Quote:1) What happens if the universe is eternal?
Looking into the future there is no problem with eternity. Looking into the past and you have a paradox. Indeed we are all faced with this mind bending paradox that will never be solved.
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2) If the universe is not eternal, and if theoretically being able to determine the future means being able to theoretically determine the past, would not the beginning of the universe be a cause causing itself?
Being able to determine the future does NOT imply that the past can be determined. There would be infinite possible pasts that correspond to any given future. It is possible to make probabilistic guesses about the past, and this is of course what a lot of scientists are trying to figure out (geologists, astronomers, etc). The only difference is that in your thought experiment we possess all knowable information and in real life we must make measurements to gain information.
Quote:3) Suppose that you can know the "future," would not knowing this "future" result in the alteration of the actual future?
If you believe in determinism, then there is only one possible future, and nothing at all can influence it in the slightest bit because every decision you make, and all the associated chemical reactions in your brain, could be predicted.
Quote:4) How can a being of a system know all the factors within that system without altering it?
Answered already above.
Quote:5) According to the Uncertainty Principle, one can't measure the momentum and position of an elementary particle at the same time. This would mean that it is impossible for us to obtain the complete data regarding the interaction of particles. Would that not hinder the theoretical ability to predict the future?
Yes, all of modern physics is based on the underlying principle that the universe is
not deterministic.
However, I consider it important to understand that the Uncertainty Principle, like ALL scientific theories, is simply an idea that somebody thought of which has been shown to make accurate predictions of the physical world.
In this case, the uncertainty principle represents the fact that scientists have observed literally random or uncertain behavior.
However, just because it appears random does not necessarily make it so, and there are still scientists who (like Einstein) believe that behind the uncertainty principle lie more simple, deterministic laws that merely cause things to appear random at a higher level.
There are some interesting effects such as entanglement which show that although two individual particles may both appear to be acting randomly when considered separately, the two of them are dependent on each other. I consider this to be evidence for some lower level determinism but that's a radical, personal opinion.
It is most likely that we will never know, truly, how the universe works at it's most basic level because it is like a black box paradigm. There are infinite possible ways to build a clock, and there are only so many tests you can do on a clock without opening it up to see how it works. We can only "open up" particles so far before the very instruments that we are using to make measurements start to dramatically change what we are measuring.
This is actually how the uncertainty principle was conceived in the first place.
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There are no such things as 'past' or 'future'. those are human mental constructs. Everything that has ever happened or will ever happen (in our minds, with our limited understanding) nis actually happening right now.
Time is a real dimension, and it is
not treated mathematically in the same was as the 3 spatial dimensions either. "past" and "future" are simply words and by definition of the English language they are correct and not equivalent to "now"...
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