Multiple “nows”

Suppose determinism is false, perhaps because there is room for chance in the physical world (at least at the sub-atomic level as according to quantum theory), or because spirits that operate outside the physical world can affect it. If so, the “now” has two functions. First, it is the subjective sense of current experience each of us has. Second, it is the point in time at which a multitude of logically possible events with varying degrees of probability are turned into a single set of actual events. For example, if “now” is occurring prior to your roll of a dice, there are six possible outcomes, but if “now” is occurring when or after the dice comes to rest there is one actual outcome.

On this view, “now” plays a crucial roll in converting multiple possibilities to a singular actuality. It is where things happen and the story is cemented in place. It is where other possibilities disappear. Multiple “nows” would be problematic since it would require the events between nows to be both cemented in place and wide-open with possibilities. If events are cemented for later nows, then the view from earlier nows that possibilities are wide open (or even a bit open) is merely an illusion. So if determinism is false, there must be a single universal now.

Suppose instead determinism is true. The “now” still has its subjective function for each of us, but it no longer has the function of turning multiple possibilities into a single actuality. The future has only one set of logically possible events.

On this view, the prospect of multiple “nows” isn’t so problematic because “now” is only tied to subjective experience and doesn’t play the larger roll of cementing multiple possibilities into singular actualities. They are all cemented that way, from the time of the big bang to the end of the universe. “Now” simply becomes one of many possible points in the universe, sort of like a scene we are watching in a long play – it’s where we are experiencing the play, but none of the content of the play hinges on the fact that we are at this scene instead of another scene.