Does Probability Exist?
Something that's interesting to think about: Given the same beginning circumstances, would the same ending occur? Inevitably?
Think about it. What if an event happened, say, for example, let's have a throwback to Mr. Robert Frost, what if two roads diverged into a wood and you had to choose which one to take? And you think, and you mull it over, and the wind blows, leaves rustle, and you finally decide on the road less travelled.
Now, let's say time rewound, back to the moment as you were approaching the two roads. You have no knowledge that time has rewound or that you have experienced this before. Your mind is having the same thoughts as it was having the first time around, everything is in the same position, travelling at the same speed, in the same direction, as it was before, every last molecule, atom, electron, photon, EVERYTHING is exactly the same as it was before.
Even though the air molecules were moving the same way as they were before would they bounce differently? Would the wind still blow the same way? Would you have listened to a thought that you had ignored the first time? Would you have made the same choice?
If everything was exactly the same, would it not run exactly the same way?
Would your beginning thoughts have put you on a train of thought that would inevitably have led you to the same choice? Are you ever really 100% borderline indecisive, and you make your choice fully randomly?
Moving beyond even your thought process, what if you made a decision based on the flipping of your coin?
Would your muscles have moved the same way? Would you have decided on a certain position as the optimum for coin flipping? Would the wind and how tired you were at the moment and how hungry, frustrated, patient, everything, would that situation have led you to inevitably flip the coin the same way? Would the coin have moved the same way, the air have parted the same way? If it was all going in the same way as it was before, would anything be different?
Now that's a little wishy washy, but here's something to really make you think.
What if you're an old, old, person, and you're lying on your deathbed, and you're in a certain situation. Maybe you're married, maybe your not. Maybe you have 26 grandchildren, maybe you have 3. Maybe you don't even have a child yourself. Maybe you'll die rich. Maybe you'll die poor. Either way you're in a certain situation.
Now, here's the big one: What if time rewound all the way back to the day of your birth.
Would it have been inevitable that you ended up in the situation that you are in on the day of your death?
From the very day you are born, is the day of your death unchangeable?
12 Comments
Recommended Comments