a note about time

["James Alexander Cunningham" <0203734C@student.gla.ac.uk>]

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Something occurred to me last night about what I said earlier about time travel. If for the universe to be at time t is noting more than for the universe to be in a certain configuration of matter and energy then it would be difficult to avoid some kind of determinism. For example, at five o’clock today I was sitting typing this. However it seems uncontroversial to say that at the same time I could have been reading a book instead. But if all that is required for the universe to be at time t were for it to have a certain configuration of mass and energy, it would be impossible for any instant to be different. If it were, it would not be something different happening at the same instant, but a different instant altogether. If I were to be reading my book I could not be doing so in the same five o’clock that I were typing this, as if I were not typing this it would not be the same five o’clock.

Comments, suggestions, ideas?

James  




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