What can Time Travel teach us about Freewill?  

Philosophy and Physics Enrichment lecture  

On Tuesday, we had the privilege of having an ‘out of this world’ talk by the renowned author, Colin Stuart. He spoke about the relation between Time Travel and Free Will; if we can travel to the past or to the future, do we truly have Free Will? His fascinating talk revolved around the idea of ‘SpaceTime’, an alternative to gravity where the entire solar system is analogous to a fabric. In our universe, the sun creates a ‘dip’ in the fabric which allows planets to revolve around it. This led him to describe the wormhole model, where time travel both forward and backwards could be possible, thus ultimately leading to the conclusion that Free Will does not exist. However, another theory was explored, which stated that time is only a meaningful illusion, so we can still have Free Will.  

So, the decision is yours; does time exist, and consequently we lose Free Will or is time an illusion, hence still allowing Free Will? 

Sanya Sehgal 13R  

 Tuesday’s talk by Colin Stuart on the affects of time travel on free-will, was interesting to say the least. Rather than just looking at the philosophical viewpoint of our actions being set in stone due to time-travel, the talk also went into the physics viewpoint of time and how that could change the  possibility of our actions being pre-determined. The talk also went in depth into the affects of time-travel if it were possible and the ways that it could be achieved, a truly intriguing and thought-provoking talk. 

Kristian Bergene-Gray 12L