Re: Ripple Posted by Carey Radebaugh on February 19, 1998 at 15:43:14:
In Reply to: Ripple posted by Andy on February 14, 1998 at 08:06:56:
What we know about the past is our perception of it. Therefore events in the future can change our perception of the past, but not the actual past. While this may seem simple it is not; almost all of us take our perceptions of the past to be the past. While events in the past are usually easily-supported facts, the reasons for these events are not definite and are therefore interpreted more freely. While we may not know why JFK was killed, or even who killed him, we do know that he was shot and is dead.
Applying this to your example of a ripple in a pond rocking a toy boat, we may in the future find out that the ripple was actually caused by the motion of the toy boat itself, and therefore no longer name the ripple as the cause of the boat's motion. We instead see the true cause as the boat itself, thereby changing our idea as to why the boat rocked, but none the less it still rocked.