Is it possible to see into the future?

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If "arrow theory" is the same as the "arrow of time", then it has nothing to do with the future affecting the present. Time flows in one direction - the arrow of time is used, essentially, to describe entropy.

As far as I'm aware, the opposite being true is a theoretical construct. In theory, it's not impossible for order to come from chaos, for matter to spontaneously organise itself into an object rather than for an object to eventually disorder itself. It's just incredibly unlikely. Order turning into chaos is what gives us the "arrow of time" theory. The universe will eventually become disordered, effect follows cause, etc.
 
And then you have to account for the possibilty of an arrow to the knee forever altering history.
 
Would that be chaos or order, then?

Probably depends on whose knee. Only Time tells. But Time heals, too; so I guess chaos could also turn back into order. Eventually.
 
Time only heals in the short term ;) A wound may heal, but as the body ages the wound will heal more slowly.

As for the arrow to the knee - order if it was aimed at the knee, chaos if it was aimed anywhere else and hit your knee :D
 
homeforsummer
Time only heals in the short term ;)
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Yes. Personally experienced. :)

homeforsummer
A wound may heal, but as the body ages the wound will heal more slowly.
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Exceptions being the rule, Seniors tend to fight Colds better than Kindergarteners. ;)

homeforsummer
As for the the arrow to the knee - order if it was aimed at the knee, chaos if it was aimed anywhere else and hit your knee :D
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A matter of perspective.


Your turn.. . . ;)


OT:
Does Time really have any speed (even though we measure it relatively) - or to put it another way - does it really go anywhere? If it doesn't - then, surely, it flows neither forward nor backward.
But Forward and Backward, again, are relative concepts, applied to Time so that we can 'relate' in our perception, or conceive, the concept of Time, itself.
Talking about predicting the Future (or That which will happen) means that the Future is fixed. This is logically possible if Time doesn't move.
But, to all good perception, at least sensibly, it does move.
And faster, and faster, and faster . . . according to some.
Me?
G. Time never stands still, the bastard.
Have a good day, all. 👍
 
Let's put it this way: Whether the future is set in stone or not (and it most likely is), it doesn't matter to those of us who have to live along a timelike dimension. We still experience time in a serial manner.

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The speed of time is entirely subjective. And the speed at which each of us experiences time is set mostly by our biology. It has been demonstrated that younger people perceive time as moving slower than older people. Whether this is because the neural connections are simpler or because sugar-rush fueled metabolisms make for more synaptic sparky-sparky, I don't know, but the answer could be both.
 
photonrider
Exceptions being the rule, Seniors tend to fight Colds better than Kindergarteners. ;)
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The difference is small. Both young children and old adults are more susceptible and vulnerable to colds/flus/other illnesses than those from their teens to 50s. And kids' bruises and scratches tend to heal fairly quickly, compared to people getting older. Kids fall over all the time but don't need constant hip replacements like the elderly!
 
I can see the future, this chicken egg will turn into a chick if I let it be, to alter the future is simple, I'll cook the egg for breakfast :lol:

The future is how you make it, the inevitable will happen, that's when we call it destiny, can we change our destiny ... should we take A instead of B, should we do instead of don't ... choices ...our decision is our destiny. Decide carefully, the ripple effect of our decision create huge repercussion to other's destiny.
 
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If the future is set in stone and we are all on an unchangeable time line where every event along that path is inevitable and inescapable surely the freewill we feel we have is just an illusion?

For example lets say someone can see into the future and they see I still have my current job, now back in the present time I 'feel' like its my freewill if I were to quit my job right now or not but that 'feeling' can't be real as it is my inescapable destiny to stay at the job at least up to the point where the time traveller/fortune teller saw that it is my destiny to stay at this job.

That's not the best example but its the best I could come up with or then again maybe it was inevitable that those were the words I would post at this particular time I had no real choice because everything is predetermined and we are all just following an unchangeable time line...........

Edit: I often wonder if those who believe in destiny realise they're kissing good bye to freewill.
 
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hairystig
If the future is set in stone and we are all on an unchangeable time line where every event along that path is inevitable and inescapable surely the freewill we feel we have is just an illusion?

For example lets say someone can see into the future and they see I still have my current job, now back in the present time I 'feel' like its my freewill if I were to quit my job right now or not but that 'feeling' can't be real as it is my inescapable destiny to stay at the job at least up to the point where the time traveller/fortune teller saw that it is my destiny to stay at this job.

That's not the best example but its the best I could come up with or then again maybe it was inevitable that those were the words I would post at this particular time I had no real choice because everything is predetermined and we are all just following an unchangeable time line...........

Edit: I often wonder if those who believe in destiny realise they're kissing good bye to freewill.
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You were also destined to think of it and make this post. :sly:

Like Niky said, don't worry about it. All we're seeing is a cross section of time, it's an experience of time as we know it.

If all we see is a cross section of our time in this universe, it doesn't matter if everything is predetermined. We can't see what will happen next, only make predictions, in some cases using our knowledge of math and physics to determine how objects in space will move.

If you think you have freewill, you effectively have freewill. It's kind of similar to "I think, therefore I am." Who cares if you're actually a brain in a jar, if your experiences seem real to you? :lol: Although it can be fun to think about.
 
Grand Prix
If you think you have freewill, you effectively have freewill. It's kind of similar to "I think, therefore I am." Who cares if you're actually a brain in a jar, if your experiences seem real to you? :lol: Although it can be fun to think about.
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Sure is fun to think about, I like to lay it on religious types who like to think they have freewill and an all knowing god that can see all of time past present and future.
 
Basically, free will is an illusion. If a computer is built that can simulate you down to the molecular level, it can predict exactly what you would do or say in a given situation.

But here's the rub. The simulated "you" in the computer will also feel that he has free will, and being made known of his condition, will start to question whether he does or not.

In all the ways that really matter, the simulation will be a real human.

Which laeds us back full circle. Doesn't matter if your actions are predictable and the consequences of such are set in stone... You still feel like you have free will. So you do.
 
niky
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The speed of time is entirely subjective. And the speed at which each of us experiences time is set mostly by our biology. It has been demonstrated that younger people perceive time as moving slower than older people. Whether this is because the neural connections are simpler or because sugar-rush fueled metabolisms make for more synaptic sparky-sparky, I don't know, but the answer could be both.
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The experience of Time is subjective. And relative. As Dr. Barry Gibb explains in The Brain, (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1843536641/?tag=gtplanetuk-20) one year in the life of a ten year old is only 1/10 of their lives - and so a year seems a much longer period, than a year to a fifty year old, to whom it is but 1/50th of relative time and therefore a drop in the bucket.

homeforsummer
The difference is small..........
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Yes. Though the Qi Gong gang might call that statistic a white lie. ;)

niky
Basically, free will is an illusion.
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A huge amount of reference material I have agrees with this. We only feel we have free will (though to feel that, one must be in the 'Ego' state, and quite far from the detachment, for instance, that an advanced Buddhist acquires through the meditation of losing the 'Self'). It seems that our actions are merely reactions that are 'cued' by what we perceive. The visually impaired cannot willingly turn away from the rainbow. So 'free' Will, if not actually an illusion of the mind, is then only a set of limited choices.

But, what about free Won't?

Do we have a say in that?

Not sure how all this relates to the topic, though, yes, whether destiny is set in stone or not, does relate to the fact of whether we can predict what events lie in the future - I thought for awhile we were going to dissect Silvia Browne, et al. :lol:
 
The whole concept of life is really just a strange illusion, almost as if we didn't exist. Its an illusion to make it feel like life exists.
 
photonrider
The experience of Time is subjective. And relative. As Dr. Barry Gibb explains in The Brain, (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1843536641/?tag=gtplanetuk-20) one year in the life of a ten year old is only 1/10 of their lives - and so a year seems a much longer period, than a year to a fifty year old, to whom it is but 1/50th of relative time and therefore a drop in the bucket.
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See, if the question is the direction of the flow, then that is entirely subjective. If you're asking about relative speed, then Einstein and observational evidence also point to that being variable, but for entirely different reasons.

Yes. Though the Qi Gong gang might call that statistic a white lie. ;)
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A cold is not a wound. Children are more susceptible to some diseases simply because their bodily systems are not mature. Setting that aside, the young are ludicrously healthy and able to regenerate damaged tissues.

A huge amount of reference material I have agrees with this. We only feel we have free will (though to feel that, one must be in the 'Ego' state, and quite far from the detachment, for instance, that an advanced Buddhist acquires through the meditation of losing the 'Self'). It seems that our actions are merely reactions that are 'cued' by what we perceive. The visually impaired cannot willingly turn away from the rainbow. So 'free' Will, if not actually an illusion of the mind, is then only a set of limited choices.

But, what about free Won't?

Do we have a say in that?

Not sure how all this relates to the topic, though, yes, whether destiny is set in stone or not, does relate to the fact of whether we can predict what events lie in the future - I thought for awhile we were going to dissect Silvia Browne, et al. :lol:
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The illusion is not just because our choices are constrained. It is because the process by which we process the problem is itself constrained... and predictable.

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Of course we have a say. Whether our choice is predictable or not, it's still a choice. Like I said, if a complete facsimile of you is built within a computer, for all intents and purposes, that facsimile is a real person, even if all his actions are predictable to outside observers monitoring his thought processes.

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The problem of free will gets worse when you consider a "Perfect Being". If one is perfect or has perfect knowledge, then one's actions are even more predictable... "God" can be demonstrated to have absolutely no free will.
 
"God" ??

:lol:

Pray, what is this "God" thou speakest of? Aretalogy?

He wouldn't happen to have a toothbrush moustache would he?
 
No, Einstein is higher up on the evolutionary ladder than that. :D
 
So last night I had a dream that I saw a really bad car accident.

This morning on the way to work I saw a car accident in one of the intersections I go through every morning on my bike ride to work. This accident had already happened and they were cleaning it up, but....made me think of this thread. :odd:
 
How many times do we see accidents, without having dreamt of them - and find no connection. Or did we just forget the dream?

niky
No, Einstein is higher up on the evolutionary ladder than that. :D
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You'd think with that smaller than average sized brain that he had, he would have figured out his walrus, given time, would turn into a toothbrush, eh?

But, the wounded old (at least those of us who actually will survive to get old and a lot less hip), and low-definition fear-based deities that fill the blank spaces in our heads, put aside for a moment - the concept of predicting the future is as old as human history - maybe even predating history (if we can find the artifacts of such :lol: )
The Time Machine has constantly fascinated those of us who are the more curious or adventurous. Can we do it? What if? Authors love the Time Machine premise. We all do. All theory - even common sense - says this is not possible - an anomaly of reality as we know it.
Crystal balls, and Ouija boards, and old bones, and 'the knowledge in you that made you drink your tea that way and left the leaves just so' people profess to tell the truth - in fact the future. Set in stone.
The wise, feared, revered old woman that threw the yarrow that predated the I Ching was not a figment of the past; she existed, just like the future she could have envisioned exists now as the present.

If prediction of the future is 'knowledge',
Then:
All knowledge encompasses what happened in the future.
 
R1600Turbo
This morning on the way to work I saw a car accident in one of the intersections I go through every morning on my bike ride to work. This accident had already happened and they were cleaning it up, but....made me think of this thread. :odd:
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Future man! Future man! Please accompany me to Las Vegas, there's a fortune to be won!
 
Villain
Future man! Future man! Please accompany me to Las Vegas, there's a fortune to be won!
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One commonly encountered problem with seeing the future: it almost NEVER works when trying to make money or gamble, i.e., even if it works for altruistic purposes, it won't work for selfish ones. That's the karma of it.

For example, Edgar Cayce was reputed to be the greatest psychic in history. In a trance state he gave successful "readings" on the health questions of thousands of ailing folks he had never seen, yet was unable to find oil in Texas when others were finding it virtually anywhere they drilled! He also made a famous false prediction that Atlantis would be found.

Moral of the story: special abilities, if they exist in you or others, should be reserved for the highest purposes, not the lowest one.

Respectfully submitted,
Steve
 
Dotini
One commonly encountered problem with seeing the future: it almost NEVER works when trying to make money or gamble, i.e., even if it works for altruistic purposes, it won't work for selfish ones. That's the karma of it.
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Karma is nonsense invented by weak minded fools who thought that the universe centered on human motives and not the other way around.

Its funny how these "psychics" who's powers only work when it suits them, sorry "only work for good" have invariably made a fortune from their abilities. And by "abilities", I mean "as a con artist"
 

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