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the hive queen
I can enter The Chamber
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 Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2006 6:44 pm Post subject: Free will (spoilers)
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***spoilers***
I didn't find a lot of things to discuss from the book, but the notion of free will (and how the author deals with it) is kind of interesting.
On page 46, "Things happen the way they happened, once and only once. I'm not a proponent of splitting universes."
On page 57, "There is only free will when you are in time, in the present."
On Page 76, Henry and Clare discuss some different possibilities:
Determinism or block universe: Past, present, and future all coexist simultaneously and everything has already happened.
Choas: Anything can happen and nothing can be predicted because we can't know all the variables.
Christian Universe: God made everything and it's all here for a purpose, but we have free will. "Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching." -- Keller Williams |
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the hive queen
I can enter The Chamber
Usergroups: None
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Posts: 50
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Gender:
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| Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2006 6:58 pm Post subject: Re: Free will (spoilers)
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As I mentioned in another thread, I wish Henry or Clare would have experimented a little with free will. I guess the fact that they didn't, allows us to make our own judgements on what would have happened. Henry says when traveling to the past, we can only do what we did, and we can only be here (in our present) if we were there (in the past). So, if it is a block universe (determinism), with no God, and no free will, what (magical?) force could affect one to act in a certain way? What force ensured that things happened exactly the way that they did? If it was a chaotic or christian universe, Henry would have been able to have free will.
my thoughts. "Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching." -- Keller Williams |
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