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Why can't we remember the future?

  1. Nov 20, 2008 #1

    leopard

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    Why is it that we can remember the past but not the future?
     
    leopard, Nov 20, 2008
  2. jcsd
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  3. Nov 20, 2008 #2

    mordechai9

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    That is a very quixotic question, but um...

    the future hasn't happened yet; our memory only recollects things which have already occurred. Hence, we can't remember the future.
     
    mordechai9, Nov 20, 2008
  4. Nov 20, 2008 #3

    Amanheis

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    Brian Greene discusses this question in either "The elegant universe" or "The fabric of spacetime". I can't remember it all, but it certainly has to do with the time arrow given by the entropy, that is always increasing.
     
    Amanheis, Nov 20, 2008
  5. Nov 20, 2008 #4

    runner

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    Because experience happens in the present. As we experience things, they are recorded in the right and left hemispheres of our brains..... some of them anyway. They become available for recall at a later time.
     
    runner, Nov 20, 2008
  6. Nov 20, 2008 #5

    leopard

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    I've read that the experience of time as a flowing from the past to the future, is an illusion. All time is in reality present "simultaneously". This does not mean, however, that everything is destined.

    Is this true?
     
    leopard, Nov 20, 2008
  7. Nov 20, 2008 #6

    Chrisc

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    No.
    Well, maybe if....no.
    Yes actually, it is possible but....


    Welcome to physics.


    It is a quixotic question, but quixotic is a noble approach to physics.
     
    Chrisc, Nov 20, 2008
  8. Nov 20, 2008 #7

    Evo

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    Staff: Mentor

    This doesn't meet the criteria for this forum. leopard please read the Philosophy posting guidelines and if you can meet the criteria, you may repost.
     
    Evo, Nov 20, 2008
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