Oooh, I just recently came across an article in Discover magazine that you might find interesting.
Is the Future Already Written? | DiscoverMagazine.com
In short, not everybody agrees with Einstein's block universe. From a sci-fi fan perspective it's an interesting debate to follow because if at the quantum level the future has not yet occurred then how is forward time travel from the present possible? With Ellis, if time travel is possible then one could go back in time and then back forward in time but only up to the most current moment. Instead of "Back to the Future" it'd be "Back to the Current".
I enjoy the article conceptually, but for me I look at the future like this:
There's the planet's past, present, and future which is - relatively speaking - static. Hitler died due to a gunshot wound to the head in World War 2, Back to the Future came out as a movie in 1984 or so, and Eddie Murphy died in a car accident in 2011 and Paul Walker did in an eerily similar accident not two years afterwards. As for Earth's future timeline - it includes it's destruction around the year 5.5 billion AD due to a solar flare, Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight on April 5th, 2063. and a couple other fixed possibilities
Then there's my future. Where that's largely unwritten. I'm undergoing a metamorphosis from human to my immortal form as Q and have been for the last 4 years, so that's written. I know I will be able to flit through time and space at thought, but I will place emphasis of it to those watching with a snap of my fingers. Other than that, I also know I will come across or develop technology which will permit me to do the flitting through space and time PRIOR to me regaining my abilities.
Now observationally, from 'the outside', I know that I am watched from alternate realities on television shows, virtual reality simulations, holodecks, and other digitally based media, and i am also read about in books, magazines and more as I make choices on a real time basis - and there are other ways I may not fully comprehend that many people in alternate realities regard me as fiction in this world I call fact.
Einstein's block universe is in part, true. Just like the Flat Earthers - there's a place for them as well and their concepts were and are perfectly valid as well.
In any case, I regard science fiction as 'feedback' from A future, not THE future, but A future. They introduce ideas and concepts, I personally filter much of it and dismiss a lot of it as stories I have no desire incorporating in my reality. Sometimes there's important things - technologically, psychologically, philosophically I include after watching these other 'futures'.
Similarly. I regard the past that I am told through stories as 'A past' which led up to this moment. I have a two chosen past timelines that contributed to who I am, Earth has one primary past timeline and infinite other timelines which contributed to the now.
And while scientists try so hard to regain credibility after utterly losing it as the flip flop between dualistic states of matter and anti matter were mirrored with society and democrats vs republicans as well as concepts of religion with the devil and god - and sooo much more.
This dualistic. Contrasting perspective. Has to mature. me. I'm a part of this planet's maturation process, but quite frankly, whether it ends in the entire planet destroying itself in a Terminator war or through a conversion process to becoming Borg, or it is a much happier contrast with something fun, playful, and enjoyable which I currently can't imagine, i sincerely don't care which direction 'this planet's future' takes because I know MY future which is no longer intertwined with the fate of this planet I call Earth.
No matter the case. Linear time does exist in some places and does not in others. Block universes exist in some places and does not in others. Big Bang is relevant in the construction of some universes and not in others. The future is written in some universes, and is somewhat in this one so i can be here, but not so much so to leave me without choice.
My question to you is. Without citing articles. Draw me a picture of your universe, temporally.
Mine and yours do NOT have to look the same and there is NO contradiction with this.
There are, after all, infinite potential universes ...