Monday 7 August 2017

#212 More philosophical ramblings

I read somewhere that physicists don't know why time goes forwards.

From a philosophical point of view, there's plenty of scope to suggest that time doesn't exist at all but perhaps that's an issue for another day.

The laws of physics, it is said, would work just as well if things were happening backwards. Isn't that a curious thing? Well now, what would that look like?

One Tuesday afternoon, some ashes unscatter themselves and drift up into an urn. About a week later, they're disbursed into a coffin... or they materialise as a coffin, along with a corpse. I don't know whether coffins are fire-proof. They really should be. I mean what is the point of... I digress.

Two weeks hence, the corpse, which is now lying on a hospital bed, is lifted into an ambulance. Another hour or two later, it animates itself and is aware that it's at home eating some Jaffa Cakes and watching Gardeners' World.

Old people like to eat Jaffa Cakes because Jaffa Cakes are old.

In this case, the person eating the Jaffa Cakes could be called a young person because they've only just appeared.

What would it look like from the person's perspective?

Exactly the same as it does now.

The corpse, upon coming to life as a person, would instantly remember its future in reverse order, creating the distinct impression that the whole thing had already happened. They'd be experiencing an intense pain in their chest, feeling as though they were about to die, with no recollection whatsoever that they had already bitten the dust just a moment earlier.

The second hand on a clock on the wall, which the person had for some reason been looking at, would move forward from :58 to :57. As it did so, the person's brain would remove any trace of it ever having been on :58. In fact, the process would happen so dynamically and so perfectly in tandem with the person's brain that at any point in time, they would have been been utterly convinced beyond belief that the clock was moving from :57 to :58.

This is just a thought experiment.

I'll try to think of something more tangible to write about next time.

4 comments

Running on empty said...

Absolutely fantastic.

Profound Familiarity said...

Glad you liked it mate.

Running on empty said...

More.

Fizzfan said...

Had a laugh like Muttley moment over Jaffa Cakes. Old! Might have to Google old biscuits now.
Like the concept of living your life backwards but if you knew what was ahead you'd probably want to change things and then you wouldn't have your future past and would either have to die or go through it all again. I reckon the urge to change things would get the better of most people.....