h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think Time only goes in one direction. I think the Past and the Present are one line and the future is made up of multiple paths. Once we've decided on a path, i.e., the Present has arrived on the Future, the alternative paths fade away and only the path taken remains.

The Past is permanent. Once the Present becomes Past, something happens that it becomes "read-only". it can be viewed again, but it can't be altered. The Future though is like a CD-R--"write-once, read-many-times". The Present is where the "burning" of the CD-R takes place.

What's my proof? Well, back in the unversity, I met some really talented people who were able to tell me what I was about to do before I did it. They said they could see various future paths that I could still alter since they hadn't occurred yet, but they can only see one past. They proved this by looking at my and my fellow students' past lives and were able to list information about our past that they could not possibly know about since we just met them. Added to the fact that these talented individuals were not professionals but fellow students proved to me that they were the real thing.

My thinking about Time is summed up by Omar Khayyam:
"The Moving Finger writes and having writ, moves on.
Not all our piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line.
Nor all our tears wash out a word of it."

Hi shirly-holmes, and thanks for dropping by!

First, just as a point of information, this is the wrong place to respond to articles in Peer Review (PR). In the 'Entry Data' box, you will find a link to Peer Review, which would take you to the thread for this purpose. Comments generally come later, after it has (hopefully) reached Edited Guide (EG) status.

That out of the way, I agree that Time only goes in one direction for us. In fact, that was one reason for suggesting an explanation for 'why'.

I guess I don't know what you mean though, by the phrase 'we've decided on a path'. Certainly you don't think that people control the time direction of the entire universe? I cannot even imagine how such an effect might be made.

Regarding your proof: those talented fellow students may have been perfectly serious, but they didn't do anything that talented magicians and mentalists have been doing for hundreds of years. The only difference is that some of them can explain 'how' they did it.

You see, anecdotal experiences do not constitute 'proof' of anything, other than that a personal experience has been perceived. I too, have know people with the uncanny ability to divulge information on subjects of which they could not possibly have 'known'. Even in these situations, disregarding chance, there are other possible explanations. It is at least equally possible that such talented people are tapping into some 'universal mind' experience which gives them their insights.

Strangely, this proposed theory provides yet another possibility, and that is that these people have somehow managed to start perceiving the timeline at different points by seeing across those supra-dimensions, to view another part of the arc of time-travel.

So you see, your 'proof' that others can perceive past and/or future events does not prove that the theory is not correct. In some minds it may even go so far as to partially substantiate it.

Glad you stopped for a read,

PS: The correct discussion thread is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F48874?thread=429339 BTW: Your suggestion would have made Time a CD-W, not a CD-R.