The growing block view of time and space.

Growing block universe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to the Growing Block Universe or Evolving Block Universe or The Growing Block View theory of time, the past and present exist and the future does not. The present is an objective property, to be compared with a moving spotlight. By the passage of time more of the world comes into being, therefore the block universe is said to be growing. The present is supposed to be the place where this is supposed to happen, a very thin slice of space-time, where more of space-time is coming into being.

The Growing Block View is an alternative to both Eternalism (according to which past, present and future all exist) and Presentism (according to which only the present exists). It is held to be closer to common-sense intuitions than the alternatives.
.
Philosophy of space and time
is the branch of philosophy concerned with the issues surrounding the ontology, epistemology, and character of space and time. While such ideas have been central to philosophy from its inception, the philosophy of space and time was both an inspiration for and a central aspect of early analytic philosophy. The subject focuses on a number of basic issues, including—but not limited to—whether or not time and space exist independently of the mind, whether they exist independently of one another, what accounts for time's apparently unidirectional flow, whether times other than the present moment exist, and questions about the nature of identity (particularly the nature of identity over time).

Ontology:
in philosophy (from the Greek ὦν, genitive ὄντος: of being <part. of εἶναι: to be> and -λογία: science, study, theory) is the study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences

From this point I begin:

The topics below should be considered as relative only to the Growing block view so as to keep the thread to a specific area.

About Eternalism:
The concept of Eternalism has its problems as the future can not be accessed.
The idea of time as a dimension to allow 2 more freedoms of movement also can not be seen to exist.
There is only the one direction in time indicating that it begins at NOW.

About Presentism:
I agree that all that happens, happens now.
BUT
Memory can not exist, unless there is a past to experience once again what was.
I can only touch what is already past. As soon as I touch the NOW it is past.
All that I can access is the past.
This then makes me feel that the past must then exist.






About the growing block:
All that I can access is the past.
I can not act except at the constant NOW. Yet everything that I do is past when I look back from NOW.
A static dimension has 2 freedoms of movement. Forward and back.
A dynamic dimension has 2 freedoms of movement forward and forward again.
With this I must agree:
For there is the eternal NOW and a place to record all that happens at NOW.
The record is the past, or the history of creation.

Does this not solve the problem of the beginning of all things.
The beginning is NOW and ever was NOW. The beginning is dynamic.

Was there a first time that the creation happened at NOW. Likely not, for it is not a discrete, it is fundamental attribute of the existence medium. Like mass and energy are never gone, neither did they begin.

Does time exist separately from space?
You can not separate movement from time for there can be no movement without time. However I can not separate my being from time either. Yet we can conceive of the being as separated from space, for it can be in any space and it makes no difference to the being. Even if there is no space my being can still be. Then the time that can not be separated from my being must also then be separated from the space that is separated from my being. I conclude that time and space are then separate entities.

Does the being exist separately from space? I answered this above as yes.
Does the being exist separately from time? I think not. I do not believe they can be separated.

What accounts for the apparent unidirectional flow of time?
IT is a dimension. It allows only 2 more freedoms of movement. Because it is dynamic both of these freedoms are in one direction only.

Do times other than the present moment exist?
Yes but time is in motion and moves at C. You can not catch up to it. IT begins at here and now and travels outward toward the macro event horizon as an expanding creation of time and space. This new creation is covering all of the was existing creation except for the edge as it is also traveling at the same speed C leaving only the edge of the previous creation beyond its own boundaries. When we look toward the macro in the distance we see the edges of all of the past creations. Yes the past does exist but it has flown toward the macro where we can not longer access it. What is created can not be uncreated.
John