To: cosmicforce who wrote (1700 ) 10/16/2000 1:35:33 PM From: Solon Read Replies (2) | Respond to I disagree that we can accurately calculate the motions of things. Or, as you put it, how the waves and particles will come out in 15 years...in a far more accurate manner than chance would dictate. This is in direct opposition to what I know about chaotic system behavior. This is known as the initial value problem for differential equations. If you extrapolate differential equations using some method like Runge-Kutta, the errors for predictions 15 years in the future for things as "trivial" as planetary motion makes it difficult know precisely where comets or asteroids will be in that amount of time. MY point. The fact that I can form, express, and fulfill intentions over time (I will meet you at the 39 steps in 2111) suggests something in the causal chains of my consciousness that is different than the mechanistic universe outside of consciousness. The complete causal chain that connects my intention, and a far removed future event, exists and is stored in my brain, and reactivated from time to time, checked against the calendar, checked for continuing relevance and so on. So at the moment of fulfillment of the intention (to meet you at the 39 steps), it can be said: This act was caused by a thought, by a thought, by a thought, by a thought, etc. etc. etc. Now was the original intention caused by a thought, or was it chosen from an infinite set of possible thoughts?? A person can form many intentions, and can form intentions that are contradictory, and can change or quit intentions at will. Is it fair to say that the cause of an intention carried within it the quitting of the intention? Did anything cause anything, or is cause simply a very human way of understanding events in hindsight.in twenty years . Then you make your shot, and twenty years later, after wandering and carooming all over the table, and never hitiing THAT pocket...it drops in there...just like you aimed it . Hmmm.TIME is solely the vehicle of consciousness, and of nothing else. We travel through the world in a time direction because of our consciouness.because there would be no change in your perception of space , to give you that perception of past present and future. The concept of time derives from motion. No relative motion, no time. It may be trite to say that time does not exist for people dead or unconscious; But, if consciousness is the sole evidence for the existence of anything...is there not at least the possibility that it may be the ultimate ground of existence? appear to be motionless: would consciousness still exist? This is the question. Is consciousness subsumed in the world, or is the world subsumed in consciousness? I don't see any rational reason to arbitrarily choose one over the other.
