Is the future real?

[TinyTree]

In that discussion about cars, it made me think about the multiple possible futures. And my question is to you:

If there are multiple possible futures available, are they all real? Are they all equally real? Or is only the one that becomes final real?

According to the probability of the universe theory (ahem, you can see it elsewhere on this site)- there are multiple possible futures, and they are not all equally probable, however these possible futures are still latent- available to exist, in the present.

So we have to ask- are the more probable futures "more real" than the less probable futures?

It is a difficult thorny question. I will quote Einsten (who wrote with another guy called TinyTree by chance)

It will hence be concluded that the principles of quantum mechanics actually involve an uncertainty in the description of past events which is analogous to the uncertainty in the prediction of future events.

According to quantum mechanics, we have the same problem with the past (and according to the probability of the Universe theory as well).. there are multiple pasts which could have led to the present. Only one of them actually existed- but if it is "erased" which one brought us here.. is it still "real"?

As a simple example, lets imagine a computer playing yahtzee. You are not watching it as it plays, but you are playing against it. It rolls five quantum (genuinely random) dice , and comes up with 1, 1, 1 and some other numbers (4,5). Then it rolls these other numbers, and comes up with a Yahtzee.

If you were looking away, and the computer did not record these other numbers- did it matter what they were? Are they still real or not? Is that past reality more real than another reality where those numbers were something totally different (like 3,4)? If no one recorded what those other two dice were, and never saw them- does that reality have any more substance than a different reality where they were something else?

It appears from that quote of Einstein there is an implication that the "real" reality has lost its substance- it has no more impact than the alternative reality with other numbers. The past is "unravelled" so to speak, as the past is forgotten. Do you agree with this or not?

The staggering implication of this is that much of the past- or all of the past- is not real except insofar as it has impacted the present. If this is the case, the present is sort of a "narrowing of reality" where the future and the past both spread out into possible existences, and the past is constrained by what is remembered in the present. As the present loses touch with the past- it unravels. I am not sure I buy this, but it is an interesting thought.

Getting back to the future, I want to know your opinion about possible futures. Lets pretend there are only four possible futures. These futures have the following probabilities:

1) Future A 50% probability
2) Future B 30% probability
3) Future C 20% probability
4) Future D 0% probability

Is future D "real" at all? It can be imagined, but can not exist. Is that real? Is future A the most real, since it is the most probable? Or is Future C the most real, since it has moved the universe into a more actualized, less probable future?

[Guille]

TinyTree,

When we come to such an important question to the understanding of QM, for actually the decision of yes or no here creates completelly opposites views of qm, we can only base our opinions on theoretic points of vie,w for we will can't know (now) if there are at all parallel universes.

I believe that there are parallel universes, and that this universe in which we are is the root of all of them. It's like a tree, sort of like those trees they teach us learning probability and outcomes, in math, remember them? The same but for all the universes. So for the universe there are billions and trillions of events, for the smallest space of time in whichan event can be happening/devided to, is that of planck's time (according to our-not-so-smart-present-physicists). But this universe in which we are know and of which we are consciouss, is the REAL universe, in contrast with other which are HYPERREAL universes. I came along with the quantum theory of consciousnness, developed by Roger Penrose, Stuart Hameroff, http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/ presents it. Basically, the eye, and the other senses, percieve and observe all reality, all universes, but then the mind chooses which. I don't understand it that much, I'm still reading through it, but it explains why the mind choses which it choses.

[Guille]

Is future D "real" at all? It can be imagined, but can not exist. Is that real? Is future A the most real, since it is the most probable? Or is Future C the most real, since it has moved the universe into a more actualized, less probable future?

Each future with a probability which is between (and not equal to) 0 and 1, exists equally. Doesn't depend on how big the probability is. The only unique future that exists with probability 1 is that in which we live right now, that of which we think about and are conscious. The futures that have probability 0, don't exist, for a mathematician, do exist for a philosopher, and for a physicists it neither does exist or doesn't exist. It both exists and doesn't exist.

[mkirkpatrick]

No the future is fantasy as is the past,both of these imposters only exist because we are fooled by what we think we see,and by what we think we know!
Which is just above zilch,what you really have is expansion and contraction.
all that exists is eternally within the Now,the now expands to contraction which
=Alpha all the way to Omega which =expansion,The greater we expand in consciousness,the more we increase our vibrational ratio,our perception will then
penetrate deeper into the now,you will gain access to the be-for and to the will-be,butyou will always be anchored in the everpresent now.

kind regards michael.

[michellemfry]

We have a future. I receive a little piece of it with each sunrise. Comes standard with the universe.

[mkirkpatrick]

We have a future. I receive a little piece of it with each sunrise. Comes standard with the universe.

The real future begins in the ever present now?



regards michael

[Infinite Consciousness]

[QUOTE=TinyTree;8579]In that discussion about cars, it made me think about the multiple possible futures. And my question is to you:

If there are multiple possible futures available, are they all real? Are they all equally real? Or is only the one that becomes final real?

Hello Tiny Tree,

Do you know where the discussion about cars is ? I can't find it can you help ?

[RascalPuff]

Insofar as the present is the sum total of events in the past, the future is determined by the sum total of events and conditions of the present?

Regards,
- RP

[mkirkpatrick]

The future is as real as the now we live in,does that suggest a clue?



regards michael.