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Suppose we finally encounter the advanced alien race we've always looked for, but due
to a quirk of the universe, they move through time in the opposite direction that we do.
Our day of encounter is a solemn day for them. They are there to say goodbye to us for the
very last time, and we are there to encounter them for the very first time. Conversations
are easy for them, more difficult for us, as they have learned to communicate with us
in a wierd backwards logic, and their English is perfect from over 1000 years of living
on Earth.
What interesting things they could tell us about our own future, which is their past.
Every event they have witnessed has played out for them in a boggling way, and to us,
their behavior is just as strange. They've seen car wrecks reassemble themselves into
cars and go screaming backwards around tracks. The winner of the car race must return to
the start line at the exact same time as all the other cars, even though the losers have
had a head start.
The aliens have seen rotting logs, mere piles of sawdust be ressurected into mighty oaks,
and progressively shrink in on themselves, becoming seeds.
Every human decision, every war, every ***, every death to disease or starvation, all
of human misery or joy is a foregone conclusion to them, and they see it happening in reverse,
if they are there to observe it. There is no mystery in our future because it is their
past.
There was one concept we were never able, or rather, (will never be able) to explain
to them, and that is (or was) free will. It's a meaningless concept to them. Our chain of
causality is not their chain of causality. We see every decision have a consequence.
They see the consequence, and simply await the predestined decision.
We've tried, (or will try), I suppose, to explain to them the concept of God, and why
freewill is so important, but since they start shaking their heads and shrugging their alien
shoulders before we even speak, we know they do not, will not understand.
It would seem that free will doesn't exist to someone that does not share our precise
perception of time. Interesting.
Thanks for watching.