Post a reply

Could Ronnie O'Sullivan Play Snooker Backwards In Time?

Yes
1
13%
No
7
88%
 
Total votes : 8

Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby HappyCamper

Came across this essay which raises an important question. We know O'Sullivan is the greatest ever snooker player; but could he play backwards in time?

https://aeon.co/essays/the-c-theory-of- ... -direction

Ronnie O’Sullivan is an absurdly talented snooker player. When it suits him, the English five-times world champion can switch from playing right-handed to left-handed, and has even hit competition shots one-handed. But can he play snooker backwards in time? Of course he can’t. Why not? Well, there’s nothing particularly special about O’Sullivan, nor about snooker, in this respect. Think of any familiar process in our ordinary past-to-future direction, then play it backwards, and you’re faced with bizarre, improbable scenarios. With time flipped, we see a world in which shards of glass spontaneously jump off the floor into smooth wineglasses, cars suck carbon dioxide out of the air while moving backwards, and the surface of each Phil Collins LP is slowly smoothed out until no record of his music remains. As desirable as each of these processes might be, they appear not to describe the world in which we live.

...

When I’m watching snooker, I take for granted that O’Sullivan is playing ‘forwards in time’. But what informs my judgment? When O’Sullivan strikes the cue ball into the black ball, potting it into the corner, I can make sense of the past-to-future description of the process because it better accords with my judgments about the causal processes involved. From past-to-future, we see:

(1) a cue ball being struck by a snooker player towards a motionless black ball;
(2) the cue ball striking the black ball, transferring most of its momentum to the black ball, and resulting in outgoing soundwaves from the collision;
(3) the black ball dropping into the corner pocket and coming to rest.
If we were to run a video of this in reverse, we’d get the future-to-past version:

(1*) the pocket begins to jiggle until it forces the black ball to jump up onto the table, accelerating towards the cue ball;
(2*) the black ball strikes the cue ball at the same time as inwards-radiating soundwaves concentrate on the collision, resulting in the cue ball moving towards the snooker cue with greater momentum than that of the black ball;
(3*) the cue ball collides with the snooker cue causing the snooker player’s arm to move away from the table.

If we think of the past-to-future and future-to-past descriptions as telling us about different possible processes, we run into a problem. Whereas the past-to-future description seems to get the causal facts right, the future-to-past description seems to get them wrong. But why? There are two key things here that stand out. First, the future-to-past description seems not to respect the fact that O’Sullivan is in control of his shot. Rather, from future to past, his actions come after, seemingly as a result of, the balls’ motion. Secondly, the future-to-past description describes a series of inexplicable coincidences: the pocket just happens to jiggle in just the right way to propel the black ball upwards and along the surface of the table, and the inverse soundwaves just happen to coincide with the collision of the black and cue balls. Whereas the future-to-past description is just about intelligible, we have a clear preference for the past-to-future description due to it respecting both our ordinary judgments about O’Sullivan’s control over the snooker balls and their likely movements.

But here’s the key thing: these considerations about control and likeliness apply independently of the direction of time. Regardless of whether I show you the video of O’Sullivan’s shot forwards (past-to-future) or in reverse (future-to-past), I expect you to ultimately make the same causal judgments, namely that the video represents O’Sullivan potting the black ball into the corner, and not the reverse causal process. The key philosophical step made by the C-theory is that these causal judgments play a central role in defining and constituting the direction of time. There is, for the C-theorist, a direction of time only if there exist in nature the right kinds of patterns that make it useful for us to think in terms of an arrow of cause and effect. If we are happy to say that in a world without such patterns there would be no direction of time, then we can get rid of the question Could the world really be running from future to past?

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby Badsnookerplayer

Unfortunately if he were to attempt this, he would almost certainly lose most frames as he would start by potting the colours thus giving his opponent 30 points before moving onto the reds. Even then he would start by potting a colour before a red, giving away a minimum of 4 more points.

I would be interested in letting Lee Walker play the first round of WC qualifying whilst travelling at close to the speed of light. I would be interested to see if time dilation would allow him to complete his match before the next session commenced. Could provide a solution to his AST problems going forward as I don't think WST have provisions for relativistic effects.

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby Ck147

SnookerEd25 wrote:Since when did BadSnookerPlayer become Professor Brian Cox?

He didn't, not even close.
Last edited by Ck147 on 08 Jul 2020, edited 2 times in total.

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby Badsnookerplayer

Ck147 wrote:
SnookerEd25 wrote:Since when did BadSnookerPlayer become Professor Brian Cox?

He didn't, not even close.

The Universe is a beautiful, wondrous place. A place of mystery and infinite depth.


But if we look at this forum we can get a sense - a very small sense - of how this Universe began.


Take a post. Any post by any of the many,many members of this forum.


It can be likened to any one of the billions of atoms that make up our bodies, or even the stars that make up the night sky. Each of these posts is like a thread that binds us all together but also looks deep, deep into our past. An echo from our forefathers and their forefathers before them.


The Universe is a very delicate and beautiful place but chaotic and exciting and at times inexplicable. Perhaps a microcosm of this forum?

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby Ck147

Badsnookerplayer wrote:
Ck147 wrote:
SnookerEd25 wrote:Since when did BadSnookerPlayer become Professor Brian Cox?

He didn't, not even close.

The Universe is a beautiful, wondrous place. A place of mystery and infinite depth.


But if we look at this forum we can get a sense - a very small sense - of how this Universe began.


Take a post. Any post by any of the many,many members of this forum.


It can be likened to any one of the billions of atoms that make up our bodies, or even the stars that make up the night sky. Each of these posts is like a thread that binds us all together but also looks deep, deep into our past. An echo from our forefathers and their forefathers before them.


The Universe is a very delicate and beautiful place but chaotic and exciting and at times inexplicable. Perhaps a microcosm of this forum?

Atoms? Microcosm? Universe? How many?

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby Badsnookerplayer

Snooker balls careering across a table serve to remind us of the chaotic nature of a structure that we can see and sense.

This beautiful, beautiful, intricate and sometimes incomprehensible island in the Universe that we inhabit is nothing more than a single yellow over the corner pocket. A tap-in waiting to be swallowed by the vastness of the pocket - a cavernous black hole where we will be swallowed, digested and eventually returned to the table of life.

Wondrous

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby Pink Ball

Badsnookerplayer wrote:Snooker balls careering across a table serve to remind us of the chaotic nature of a structure that we can see and sense.

This beautiful, beautiful, intricate and sometimes incomprehensible island in the Universe that we inhabit is nothing more than a single yellow over the corner pocket. A tap-in waiting to be swallowed by the vastness of the pocket - a cavernous black hole where we will be swallowed, digested and eventually returned to the table of life.

Wondrous

Yeah.

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby Ck147

Watching Star Trek TNG on TV with the missus earlier, she let one rip and I said, "captains log supplemental, we have arrived close to a giant unchartered mass and encountered a gaseous anomaly, it appears to be breaching the hull. Shields up." I didn't get any fun tonight :(

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby TheSaviour

Thanks for not having me.

rofl rofl

Thanks for not having me. I ain´t black or from the States. So thanks for not having me.

Sorry.

Or then not sorry at all, who knows. The second bridge is now free, other ain´t.

But something I would be quite interested to think further. I suppose it is same thing as if some human would be on the sun. And then sun would suddenly to explode. So, would that person die "sooner or later" as someone here on earth, given the human point of a view?? Actually the person on the sun would die sooner, obviously so, BUT how anyone would actually sense the death of that person, as the light would be different. The speed of light would do the telling. No-one couldn´t be sure that person actually died, as there would be nothing left. No proves, no senses about that, only guesses. AND, everyone would be speculating that that person died somewhere over the past, even when he (why on earth he..??) would had died actually earlier than persons on earth. But all of us on the earth would die also. Just a matter of time. So, basically the speed of light does all the telling.

That quite exactly was what Einstein was on. A very few could had realised it in way I realised it. About 15 years ago, while I was about 25 years of old.

And the guesses are never the same as the senses. I suppose I could state so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQNO88CD_Hg This is quite exactly how I would always love to remember Ronnie. At his very, very best, I would say. And that is quite a much. AS DO WE ALL OBVIOUSLY KNOW. BUT JUST US.

Anyone´s guess is it on now or not. And how long it will be on this time now?

Thanks for not having me.

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby SnookerFan

Ck147 wrote:
Badsnookerplayer wrote:
Ck147 wrote:
SnookerEd25 wrote:Since when did BadSnookerPlayer become Professor Brian Cox?

He didn't, not even close.

The Universe is a beautiful, wondrous place. A place of mystery and infinite depth.


But if we look at this forum we can get a sense - a very small sense - of how this Universe began.


Take a post. Any post by any of the many,many members of this forum.


It can be likened to any one of the billions of atoms that make up our bodies, or even the stars that make up the night sky. Each of these posts is like a thread that binds us all together but also looks deep, deep into our past. An echo from our forefathers and their forefathers before them.


The Universe is a very delicate and beautiful place but chaotic and exciting and at times inexplicable. Perhaps a microcosm of this forum?

Atoms? Microcosm? Universe? How many?


Three.

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby HappyCamper

SnookerFan wrote:Image


imagine an episode where dr beckett leaps into jimmy white during 1994 wsc. and he has to make sure that whirlwind wins the final. al the hologram could be pointing to exactly where sam has to hit the balls and stuff.

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby SnookerFan

HappyCamper wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:Image


imagine an episode where dr beckett leaps into jimmy white during 1994 wsc. and he has to make sure that whirlwind wins the final. al the hologram could be pointing to exactly where sam has to hit the balls and stuff.


Did you see the one where Sam was a pool player?

Re: Could Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker backwards in time?

Postby HappyCamper

SnookerFan wrote:
HappyCamper wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:Image


imagine an episode where dr beckett leaps into jimmy white during 1994 wsc. and he has to make sure that whirlwind wins the final. al the hologram could be pointing to exactly where sam has to hit the balls and stuff.


Did you see the one where Sam was a pool player?


oh yeah, now i remember. there's me thinking i had an original idea lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InK6DNeVYo4