Relativistic Determinism

[moonbogg]

I am reading about this and find it interesting. I am taking from it that the universe, with regard to time and events, may be a fixed landscape of past, present and future all coexisting. I am interpreting this as past, present and future as being persistently illusory.
Does this mean that the future is already written, even if those events, as they happen, are taking place in an unpredictable way from their space/time frame of reference?

http://www.kiekeben.com/relativistic.html

 

[Born2bwire]

In a way yes, but I wouldn't take it very far philosophically. Basically there is a relativism when it comes to simultaneity. That is, the progression of events over short time periods can vary between observers. Of course there are trivial examples of this in classical physics. If I am standing in the middle of a box car and I see that it is struck simultaneously at both ends by lightning, then someone that is standing at one end of the box will see that the two strikes were not simultaneous due to the finite propagation of light. But an interesting consequence is that if there is an observer that is standing in the middle of a boxcar that is moving parallel to the boxcar that was struck, then even if the lightning strikes the boxcar when they are side by side (from the perspective of the observer in the boxcar that is struck), then the observer in the moving boxcar still does not observe the lightning strikes to be simultaneous.

But of course, the relativity here is on very very small timescales unless we start looking at speeds on the order of light or on lengthscales on the order of quantum systems. This also does not preclude the idea of causality. For example, if the lightning strike travels along the car to kill the man in the center, then relativity will still preserve that causal link.

There are some interesting experiments in quantum mechanics that the relativity of simultaneity takes part. The entanglement of particles for example. If I have two particles that are entangled and I measure one of the particles, by deduction I would know the state of the other particle due to the collapse of the wavefunction by the measurement. But by relativity, we could say that we first measured particle A then B and vice-versa.

 

[moonbogg]

In a way yes, but I wouldn't take it very far philosophically. Basically there is a relativism when it comes to simultaneity. That is, the progression of events over short time periods can vary between observers. Of course there are trivial examples of this in classical physics. If I am standing in the middle of a box car and I see that it is struck simultaneously at both ends by lightning, then someone that is standing at one end of the box will see that the two strikes were not simultaneous due to the finite propagation of light. But an interesting consequence is that if there is an observer that is standing in the middle of a boxcar that is moving parallel to the boxcar that was struck, then even if the lightning strikes the boxcar when they are side by side (from the perspective of the observer in the boxcar that is struck), then the observer in the moving boxcar still does not observe the lightning strikes to be simultaneous.

But of course, the relativity here is on very very small timescales unless we start looking at speeds on the order of light or on lengthscales on the order of quantum systems. This also does not preclude the idea of causality. For example, if the lightning strike travels along the car to kill the man in the center, then relativity will still preserve that causal link.

There are some interesting experiments in quantum mechanics that the relativity of simultaneity takes part. The entanglement of particles for example. If I have two particles that are entangled and I measure one of the particles, by deduction I would know the state of the other particle due to the collapse of the wavefunction by the measurement. But by relativity, we could say that we first measured particle A then B and vice-versa.

It would be interesting to somehow observe a distant civilization fluctuate from planetary genesis all the way to extinction and back again as it travels toward and away from us during its solar orbit (if far enough away that is) or something along these lines. A way to somehow observe the distortion from a distance would be awesome.

 

[Born2bwire]

It would be interesting to somehow observe a distant civilization fluctuate from planetary genesis all the way to extinction and back again as it travels toward and away from us during its solar orbit (if far enough away that is) or something along these lines. A way to somehow observe the distortion from a distance would be awesome.

It wouldn't work that way. Causality is still preserved so we would still only see the forward time progression. The relativity of simultaneity is demonstrating the fact that the relative occurance of events is dependent upon the observer.