If time is like a straight line and the present in at the middle of that line than why do we have the capacity to remember only the past and not the future. It's based on an interesting theory but theory is only theory...
2006-08-30 08:23:21 · 12 answers · asked by anthony 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
because it hasn't happened yet
2006-08-30 08:28:26 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
You have only experienced a portion of the line at any given point, and we only experience it in one direction. Think of the timeline ahead of us as being potential, or if you prefer, you are at one end of the line, being carried forward as it zooms off into the future at a blistering second per.... second.
You also have to remember that truly linear time is only one of many theories. There is also the "Many Worlds" theory that uses Schroedinger to say that every time a choice is made or a chance is taken that turns out one way, the universe splits into two or more copies of itself, one in which your decision turned out one way, another in which it went the opposite way, and at that juncture, the timeline also branches out and goes off in another direction. So if you were ALMOST hit by a Mack truck yesterday, you're still here to ask your question, but in some other universe, you didn't look both ways and were obliterated, and couldn't be here to ask the question. So yesterday morning, if you were able to "remember" the future as well as the past, which future would you remember? The one where you're already dead or the one where you live to see today?
2006-08-30 17:43:37 · answer #2 · answered by theyuks 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because the timeline is going in one direction,in the future...We have all ready been in the past thats why we remember what happen. Dont think of the present as in the middle of that time line think of the present as at the end of that line and every second that line gets longer
2006-08-30 15:33:23 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
That's the problem: How can we know that future also is a straight line??? We don't know which surprises are awaiting us - so how may we say future (or time) is a straight line?
So crazy like our past was, timeline for past is never like a straight line. So we can't even suggest a straight line for future.
If you look only at time itself, it's no miracle we can't "remember" future. If you remember something, it had to happen. To remember means to be able to recall something you already had seen.
For the future you might ask your local oracle...
2006-08-30 15:35:54 · answer #4 · answered by beelzebub_1989 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You said that "we have the capacity to remember only the past and not the future". So there is no explanation needed. You can only remember the words that you have studied. You can only remember whatever you have observed. What you perceive is through your brain and it registers only the past, but it can anticipate what may happen in the future. While you are walking you know the way you come and you know where to put next step.
2006-09-05 03:50:25 · answer #5 · answered by libranjiss 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Intresting question ..
We do sometimes remember the future, via something called Deja vu "already seen" & Deja visiter "already been" ..
Deja vu is a phenomina in which you see things happening in the moment but you think it happened or was seen once before.
Theorically you can't see the future, Let's say you are walking down this straight line that you are talking about, and the present is your foot steps, how can you see the end of the line without reaching to it ?
2006-08-30 15:36:51 · answer #6 · answered by Duda .. 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It may well be that time, on the Planck scale, is *not* a straight line with the 'present' at one point. Rather the 'present' may well be a probability curve of some sort. There's a fair amount of work that has been done on this and it does seem to explain how some particles seem to move 'backwards' in time.
Doug
2006-08-30 15:32:15 · answer #7 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because we are stuck in the 3D world. This means that we cannot experience time all at once. Think of a bug on a shower curtain (not a great analogy, but bear with me). To that bug, the world around it is only 2D. It cannot grasp what a third dimension would be because it only experiences that third dimension over a period of time, like moving around a curve of the shower curtain (we're disregarding the fact that the bug's body is 3D). Our universe is stuck in a 3D plane of existence, and that is why we can't remember the future.
2006-08-30 15:33:05 · answer #8 · answered by Free Ranger 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you're travelling on a new road in a straight line, why can you remember the segment of the road you've already driven, but not the road you haven't been to yet?
2006-09-05 22:02:52 · answer #9 · answered by freebird 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because we don't know what the future is or I would make so much money on betting on the outcome of horse racing and other sports and commodities.
2006-08-30 15:33:54 · answer #10 · answered by whyme? 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
time is not a straight line.
2006-08-30 15:32:47 · answer #11 · answered by michaelsan 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋