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Interesting thought about omniscience.

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
In which case it cannot make anything determined and is entirely consistent with omniscience.


Not necessarily. Or rather, if we interpret spacetime ontologically (or as ontic), then the future is only locally defined anyway. Even if we interpret it as a useful, epistemological model to describe reality but distinguish time ontologically from space, we are still left with instantaneity being locally defined and therefore time as universally describable only via Lorenz (or equivalent) transforms which treat time as non-fixed (and therefore, once again, a future defined locally). Thus all that we require is a restriction to a strict separation between past and future exactly like that used in modern physics: defined in terms of light cones or some similar causal constraints. As omniscience is not causally efficacious, it no more determines the future or even describes the future than does the fact that there are stars which exist that we don't know of because there light hasn't reached the earth and those we believe to exist although they are long gone because light they emitted when the existed is still reaching us.

We aren't very good at understanding this distinction of future/past from a local sense (it is an intrinsic feature of language), but the "box universe" of an ontic 4D-spacetime entails that everything which happens both hasn't happened and will happen (is in the future and the past) simultaneously. Switch "spacetime" for an entity capable of viewing time as similarly static or as "outside" time (so to speak), and we allow for the logical possibility of an omniscient entity without a strict division into future and past and therefore without even fatalism, let alone determinism.


Yes. But in certain formulations, it is possible for the omniscient being to know everything that happens because time is linear and unidirectional only locally and the being is able to "see" the global "picture".

Or without a direction.
I assumed that the omniscient one would know the future everywhere (in the physical realm), not just locally.
Anything less wouldn't be very impressive supremacy, eh?

Think of omniscience (about the past, present & future of the physical universe) not as causal, but merely enabled by the Supreme One's ability to dictate (& then know) the future.

This would be a vast amount of not just knowledge, but also computing power to acquire it.
I prefer that if there were such a god, it would know only larger scale & general emergent phenomena in its created universe.
But in either case, we're not equipped with a method to test the existence of free will.
Most importantly, it doesn't matter in our lives.
 

LegionOnomaMoi

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I assumed that the omniscient one would know the future everywhere (in the physical realm), not just locally.
Anything less wouldn't be very impressive supremacy, eh?
Everywhere can mean (and does, actually, in our best theories of modern physics) a perspective in which a distinction between past and future doesn't exist except locally. Thus one can know "the future" and not be omniscient merely by being able to assume any particular reference frame. One can know the future and be omniscient in many more ways.

Think of omniscience (about the past, present & future of the physical universe) not as causal, but merely enabled by the Supreme One's ability to dictate (& then know) the future.
To dictate is to cause in this usage. If I have the ability to dictate the future, either I have nothing other than the ability to speak words that describe it, or I determine it.

This would be a vast amount of not just knowledge, but also computing power to acquire it.
We're far, far beyond computability theory here. But incomputability is a clear, obvious, and proven aspect of reality.
I prefer that if there were such a god, it would know only larger scale & general emergent phenomena in its created universe.
I'm not sure what I would prefer. But I do know that I would prefer to know the truth (or at least I think I would prefer to, which I suppose means I don't know!).

But in either case, we're not equipped with a method to test the existence of free will.
That's more or less true. Libet, famous for "proving" free will doesn't exist, actually provided a way for testing the constraints upon free will (under, IMO, poor assumptions and worse methods).
Most importantly, it doesn't matter in our lives.
That's what the omniscient being wants you to think :)
 
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