Does the past physically exist?

[Girard442]

I mean, we remember a past. We can use forensic science to construct a description of what happened in the past. But what happens when our analysis, no matter how fine-grained and thorough, can only point to a number of possible pasts that could have led to this present? Is one of those pasts the "real" one and the others fake? Or are they all equally valid?

[mr_lebowski]

1. Whoa ... have you been reading David Hume tonight or something? ;)

"Time" is really a separate concept from "physical existence". Nothing ever begins or ceases to physically exist, for one thing ...

Yes, 'one of those pasts' is 'the real one' ... and the other possibilities 'not real'. But ... it may be impossible to determine which truly is/was real. Because once things happen, we only have so much in the way of technology to reconstruct them. This is why 'recordings' are so important.

[fleabiscuit]

2. I'm going with all moments in time are happening all the time.

[Canoe52]

3. I just came from the past and I'm here to tell you it still exists.

[soryang]

4. The past is a constellation or universe of infinite collapsed potential states

Attempts at measurement or other observations can result in different descriptions dependent on the observer and methods used. Accurate observations that differ would be equally valid.

This is what I gather from listening to too many Copenhagen school discussions. I'm not a physicist, so I assume there is something wrong in my theory.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. It better be real, or I'm just incredibly lucky.

Everything that I sense is from the past.

Food that I perceive from a distance, which is from the past because it takes time for even light to reflect off it, has always still existed when I placed it in my mouth.

[DFW]

6. Considering how old I am

The past walks where I do.

[kennetha]

7. Get thee to philosophy!

Where this question is welcome and eagerly debated from many different angles!

[Ilsa]

8. There must be multiple pasts because

Trump speaks of alternative facts frequently.