{"id":663,"date":"2016-06-24T14:15:31","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T14:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/?p=663"},"modified":"2017-10-31T15:39:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T15:39:16","slug":"appendix-z50-backward-causation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/?p=663","title":{"rendered":"APPENDIX Z50: \u201cBackward Causation\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
APPENDIX Z50:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cBackwar<\/span>d Causation\u201d\n <\/div>\n
( meaning, the FUTURE impacting the P<\/span>AST )\n <\/div>\n
[ <\/span>support <\/span>for <\/span>the <\/span>\u201cbootstrap\u201d <\/span>component <\/span>of <\/span> <\/span>Summa\u2019<\/span>s <\/span>metaphysics <\/span>]\n <\/div>\n
\u201cQuantum Mechanics Could Permit<\/div>\n
a Subtle Form of T<\/span>eleology\u201d\n <\/div>\n
\u201cCrazy though the <\/span>idea
\n may seem <\/span>at \ue0c4rst, ther<\/span>e is in fact\n <\/div>\n
no fundamental impediment <\/span>to a mechanism <\/span>that allows\n <\/div>\n
later events to <\/span>in\ue0c5uence
\n earlier events. <\/span>In fact, ther<\/span>e are\n <\/div>\n
some famous theories <\/span>of
\n physics that <\/span>explicitly involve\n <\/div>\n
backward <\/span>causation \u2013 futur<\/span>e events having causative <\/span><\/div>\n
power over past <\/span>events.
\n Wheeler pr<\/span>oposed one such\n <\/div>\n
theory with his <\/span>then
\n student Richar<\/span>d Feynman in the <\/span>mid-\n <\/div>\n
1940s. In the Wheeler<\/span>-Feynman
\n theory of electrodynamics,\n <\/div>\n
electromagnetic <\/span>interactions
\n can travel <\/span>both forwar<\/span>d and\n <\/div>\n
backward <\/span>in time.
\n Ther<\/span>e is no experimental <\/span>evidence in\n <\/div>\n
favor of the <\/span>theory<\/span>, I hasten to <\/span>add. Something similar\n <\/div>\n
was pr<\/span>oposed for
\n gravitation <\/span>by Hoyle and <\/span>Narlikat, and\n <\/div>\n
for quantum cosmology <\/span>by
\n Gell-Mann and <\/span>Hartle and by\n <\/div>\n
Hawking. Again, observation <\/span>and experiment ar<\/span>e silent on\n <\/div>\n
these ideas, but <\/span>the
\n theories ar<\/span>e certainly not \u2018antiscienti\ue0c4c,\u2019\n <\/div>\n
and variants of <\/span>them
\n ar<\/span>e still being <\/span>investigated today<\/span>.\u201d*\u2026\n <\/div>\n
* Cosmologist Paul Davies, The Goldilocks Enigma<\/span>. United Kingdom: Little, First <\/span><\/div>\n
Mariner Books edition. 2008. pp. 242-243<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

APPENDIX Z50: \u201cBackward Causation\u201d ( meaning, the FUTURE impacting the PAST ) [ support for the \u201cbootstrap\u201d component of Summa\u2019s metaphysics ] \u201cQuantum Mechanics Could Permit a Subtle Form of Teleology\u201d \u201cCrazy though the idea may seem at \ue0c4rst, there is in fact no fundamental impediment to a mechanism that allows later events to in\ue0c5uence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions\/666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}