A linguist is recruited by the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecrafts land around the world.
Notes and Comments
If the loop did exist then those involved in it would be forever trapped, with no possible way of going forward. Since that would be the case how could people escape it, and how could any future point after the loop ever occur? In other words the predestination paradox is only internally consistent, but externally inconsistent.
Non linearity and “non linear perception of time” have nothing to do with any of this. Mathematicians and physicists have been using non linear equations for about a century, so our science is clearly not strictly “linear”. The arrow of time points only forward not due to any kind of “linear limitation” BS, but due to entropy and the second law of thermodynamics. Some solutions of general relativity (closed-timelike curves) do “allow” travel back in time, but these do not take into account quantum mechanics, so a rigorous quantum gravity theory will almost certainly nullify them.
As for the “universe is mysterious” it is just a problem evasion functionally identical to the “God is mysterious” reply of priests. That is theology, not science. We can define some problems that we do not yet know the answer to, but that does not include completely bizarre issues such as time loops and predestination paradoxes we already know are impossible. Asking to consider that they could be “resolved” in the future is faith based, not science or logic based.
“Seeing the future and fulfilling what you are seeing, what “you are supposed to do”, is not living, it is a constant row of self-fulfilling prophecies.”
This was precisely my issue with the movie. Once you can predict the future, you are no longer effectively living life. You’ve ruined the meaning of pursuing action. Life has been rendered a cheap magic trick that you’ve got all figured out. A biological organism without any conception of time lives instinctively and this makes life possible, but for us with a conception of time, it is only the illusion of free will that makes our life possible, meaningful and enjoyable. It is inconceivable that she would be able to live after receiving the ‘download’ of the Aliens’ language, yet alone that she’d somehow carry on with all of these actions with some kind of Stoic resignation and somehow find enjoyment and meaning in them. It’s completely implausible. She’d be a living paradox, constantly battling with opposing desires, e.g. the desire to have a child with Ian, and the desire to protect Ian from the heartache she will cause him. You couldn’t possibly act with two opposing desires like that, let alone be at peace with your actions.
Free Will doesn’t exist anyway.
Your reasoning behind making any decision is determined by a combination of your experiences, DNA, and the environmental factors of the moment.
You don’t have control over any of those determinants, so you have no real control over the decision being made.
Your future being set and you having free will aren’t mutually exclusive. She knows her entire timeline yet she chooses not to change it, because she’s making the choices she wants to make. She could choose to do something differently if she wanted to, but she doesn’t want to because she made the optimal choices the “first time around.” That’s the point it’s making.
Basic example: I’m an alien who can see the future. I tell you “tomorrow you will bet the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 on the lottery, and you will win 100 million dollars.” Are you going to choose not to do it just to prove me wrong? No. You’ll choose to do it because it’s what you want to do, and then if you “mind-time travel” (to use your expression) and experience that part of your life again, you’ll make the same choice again. So now in her case, she could choose to not have her kid, but what mother would ever choose to do that? She’s already met her kid so of course she will choose to have her.
They used the phrase “nonlinear time” so you look at it from that perspective – rather than imagining 3d objects “doing stuff,” you should imagine that entire structure as a 4d object instead. Perhaps you created the entire 4d structure that is your timeline all as a single object, rather than creating it piece-by-piece like most people think they do. So the entire timeline when viewed in its entirety is the optimal timeline for you, the one you would choose to create if you could actually view the universe in 4d.
Yes, they are. If your future is already known in the present, your choices today are not free – you’re already bound by an eventual outcome. It’s only in the ability to change that outcome that you can argue for the existence of free will.
If it’s already known (today) that you will not win the lottery, then whatever choices you make do not matter. In the end, you will not win the lottery. On the other hand, if your choices do matter then the statement that you will not win the lottery can be disproven (hence it was never really known).
You can extend this to your example with the individual choices made leading to the selection of numbers. If there is free will, then the alien could never tell you exactly what numbers will occur every time.
The future includes the future of her ‘free will’. If she had a different will then the future would also be different and she would be seeing that future. Also knowing about the future is part of the future. Unless there are multiple timelines there would be only one future.
This is a very very old philosophical argument i.e free will and destiny. We aren’t gonna solve it here. 🙂