- #1
Gothican
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Hello there!
I've been reading Brian Greene's book, 'The Fabric of the Cosmos', and I've stumbled upon a troublesome statement regarding determinism:
In the chapter about Einstein's conception of time, he discusses the determinism of spacetime and comes to the following conclusion; Imagine time-space as a loaf of bread, and the present time of each man in different places and velocities in space (relative to earth) as slices of the bread cut in different angles, (when the only restriction comes from the speed limit set by light, which translates into a limit on the rotational angle of 45 degrees).
Imagine the spacetime loaf sliced up into many various presents of observers situated in different distances from Earth (zero relative velocity). “Now, the collection of all these now-slices fills out a substantial region of the spacetime loaf. In fact, if space is infinite – if now-slices extended infinitely far – then the rotated now-slices can be centered arbitrarily far away, and hence their union sweeps through every point in the spacetime loaf.” -Brian Greene
But here I noticed a paradox, which is pretty disturbing – if there is a restriction on the slicing of the spacetime loaf (a 45 degree limit), then it is logically impossible for all the now-slices to “sweep through every point in the loaf”!
If Brian Greene is correct, then all of spacetime is determined before we actually “get there”. Is this correct?
Could anyone please explain to me this statement of his?
Thanks in advance,
Gothican.
I've been reading Brian Greene's book, 'The Fabric of the Cosmos', and I've stumbled upon a troublesome statement regarding determinism:
In the chapter about Einstein's conception of time, he discusses the determinism of spacetime and comes to the following conclusion; Imagine time-space as a loaf of bread, and the present time of each man in different places and velocities in space (relative to earth) as slices of the bread cut in different angles, (when the only restriction comes from the speed limit set by light, which translates into a limit on the rotational angle of 45 degrees).
Imagine the spacetime loaf sliced up into many various presents of observers situated in different distances from Earth (zero relative velocity). “Now, the collection of all these now-slices fills out a substantial region of the spacetime loaf. In fact, if space is infinite – if now-slices extended infinitely far – then the rotated now-slices can be centered arbitrarily far away, and hence their union sweeps through every point in the spacetime loaf.” -Brian Greene
But here I noticed a paradox, which is pretty disturbing – if there is a restriction on the slicing of the spacetime loaf (a 45 degree limit), then it is logically impossible for all the now-slices to “sweep through every point in the loaf”!
If Brian Greene is correct, then all of spacetime is determined before we actually “get there”. Is this correct?
Could anyone please explain to me this statement of his?
Thanks in advance,
Gothican.