| 11/22/2010 11:27 pm |
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 OFFLINE | How real is the past? We have a number of angles from which to access it, but none of them are direct exactly.
There is memory. There are left over artifiacts. We can look at the etchings that previous events have carved into the surface of this moment.
It it may be the case that the past is much less stable than we generally treat it in our day to day affairs.
Thoughts? |
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| 12/01/2010 1:53 pm |
NEWBIE
Regist.: 12/01/2010
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OFFLINE | It is certainly true that our subjective perception of the past is unstable, both species-wide and at times on the individual level. One does wonder at times whether the present might actually influence the past in some way. This gets into theories of the nature of time, various cosmologies, etc.
If the past is indeed influenced by our observations of it, the implications for the way that we think, ideas of justice, exclusivity of objective truths, etc., would be staggering.
I tend to doubt that this is the case, but it makes a very interesting thought-experiment and its contemplation might open doorways into other areas. |
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| 12/02/2010 12:26 am |
NEWBIE
Regist.: 12/02/2010
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OFFLINE | Present perception and future imaginings influence the way we see the past - e.g. memory. We choose certain truths about the past as a way of building the story of ourselves and others. We create a past reality of rights and wrongs, goods and bads, over the top of events in order to build our story. I dont think we have a choice. |
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| 12/02/2010 8:16 am |
NEWBIE
Regist.: 12/01/2010
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OFFLINE | The ONLY truly real thing is Now.
Neither the past nor future "exist".
The past becomes a dynamic "explanation" for the equally dynamic pattern that we perceive in the present.
We must be careful to be aware of our own observational limitations, as we progress through our chain of conclusions.
The more efficient we are at this, the closer we will be to gleaning the truth (ie the "Reality") of past events..despite the unavoidably illusory nature of a past which has ceased to exist.
History, or past events in general, are distilled to what we decide are relevant aspects, and being necessarily subjective interpretations, they sometimes ignore more than they reveal.
History becomes then, at best a type of propoganda, and at worst, a work of fiction.
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| 12/02/2010 10:40 am |
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OFFLINE |  Originally Posted by David Tatro:
It is certainly true that our subjective perception of the past is unstable, both species-wide and at times on the individual level. One does wonder at times whether the present might actually influence the past in some way. This gets into theories of the nature of time, various cosmologies, etc.
If the past is indeed influenced by our observations of it, the implications for the way that we think, ideas of justice, exclusivity of objective truths, etc., would be staggering.
I tend to doubt that this is the case, but it makes a very interesting thought-experiment and its contemplation might open doorways into other areas.
Our view of the past is most often flawed to a similar order as our view of the future. We sometimes DO see the future spot on. But the view of both have radical consequences for how it is we live in a given moment. I find that tuning my perception of what the future is like immediately translates into what I do today. Like if I saw myself dying before thirty (as many lost youth tend to do) it may factor into every single health related decision that I make.
Perception is just about the only thing that we have any control over, so I suppose the degree of power we have in the world is directly proportional to the flexibility we grant our perceptions to have. |
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| 12/02/2010 10:46 am |
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OFFLINE | Originally Posted by Gunn Whirrled:
The ONLY truly real thing is Now.
Neither the past nor future "exist".
The past becomes a dynamic "explanation" for the equally dynamic pattern that we perceive in the present.
We must be careful to be aware of our own observational limitations, as we progress through our chain of conclusions.
The more efficient we are at this, the closer we will be to gleaning the truth (ie the "Reality") of past events..despite the unavoidably illusory nature of a past which has ceased to exist.
History, or past events in general, are distilled to what we decide are relevant aspects, and being necessarily subjective interpretations, they sometimes ignore more than they reveal.
History becomes then, at best a type of propoganda, and at worst, a work of fiction.
Mostly, I am inclined to agree. I do have a small portion of my mind that dissents to this idea, though. There are Holocaust deniers out there, and I wouldn't necessarily understand how to interpret that in light of the past being a fiction. Or at least to do so in a way that would keep radical hate filled individuals from sugar coating something that most probably did occur in some other configuration of this ongoing now. |
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The persistence of memory
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