back in time.

if one could travel faster than the speed of light and step beyond 13 billion light years distance, that still would have been the past to the observers or the people the subject has to explain the future to.

According to general relativity and special relativity, the future and the past both exist simultaneously and are just as "real" as the present moment. See this vid for an explanation:



If you ask me though, there is clearly something wrong with that theory and I don't believe it works that way even for a single moment (pun intended).

The future does NOT exist.

What happens "in the future" is as far away and "untouchable" as what happened in the past.

The irony: The present doesn't exist either, it becomes past as soon as you look at it.

An event doesn't "happen" or "exist" in the future. Events/everything CAN only happen "in the present" (it doesn't "exist" as an already finished event "in the future")...but since "present" doesn't exist either...you'll see how deep the rabbit hole goes...

reply to post by AlienView


The future does not exist yet, only the present. The only way we can obtain the future is to live it. 10 min into the future I see a big burger with my name on it, but it has not happened yet.

We can not travel into the future because it has not happened yet, and we would be from its past..

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


but quantum mechanics and probability suggests that it can not even be viewable to the observer.

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed

NoRulesAllowed
An event doesn't "happen" or "exist" in the future. Events/everything CAN only happen "in the present" (it doesn't "exist" as an already finished event "in the future")...but since "present" doesn't exist either...you'll see how deep the rabbit hole goes...

It is the formless forming but never formed.

I would say that both the future and past exist, but only as a set of probabilities that get grayer and fuzzier the further away from "now." We experience the present as a set of conditions that we perceive and react to. The nearer to the present we are, the more we are able to anticipate and predict what is in the future, based on our perceptions of the present. We can take a swing at a baseball when we're standing at the plate, but not at a pitch that happens a year from now, or that happened a year ago.

The further away from the present we get in either "direction," the more difficult it becomes to predict. But they both exist as a set of probabilities.

reply to post by Blue Shift


the future or the past does not exist, only the present...

SisyphusRide
reply to post by ChaoticOrder

 

but quantum mechanics and probability suggests that it can not even be viewable to the observer.

Exactly, just one of the many reasons why Einsteins theories on space-time are not entirely correct and why it's so hard to merge quantum mechanics with general relativity. Quantum mechanics inherently demonstrates that there is no such thing as fate or destiny, so going on that it's impossible for the future to exist as some sort of pre-determined state.

AlienView, I can't agree with everything you say.

There is only an ever-changing "now". There will never be a past or future. The past and the future are both just ideas of the mind.

The past seems to exist because our minds have memory. We look upon the ever-changing now, and see remnants of previous changes, and our minds are reminded of the moment those changes occurred.

The future seems to exist because our minds assume the ever-changing now will persist. We see the ever-changing now continuing to change, and we don't expect it to stop. So our minds postulate a possible future based on the way things are currently changing.

The reality is... there is only "now", and it is changing constantly. That change creates the illusion of time.

On a side note, that is why psychic phenomena is real (although rare). Psychics are not predicting the future, and getting sudden visions of something that hasn't happened, because the future doesn't exist yet, and it hasn't happened yet. What they are predicting is a change of now. That change could be in the process of forming as we speak, and they detected that change before it was evident. They weren't suddenly looking into the future at something that didn't exist yet, they were sensing a change that was in process of becoming evident, because that process of change existed before it was visible.

reply to post by AlienView

Time is an illusion. There is no past, no present, no future. There are only different, endless and beginingless instants in spacetime.

SisyphusRide
reply to post by Blue Shift

 

the future or the past does not exist, only the present...

What's your opinion on for how long that moment of present is long?
I'm looking at it like frames of the movie and to me that one frame it's something that's not measurable.
What is the smallest measurable moment in time?