I'm a software engineer

I like to believe in true random

but probably shouldn't

then you know as well as anyone that real randomness does not come from any physical system

slit experiment

in fact,,I think this is why true A.I. will never exist...as it would require true randomness

but... slit experiment

have a pool game to play,,BRB

Is there any such thing as randomness in nature then?

BRB,,,will cont this convo

There is one history, there are one or many futures, depending on what you believe

asked for friend request

Alternatively, there is one present, multiple histories and futures

I would say the former, in my opinion. Unless by histories you mean interpretations of the events themselves

OK, but, if you could take a snapshot of every constituent element of the universe, what's to say that there aren't multiple previous snapshots that could have lead to that configuration?

Well I suppose that depends on your view of time, i.e. linearity or a sort of ever-present existence

there are many ways in which now could have been now

but one might say there's only 1 way that is was

depends on whether you buy into continuity

*it was

exactly

is there only one present, in your estimation?

I like to entertain the idea that there is only one present, but any number of pasts or futures

I remember one past

is existence defined by perception? does the past change when you misremember something?

no, but memory can exist in spite of past reality... it's kind of hard to explain what the practical implications of mulitple pasts would be

like, if the the all-powerful simulation got started just 5 minutes ago, complete with the memories we have of the "past", then those memories would be part of the host history and not real at all

whether we're a simulation or not, any moment in time may as well be the first moment in time, regardless of prior state

But wouldn't the past be implicit in the present? even if it is just simulated

Assuming there is one present.

Or, more to my point, there may be many pasts to a single present

for instance, a single chess board state may have resulted from multiple past play timelines

Chess is an interesting analogy, though I don't know how apt it is, it reduces the importance of momentum in that scenario

if I'm mid jump, I'm either on the way up, or on the way down. You may not be able to tell in a freeze frame, but the next frame will make it obvious

good point, momentum is key

chess fails in this regard

but multiple past moves... two pawns converging on each other from two separate past positions... may cumulate in a single forward move

I'm really stretching here, but if you wanted to move the clock backwards from any state in chess, you could do so with any piece

obviously, the neural pathways of human memory are a hell of a lot more complex

certainly

but... if a static configuration of brain cells can be produced from a multitude of past configurations... how certain are we that there is a single past?