IS IT POSSIBLE TO CHANGE THE PAST, THE PRESENT, OR THE FUTURE?

Hello readers of the esoteric - you have reached right to the very bottom of things - phenomenology. This is my phenomenology blog which features my original Phillips Phenomenology and will also occasionally do posts like this when the media ventures into the world of `seeing the future' or issues of time, space and freewill or determinism. By the way - see my latest post on my blog http://www.theheavystuff.com/ concerning `seeing the future'.

CALLING ON MY READERS TO VOTE IN THE SIDE POLL

As you might know, my most read blog and indeed one of my most read ever postings was about freewill and determinism. That post was about a research study that tried to determine if fruitflies had `freewill' - an idea I expanded - to inquire if Humans had freewill. Clifford Pickover picked up the post on his site and his site was then picked up by BoingBoing > resulting in being my most read posting on The Heavy Stuff - here's the link http://theheavystuff.com/?p=26. I'll let you read the article to find if I leaned to the freewill side or the determinism side.



But, back to the question I've positioned in the title and as you can see -- IS the poll question I'm taking also on this website (it's just to the right - please vote). Once again, can ANY of the `3 categories of time' - past, present, future, - be changed. I will bet you have NEVER thought of this before. And, frankly, without a deeper understanding of phenomenology - is largely a meaningless question. I will try to traverse some of the various levels of this seemingly simple question.

Looking For Change

One might think that the simplest answer to this question could be applied to The Past. Obviously, it seems, the Past - cannot be changed. We cannot return, with our current space, to a previous moment, and produce a different timeline of reality. As far as we know, it has never been done; seems illogical, and if the past could be changed -- would anything be able to be confirmed as real? The time-flow seems to be only away from points in the determined past. If we are looking for change - it doesn't seem to be found in the past. (Right?)

Looking For Change

One might think that the simplest, most common answer to this question, is that The Present - is where change is found. But is it really? Isn't the present where `actualization' is found that `determines' the present? Determining it to the place that it literally can't change? So that it is placed as real? Could something that is determined and which joins the past --- a place we know no change exists - be the actual place that it is possible to change? Are the characteristics of the present more similar to the unchangeable past or the undetermined future?

Looking For Change

Since the past is unchangeable, and the present literally being The Determined Now, surely the place where change might exist is the future. One problem. The future doesn't exist. If change is placed in the future - it is placed in a location that literally doesn't exist. Can we really look for change there? In a location that doesn't exist?

Remember, we live on a planet. Our Earth is NOT in multiple locations simultaneously. Where the Earth surface will be in the future within the universe is not accessible within NOW as a real thing.

Self-Evidence

OR, is there ONLY change? Perhaps, only the past can be changed? IS our only perception - the change - from one moment to the next? Is reality not changed every moment? Is change the very definition of REAL to a conscious observer? Is not the past changed to the present and the present changed to the future?

Perhaps, only the past and future can be changed?

Or, only the present and the future?

Simple question right?

How ever you feel, please comment, and vote in the poll too. Thanks.