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If time is a line, and this line is not merely circular, but spirals, then each circling could be a lot like the one before. Who knows

Observing time passing is not the same thing as time passing, in this sense there is no time passing outside ourselves, just as there is no “COLOR" in physical light, only different wavelengths of force. We cannot-not-exist and this world is most likely doomed, meaning this universe is probably just one of infinite or many possible universes. And we are most likely not bound in our domain of existence.

@gettoefl Time is an abstract concept, not a physical object with geometry. We have been seriously misled about the nature of reality outside our minds by the terminology used by physicists in this regard. regarding eternal recurrence...Reality is repetitious but it never repeats exactly, because the infinity of sameness is exactly equal to the infinity of variety. All our life experiences are repetitious but not exact copies. So enjoy this version of “you” and your life experiences, they will not be repeated, not precisely, not exactly the same.

Why is time an illusion? What do you mean by time? And what do you mean by it being an illusion? Time exists. Sure. We even have a word for it. We are even talking about it right now. It's just like everything else.. What you think it is.... Isn't actually what it is. our naive perception of its flow doesn’t correspond to physical reality. including Isaac Newton’s picture of a universally ticking clock. Even Albert Einstein’s relativistic space-time.. Which is supposed to be an elastic manifold that contorts so that local times differ depending on one’s relative speed or proximity to a mass is just a simplification. In other words the universe is like a movie.. All past presents and future are contained in the same place (for lack of better words). But that's none of your business as you are completely bought into the linearity of life. Better question be What is time? And good luck answering.

Yes I'm right now imagining these infinite incarnations. But are they gonna become actuality at some point in time ? The theory is basically that the universe and all existence and energy has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a similar form, an infinite number of times. It is based on the philosophy of Predeterminism. People are predestined to continue repeating the same events over and over again. Nietzsche was merely riding on this cosmic abstraction to dramatize his philosophical musing.

@Inliytened1 yeah whatever. Death is really not the main topic of this thread what's your thoughts on eternal recurrence?

Lol.if only it was that simple. What if there is an afterlife? .bottom line is no one knows what happens after death .we could ascend to a different dimension with a different timeline. At some point or other, all of us will be faced with fears about death. After all, what happens when the light’s go out remains one of life’s biggest mysteries. Not only is it normal to fear the unknown but in these current uncertain times, we’re probably going to find our thoughts turning to our own mortality even more. And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, contemplating death can spur us on to make important changes in our lives. It can make us question whether we’re living a life that’s based on our values – the things that are important to us.

The reason why Nietzsche's concept and theory of “eternal recurrence” can be depressing is because that it assumes that at some point in time (whether in either a decade or millennia, or even regardless of if the universe “lives forever” or “had gone through multiple life cycles”) any past event or experience (like one’s birthday or a natural disaster) were to eventually repeat in a “perfect” manner - if it was to happen, every “minute detail” (like the positioning of the candles on one’s birthday, or the minute events that define the natural disaster in question) of the experience must be exactly the same; no deviations, no variations, not even a single change. “Eternal recurrence” can be possible IF the current understanding of the laws of physics explicitly states that the “underlying elements” of the universe are discrete (and by discrete as per mathematical context, I MEAN FINITE, NOT INFINITE). Essentially, for the “observer” who is depressed because of that said concept and theory, this means that the universe has “finite possibilities or experiences”, and that the “observer” will assume that at some point in the near or far future (even considering the above timescale at the beginning of this post), the universe is “about to run out of new things to experience”. To sum this paragraph up - NO MORE NEW THINGS TO EVEN OCCUR ANYMORE; EVERYTHING WILL EVENTUALLY REPEAT. Also, many “observers” will assume that SOMETHING BAD WILL HAPPEN if this eventuality were to ever occur; for them, in an artist’s words, to experience the same event atom for atom can be TANTAMOUNT to plagiarism whether intentional or accidental. In order for “eternal recurrence” to be non-existent (and in turn, cure the “dread” and angst” of the observer), there must be at least scientific or mathematical proof that any event, under any circumstances, must never repeat, exactly atom for atom - in plain English, there is always something new for the universe to occur, regardless of time (whether it’s either a decade, a century, a millennium, a civilization reset, a universal life cycle, or even multiple universal life cycles away). To date, there is STILL no credible scientific or mathematical proof that will put this theory (and in extension, the observer’s existential dread/angst/crisis) to rest. This concept and theory actually gave me an existential crisis

I share the same worry as you. Its giving me existential crisis

Life and the universe is an unending cycle, you will keep coming a countless number of times and when the universe becomes too old, it self destructs and begins afresh! Everything will start all over again. I read so. But I should be more concerned with the current life I have and not care about my next life, example, i have one beautiful gift now and I begin to worry about another gift which was planned to be presented to me soon, hence making me unable to enjoy my current gift. Whenever you find yourself alive, this world or the next or a thousandth, live it and make the best out of it, don't care about the one you don't have now!

Before Einstein came up with relativity, which entails a Big Bang beginning, scientists believed that the universe was largely unchanging, and of fixed size. In a universe of fixed size, Nietzsche theorized in his unpublished journals which became known as the Will to Power, everything will eventually return to its previous position, and re-enter into its previous relationships. Imagine, for instance, that the universe is a computer screen with the screen saver on. A ball bounces around this limited area and will eventually happen upon a path that it has already taken, given infinite time and no possibility of an expanding screen, the ball will eventually only take paths that it has taken before. In a universe of fixed size and infinite time where all is will to power and nothing else, things will settle into established patterns of existence.

Last night I was discussing deja vu with a friend. We were musing about how such a phenomenon could exist. Is it just a time delay between the memory and perception in the brain, as science says? Or is it something deeper than that? Is there something meaningful in the events we perceive as having happened before? What if the universe does cycle back on itself as you suggest? What if your life repeats each time this cycle occurs? How would you ever know? If everything was exactly the same, there would be no way to tell. Nothing could distinguish one cycle from another. Suppose the universe does cycle, but each cycle is slightly different. The Butterfly Effect demonstrates that the smallest actions can create huge differences in future events. So, maybe each cycle is different because of trivial events that happened long ago. If that is the case, would some things still be the same? Is it possible to cross paths with yourself from a different cycle? I've long believed that deja vu is a sign that you're living the life you're supposed to live. But what does that really mean? It could mean that we keep trying this thing, over and over until we get it “right”. Maybe the universe does come back into existence each time it ends. Maybe it repeats itself each time, and we are destined to come back and do this all over again. Maybe deja vu is recognizing the times we have done this before, in a different instance of the universe. Most of our lives we don't notice, because big differences come about from the smallest changes. Then every once in a while, you recognize a moment that you know has happened before. There is way more to what is physically possible than we could ever understand. Maybe the universe keeps repeating over and over until we get it right. What happens when we do get it right? What if it is this time?

It isn't a wonder that the LGBT community has a higher percentage of people that will suffer from a mental health issue, than those that don't belong to the community. Whether it's linked to direct HBT bullying at school which can have a traumatic and lasting impact in to later life, or the more subtle effects caused from HBT language, hiding your identity or being fearful to holding your partner's hand in public. Some people spend years in a workplace without coming out as they fear it may affect their work life - living a lie day to day is both exhausting and stressful. Do you think marriages between same-sex couples should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages

@Leo Gura would really appreciate your take on this ?

If eternity exists, and there is no beginning and no end (to everything even that’s outside the universe), does that mean there was still an eternity before our time our moment right now?

Hmmm. Cosmologists today are by no means certain that the universe is infinite. It's uncertain. Even if the present does recur in some way, there is no reason for our decisions right now or the next second to be identical. There are three different theories 1. Big Bounce 2. Big freeze 3. Big rip We don't know which is true. [there are other variations e.g. the idea of baby universes forming inside of some black holes and then budding off to make their own space-time not connected to ours in any way] In all these theories our universe continues into the future not just for centuries, for billions of years. For all except the Big Rip it continues for trillions of years. With the Big Freeze then there isn’t any recurrence, as with each new moment, the universe is just a bit colder. Every second, the already very cold background radiation is slightly cooler throughout the universe due to the expansion of space. With the big Rip, it may lead to a new universe after the big Rip as it looks very like the inflation stage of our universe so just possibly could start a new universe. With the big Bounce, time continues through to the new universe. So - the new universe will have new stars and new planets and be altogether new. With eternal recurrence, if there are infinitely many big bounces, then eventually two of the bounces will start identically. That doesn't mean that our bounce ever happens again but one of the infinitely many bounces happens again. NO REASON FOR THE NEXT SECOND TO BE THE SAME AS BEFORE - EVEN IF UNIVERSE HAS BEEN IDENTICAL BY CHANCE FOR BILLIONS OF YEARS However that doesn't mean it has to continue the same way as before even if it started identical. Because - for instance suppose we ended up like this in a future universe, identical situation, me typing the same words into a computer in an identical world. I could then type a different word next from the one the person similar to me typed in a previous universe. It would only be identical for all time if the universe was deterministic, that if you have the same situation the exact same things always happen including the exact same decisions of any living beings in that situation. But we are pretty certain that our universe is not deterministic. For instance radioactive decay is not deterministic. The motion of air molecules is not deterministic, you can't predict exactly what will happen if one molecule hits another. Weather seems to be not deterministic either. So the decisions of humans are surely not deterministic. So, if the same situation as this with people that look exactly like us ever repeated, even if the universe was the same as ours identically for the last 13 billion years, there is no reason for us to do the same things as them in the next second. It is a similar idea with an infinitely large universe. If the universe is big enough you expect to find identical patches in it. The larger the universe the larger those patches that are identical. There is no reason why our patch particularly would repeat. But if it did, then somewhere, trillions of light years away from us, there might be a patch exactly like ours. But it would be the same, even if that patch was identical to ours for the last 14 billion years, there is no reason for it to continue to be the same for the next second.

The easiest way to grasp hold of the eternal return is simple. Imagine today is the last day you will ever live and then live it accordingly. Try and maximize each and every day as if it were your last. This way you can not afford to say ‘oh you know that there is always another time’ When you grasp the eternal return you fully empower the present and thus maximize it and hopefully then live a full and flourishing life. “I’m gonna live this day like it’s my last” is a popular saying. But to actually live by this saying and put it unwaveringly into practice is I truly think the Eternal Recurrence. One has to treat one’s day as if it was an eternity and once it ends everything stops. To be born again and die each day is something I think Nietzsche was making us aware of in Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

The ancient argument runs something like this. -The universe contains a finite amount of stuff -spread out over a finite amount of space. -This means that there’re only so many possible arrangements of that stuff. -Time, on the other hand, is infinite. -Therefore, identical arrangements of stuff must eventually recur, and -will do so infinitely many times

The best way to visualize this is to imagine a point travelling along a line. All of the points of the line actually exist, and always do, but from the point of view of the point itself, only the point it is on actually exists. The points already travelled are said to have existed in the past, but not anymore, while the points to be crossed are said to be that which will be, but is not yet. In this example the point represents our awareness, the points of the line already crossed represent our past, the points to be crossed represent our future, and all the other points on the plane on which the line is drawn represent possible pasts and futures --- possible paths the line could have taken but did not. And the idea here is that the entire plane actually exists, but that our present "reality" is limited to the particular point our awareness is on at the present moment.

From this, it appears to me that indeed you are referring to the so called "bang-crunch" model. If so, I see no reason to think that any "new" Universe would be an exact, or even necessarily a rough, replica of the current one. It may even be possible that a "new", or rather the "next", Universe may even have some fundamentally different laws than this one. So I would not base any idea of eternal recurrence on such a model, and, in fact, the original idea had nothing whatsoever to do with any contemporary cosmological models.

Look ..it's so simple but you are making it unnecessary complicated. if you are playing a game with your friends, and roll a 6, the idea here is that in a so called "parallel universe" a 2,3,4, and 5 were actually rolled, but our collective awareness only realized one of the 6 possibilities due to its limitation of only being able to perceive three dimensions of space at a time. If our awareness were able to perceive more than three dimensions of space, then we could realize all 6 possibilities at once. But in no "parallel world" is a 7 or 8, or a -2.5 rolled. So the idea here is that all of those other "yous" already exist. They don't have to be created, they already are, both those said to be in the past as well as those said to be in the future. They all exist concurrently, simultaneously, and eternally, the only question is whether or not our awareness will ever realize them or not. In this model, the past, present, and future all simultaneously exist, as well as all possible pasts and futures

Not being an expert I get confused with this side of QM. On one hand we have "many worlds" envisioned as bubbles of spacetime in hyperspace. It's believed that there are potentially an infinite number of these "bubble universes". Then there's parallel universes suggested as an answer to the double slit experiment. Some posit that the unrealised potential of waves that are rendered tangible by observation don't disappear but move into alternate realities. Either way, infinite possibilities need not necessarily mean that all possibilities are realised. Many possibilities will still be on the universe's "to do list" when it degenerates into black holes an then near nothingness. The chances of the universe reproducing an exact replica of you are extremely remote and the chances are that it will run through many other more likely permutations before getting to the "repeat Therammo" and "repeat Greta" possibilities.

@Mason Riggle all of this does not at all apply to all the details of your life, all the "incidental" things which happened the last time around which were not caused by these big cosmic forces, but rather were caused by small, trivial forces. These events may not repeat due to the incidental and random nature of the forces involved. What does this mean? It means that the next time around, when you are walking to school again, just like you did in your past life, you may take 875 steps to get there, rather than 876. Or you might notice a leaf falling from a tree this time on your walk, whereas last time you did not notice it, either because you just weren't aware of it last time or perhaps because the last time it fell 10 seconds earlier or later and you couldn't have seen it. Or perhaps in the last life, when you were playing monopoly with some friends, at a certain point you rolled an 11, whereas in this life you happen to roll a 12, and so on. The key to differentiating whether or not something will repeat or not is mainly based on the nature of the forces involved, whether they are "big" (like the Sun rising in the East), or "small" (like a slighly different force and direction of a die being rolled in a monopoly game).

@Mason Riggle yes they are different but similar. as far as you living another life, according to the theory of recurrence your next life will not be an exact replica of the current one, but it will be very similar. By this I mean that while incidental details might be different in your next life, all the "big" things and events which occurred in this life will repeat in the next.

@Mason Riggle it's not silly. It's based on a well known theory in modern physics. That there are infinite parallel universes with all the possibility of your life What does this mean? Well, first of all it means you will be born at the same time and place as the last time. If you were a Aries last time, you'll be an Aries again. Your genetic code will also be very similar. Once again, you will have the same general features --- brown hair, green eyes, a tendency to be healthy, or on the contrary, a tendency to be sick often, and so on. You will also have the same mother, father, brothers and sisters, etc. And once again you will live in the same city, the same country, with the same monuments, history, and general society. All the "big" things repeat. Why? Because the forces that caused these things are very "big", and they will be around the next time to produce the same general effects. P.S how do you explain deja vu ?