daweenis

It is a commonly held belief that people are propelled into the future by their past. For example, If you're about to make an omelet on the stove and I ask you how you've gotten here to this point in time, you might say, "...well...I woke up...took the bus to the grocery store...bought a dozen eggs...took the bus home...and here I am..."

I might take a different tact. I share the belief that there are things, events, people that might be called "Attractors" which exist in our future. We are not being propelled into the future by our past and past events...we are being pulled into the future by certain attractors...future events or desires which have not yet occurred or have been fulfilled.

So, for example, in the case of the omelet you are about to make...while you might describe the events preceding you being at the stove in response to "how did you get here" I would respond "It is the desire to make an omelet that pulls you to this event and point in space/time. The desire to make an omelet becomes one of many attractors that pull you to your destiny."

We do make choices and have free will, but there are future possible events and influences which guide our choices. Goals, desires, etc...or, in other words, "attractors" which influence our decisions. These are future events that have not yet been experienced by our individual consciousness which, despite this fact, exert a force of influence on our chosen future. And from there one can assert no one exactly knows what sets up these chains of events that steer your desire toward a particular end.

For example, lets say you run into a random person who you've never met on a bus. They start a conversation with you and they mention a particular author. You become interested in that author and go to the book store to track the book down. On the way you find a lottery ticket. You win a million...etc.. Now, of course your choices led you to jump on a bus, but the "random", outside events that occur which create new "attractors" (the author) are independent of your conscious choice. At least the presentation of that new attractor is placed before you without you having a say in it.

Now, the fact that you find a particular future desirable or undesirable is a choice made by you on some conscious or unconscious level. Nevertheless, that attractor existed in time and space before you were aware of it and now has been revealed to you and exerts a force on your future as your decisions will be inexorably shaped , in part, by it.

There could be an inexorable gravity toward some future for humanity and the universe as a whole. So, for example, a metaphor could be a silverfish wiggling around the surface of a funnel. The silverfish can alter their individual path toward the center of the funnel spout, but inevitably the silverfish will meet its "destiny" at the center of the funnel as gravity pulls it there. I don't really know. I don't necessarily believe in destiny. I don't want to believe in destiny. I like the thought of free will. I just think it's interesting that this line of thought uproots the usual laws of causality by challenging the philosophy that the present emanates exclusively from the past.
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reminder...mark your calendar...

SG Movie Night

Where : My Flat

When : SATURDAY October 9th

What : " Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind "

Why : 'Cause I like sitting in the dark...


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Good conversation with KT..thought I'd add this explanation on that I gave KT to clarify the point of this mess...

"... although we may reference the "past" and that reference may affect our state of mind in the "present" it is the future which inexorably draws forward...gives us hope, inspires us, motivates us, and shapes us into who we MAY become. The "Past" is "done" in that it is like a painting behind glass we can regard from afar, but we cannot change it. Our future is what tantalizes us and springs us into action.

For example...why do you update your journal....not because some people have read it in the past, but rather people will read it in the future. It is the event that has yet to become that is the motivator.

Thus my point that we still have free will and that free will is an amalgamation of our past experiences which contribute to our current state of mind. But beyond that what inspires us into the future is the pull of the potential...not the drive of the inanimate and fixed past. The past does not change...only our viewpoint of the past which is determined in the present and is ever-changing based on future events which unfold before our eyes..."