Why can we remember the past but not the future?

Way back when I was studying physics, one of the questions the profs always asked us to consider is why we can't remember the future. There is nothing in the laws of physics that prohibits it. After all, the arrow of time knows no direction .

Over the years I've pondered this question more times than I can count. I've read everything there is to read and I'm still unsure of a conclusion.

Am I the only one who'd like to know the real answer? Or cares?

This kind of stuff intrigues me.  I remember reading A Brief History of Time  by Stephen Hawking many years ago and there’s lots of similar mind bending discussions in there.

When I was in university, I took a few elective astronomy classes and whenever we got too far into discussions about Cosmology and other deep astronomical questions he would stop and say “the only way we can have a meaningful discussion of that topic is over several Guinness in the pub!”

Edited June 19, 20205 yr by regis9

Remembering the future is knowing the future.  There are too many things about the future I'd rather not know in advance.

Noel

Especially now...........

1 hour ago, regis9 said:

meaningful discussion of that topic is over several Guinness in the pub

I often give cosmology lectures at our local astronomy club. Based on some of the question I get, a couple of Guinness' just would't cut it. A full bottle of Bushmills would be more appropriate (and all of it just for me),,,, 

Edited June 19, 20205 yr by W2DR

Isn’t this something to do with the space-time continuum? I remember trying to get my head around this many years ago while reading Stephen Hawking’s book and the concept was no easier to understand even after a couple of pints of Guinness!

Bill

1 hour ago, W2DR said:

After all, the arrow of time knows no direction .

Entropy defines the direction of the arrow of time........

Actually, it is somewhat questionable as to whether we can remember the past too. Sure, we can talk about what happened yesterday, or earlier this afternoon, but we are really only recalling significant events which we perceived on these occasions, we have no recall of the entire second-by-second experience of it.

If I recount to you what I perceive as being the sequence of events which occurred this afternoon, I will only give you the highlights, and since it won't take me the same amount of time to recount those as it did for them to occur in linear time, this must mean that my memory of those events is capable of recalling them at a faster speed than was the case when they occurred; a bit like fast-forwarding a tape recording and stopping on the various interesting bits.

So our brains must presumably be able to work at a speed faster than time. We have all experienced time appearing to slow down when we've or witnessed had an accident or some such, so the actual passage of time as measured by a clock, is more of a concept than an actuality. This is especially true if we put a clock on a vehicle moving at a high speed, since we know this has the effect of slowing the passage of time down resulting in any clock so transported no longer matching up with one which remains stationary.

On a more practical experiential level, if we do go to the bar to get some drinks to have whilst discussing this stuff, we might get served in five minutes if there is a queue, but it will feel like longer as we wait for our turn!

17 minutes ago, scianoir said:

even after a couple of pints of Guinness

Try Bushmills instead 😄

 

7 minutes ago, Chock said:

Actually, it is somewhat questionable as to whether we can remember the past too.

Apart from wives who seem to have an uncanny ability to accurately remember what you did/said even decades ago!!

Bill

I think they keep hidden notebooks Bill.

Noel

Simply put, one's own past is all the knowledge and experience in a individual's lifetime. Others who came before us leave a record of their knowledge and experience for us to learn from, and to ponder their meanings. Further back in history, we have the fossilized remains of both humans and animals.

But I believe in an old concept:  That time is a river and it moves in one direction only - forward.  We cannot see what lies beyond the next eddy.  I also believe that construct to be a physical law of the universe.

However, we know that time can be slowed-down though motion.  But can it also be sped-up?  So much so that future events are or can be observable?  Events that have not yet taken place yet in "normal" time?  

I'm not sure that Man will ever be able to observe future events - but, of course, it will certainly not stop physicists in our future from trying to figure it out...

I read once that in quantum physics something can exist in two separate places at the same time.  I decided to take a course in quantum physics to see if I could understand the concept.  I got so lost I never finished the course.  But as I understand it ordinary physics doesn't work in the quantum world.

Just this week I read an article that they have come closer to being able to demonstrate that on object can exist in two places at the same time.

I certainly don't believe in time travel.  How can one possibly move forward in time to observe an incident that has not yet happened?  Or go back in time to replay an event that has already happened in real time?  That's like telling me that I can move forward in time and meet a person who has not yet been born or go back in time and met a person who has already died.

I'll only know what happens tomorrow when tomorrow becomes today.  And I'll only know what happened in the past if I have lived through it or read about it.

Noel

Hi birdguy!

Perhaps it's because you are overlooking the idea that time is purely a sense of sentient beings and from which we can therefore never escape 😉

If we could remember the future, we would all be lottery winners, not just players.