Is this how the static block universe, arrow of time, and conscious experience hang together?

Question

In the static block universe we posit a view-from-nowhere perspective.

When taking such a vantage, the thermodynamic arrow of time does not establish a preferred ontological direction of time. There are low entropy and high entropy edges to the block, but just like there is no preferred now, there can be no preferred direction metaphysically.

We humans only experience a single direction, the increasing entropy direction. That is, every time we see a glass of water with ice cubes, we expect to only have experiences of the ice melting.

Yet the view-from-nowhere establishes the thermodynamic reverse is equally real. The direction from glass of ice water toward a solid block of ice (or someone beginning to pour the glass of ice water) is equally real.

We just can't experience such reversals because human experience is so physically limited by its biology. There are other areas of the physical world we think are real but beyond experience, like the universe beyond our horizon, the cosmological multiverse, or other worlds of many worlds, so this shouldn't be so hard to swallow.

Is this a decent summary? Did I add in anything unnecessary, or leave out anything necessary?

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[Edit-a restating: In the Growing Block Universe (GBU), "the direction of time points from the past that exists to the future that does not". "It is this process of change at the edge of spacetime, which is continually extending to include more events as time progresses, that determines which is the future direction of time, as opposed to its start". "It arises because the [growing] block universe has a beginning". George Ellis https://euresis.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/EJv7id2_Ellis.pdf.

The Static Block Universe (SBU) has no such beginning nor non-extant future, so there can be no ontological direction of time for the SBU. And without a global, ontological direction of time, the arrow of time (the second law of thermodynamics) must also be understood statically--the universe did not begin low entropy, nor will it end high entropy, there are no begins nor ends. The arrow of time (the second law) is within this directionless static block, and does not provide a direction to it. At best the second law describes a pattern of the layout of the block, but it endows no directedness.

So far in this edit there is no reason to suspect only a single direction to conscious experience I would say, yet that is what we perceive. That is, without knowing the nature of consciousness, if we at least know it produces reports of the static block, we have no reason yet to suspect from the nature of the SBU it will only produce reports in one direction. We might say consciousness at least must follow the laws of physics. But that too does not explain the singular directedness to our reports/experiences.

So it must be something about the constitution of consciousness that explains why we experience a single direction. And I do claim we do experience only a single direction, the universe looked lower entropy when I was born than today. And tomorrow will be higher entropy still. And I have never heard another human exclaim the converse.

I can imagine meeting an entity that can record and report sans human consciousness exclaiming the universe looks much more ordered today than their yesterday. Their direction through the block is equally real as mine, but is opposite, and obeys all the same physical laws as me.

So I feel I am forced to declare something about consciousness the moment I accept the the SBU, which seems undesirable.]

Answer 1

I think that's fair. In a block universe the question is shifted from why time exists, to why the experiences we associate with time exist. And laying down memories is an entropic process, it involves the spreading out not concentrating of information - the 'movement' backwards in time is literally impossible to remember. The time-reversal of antiparticles bolsters this view.

See also: How does biological evolution work in the block universe/b-theory of time?

Answer 2

We humans only experience a single direction, the increasing entropy direction.

I'm not convinced that that's true or even meaningful.

That is, every time we see a glass of water with ice cubes, we expect to only have experiences of the ice melting.

"Expect" implies that you don't know what will happen, i.e., you don't remember it.

That we remember events from the lower-entropy direction of time and don't remember events from the higher-entropy direction is an objective property of the universe. If you experienced time in the higher-to-lower-entropy direction, you would still expect the ice to melt, not remember it.

I understand the difference between red and green wavelengths of light, but not the difference between perceived red and green. In the same way, I understand the difference between past and future in spacetime, but not the difference between perceived past and future. Perhaps how the past feels to you is how the future feels to somebody else. Given that both of you have learned to use the words "past" and "future" for the same objective time directions, and both remember events in the same direction, would there be any detectable difference between you and the person experiencing time the other way around? I don't know. Maybe not.

That's probably all that can be said about the conscious experience of time in a block universe given our current (total lack of) understanding of the nature of conscious experience.