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Surely you’re joking, Mr. Hawking!
No disrespect intended. I admire physicists in general, and Professor Stephen Hawking in particular. But, I cannot pass an opportunity to have some fun. In his book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking asks, “Why do we remember the past but not the future?”
Excuse me sir, but where is your imagination? Of course we remember the future! An image viewed in your mind’s eye, clearly and frequently, shapes your reality.
Recall any event from your past. Some aspects are vivid. Others are nebulous at best. Over time, the details may shift or change completely.
Past memory is not fixed. But, your mind, through recollection of past experiences and current associations, alters the image. Recall a favorite photo from memory. Describe the minute details. In your mind, you see the dominant color, specific objects, textures, and more. Now, study the actual photo... So, you remember the past, but there's a gap between the mental image and hard evidence.
Future memory works in a similar way. You imagine what something will look like. Each time you visualize this future image, the details increase in familiarity and clarity.
The more you “remember” the future image, the more it becomes part of your realm of possibilities. If it exists in your mind, your subconscious directs your decisions to locate that image in the tangible world. An image yet to be realized is as authentic as one from the past.
Visualization, your ability to create an image within your mind. It is your memory of the future. Mr. Hawking’s imagination is incredibly vivid. So, I challenge his question knowing that he is surely joking!
Chas Martin
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Reader Comments (2)
As an educator, you bring a very student-friendly approach to learning. Any
child can visualize concepts if given the opportunity. This process of
visualization, may be the key to having young children comprehend ideas when
all other facets fail. Is this the only way to engage all levels of
learners, no, but with visualization at least NO CHILD WILL BE LEFT BEHIND!
Thank you,
Dr. Cherie Lombardo
Principal
Pitman High School
Pitman, New Jersey
. . . and often the act of locating is creating. All that exists emerges from nature or from (hu)man. All that (hu)man has created began as a thought(s). Connect the dots of thoughts and voila! tangible world. To re-member the past is to re-call the form that came from thought. To re-member the future. . . we could call it en-membering the future - calling on thought, or visioning, that then creates form.
It seems highly useful to distinguish visioning. While a problem may elicit a reactive response, the prospect for stepping beyond the realm of fixing and into the realm of furthering seems much more possible (and in most cases, preferable) when we proactively engage our visioning.
To think of Hawking's statement and Martin's challenge the question that surfaces is, is it really necessary for history to repeat itself?