“Slaughterhouse-5”, by Kurt Vonnegut raises many questions about society. Although it raises many questions about society and the meaning of life, it also brings up an interesting point about time. The book states the idea that every moment in time is infinite. We can never die because the moments in which we are alive is infinite.
However, if this is the case, then every moment in which we are dead and every moment after is also infinite. Does this mean that we are always dead and alive?
This relates to a popular thought experiment known as Schrodinger’s cat:
“A living cat is placed into a steel chamber along with a hammer, a vial of hydrocyanic acid and a very small amount of radioactive substance. If even a single atom of the radioactive substance decays during the test period, a relay mechanism will trip the hammer, which will in turn, break the vial of poisonous gas and cause the cat to die.”
According to this, the cat is both dead and alive until someone looks into the chamber.
This is known as the idea of superposition.
Another question that is raised from the idea of infinite moments is that, if moments are infinite, and they always exist, the free will that we experience is an illusion, and it is all predetermined. If this is the case, what determines what will happen?
One theory is the idea that everything that can happen, will happen, better known as Murphy’s Law. I believe that every moment that could have happened, that could have been affected by the preceding moment happens in some universe. Every time a butterfly flaps its wings, something happens. But if the same butterfly had flapped its wings in a different way or at a different time, something different would happen. All of these instances are infinite, which is why the number of universes is infinite. Each of these moments is infinite and is predetermined to occur in an infinite number of universes.
Alakh's deep thoughts 