Is the future already written?

[Cavebear]

Well, sorry about that, but somebody had to do it! ;-)

And besides, as earworms go, that one's not too bad.

You know what would be truly evil?  Let's list all our earworm songs...

[Unbeliever]

I think not, that would be just too mean! LOL

[Cavebear]

Too old to rock and roll, too young to die.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwn0R1PFUwU

As I always say "Better to fade out, than to burn away"...

[Cavebear]

I think not, that would be just too mean! LOL

Well most people say atheists are "evil".  So I'm starting a list in Word now.  Heh-hh-heh...

[Unbeliever]

I expect that would be a very long list!

[SGOS]

Too old to rock and roll, too young to die.

Jethro Tull; I get that, but Doris Day? 

[Unbeliever]

Just an old TV show that I remember, and the song was in my head while reading this thread - so of course I had to share the misery....

[Cavebear]

Just an old TV show that I remember, and the song was in my head while reading this thread - so of course I had to share the misery....

Everything from old songs to ad jingles to cartoon themes count.

[Unbeliever]

Wasn't there a movie in which ad jingles were the only form of music? Maybe Demolition Man?

[Cavebear]

Wasn't there a movie in which ad jingles were the only form of music? Maybe Demolition Man?

I don't know.  There are many modern movies I have never seen.  But it would be interesting to hear from people who do know.

[Unbeliever]

Yeah inquiring minds want to know...

[Baruch]

Well most people say atheists are "evil".  So I'm starting a list in Word now.  Heh-hh-heh...

I am not most theists.  Humans are evil, not that there is anything wrong with that.

Noun - "profound immorality, wickedness, and depravity, especially when regarded as a supernatural force."

[trdsf]

Everything from old songs to ad jingles to cartoon themes count.

Oy, I have about 20 queued up inside my head as soon as this new thread is begun... and I will provide YouTube links when available.

Because I am that kind of evil.  :D

[Unbeliever]

Whenever I get an earworm that's annoying, I just change the channel to another one. Some earworms are better than others, so I just go to a better one, like "Sign sign, everwhere a sign":


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLm3HMG8IhM

[Hydra009]

This is exactly my whole point: regardless of the fact that there is a set of events that will come to pass, we don't know that set of events ahead of time in detail, so in fact only "a" future exists from our perspective.  There are also many sets of equally probable events, and quite possibly there are even sets of events that are more probable than what eventually comes to pass.

So I am explicitly not using 'the future' to refer to an indefinite future, because I'm trying not to use 'the future' at all.

I think the point that luckswallowsall is trying to get at is that our conception of the future as multiple, possible futures is incorrect.

Put it this way, it's the night before Christmas and you pick up a wrapped gift.  You don't know what's in it - you can guess and some guesses are more probable than others - but you ultimately don't know what you're holding.  Would it be correct to say that the wrapped Christmas gift is any of a number of potential gifts?  Maybe on a logical level, it might.  But in reality, there are no potential Christmas gifts - there's a single, actual gift in there and it's there with 100% certainty.  The future is like that - there's a definite future, we just don't know what.

Time often analogized to a river - timestream, the flow of time, etc.  The future is like whatever's upstream from us.  We don't know what it is, but we'll know when it comes to us.  It's already there, it's just not in sight yet.

If it helps any, I'm also the sort of pedant who's (still) trying to train himself to say 'horizonfall' and 'horizonrise' rather than 'sunrise' and 'sunset'.  :D

I sometimes add the clarifying term subjective to that term.  Subjective sunrise.  Subjective sunset.  It really turns heads, but imo it's accurate.  The sun is only appears to rise from our vantage point - from our subjective experience.