Can You Predict The Future ?

Originally Posted by Yakuzablitz

Can you discuss predicting the future without getting into the thorny philosophical territory discussing whether we have free will or not and whether the future is predestined or not? I'd like to believe that we do have free will and that the future doesn't have some set course that we have to follow, regardless of our thoughts, feelings, or wishes. Wouldn't the ability to predict the future imply that the future is indeed "locked in"? A scary thought...

Mightn't it be a matter of seeing one of the possible outcomes? I know that seems, on the face of things, to nullify the experience but if a person were to see one of the countless possible outcomes and see that outcome exactly as it will later occur (colors, clothing, phrases, etc) then isn't that a form of premonition that involves free will?

Time is such an odd animal.

[Aaron LeClair]

As touched on already, if predictions are seen as tapping into probabilities, free will isn't swept away.

There may be certain probable lines that have a certain destiny though. If I jump out of a plane with no chute, I am destined to go splat. Some choices doom us more so than others. I won't be waking up going off to be a brain surgeon tomorrow. Not that I am destined not to in life, only that my current probable lines don't have it in the cards. If I use my free choice to choose certain activities, such as college and medical classes, in time becoming a brain surgeon becomes more possible.

Originally Posted by A.LeClair

As touched on already, if predictions are seen as tapping into probabilities, free will isn't swept away.

Oops, sorry - I didn't mean to rehash. I've seen the same ideas raked over and over on other threads and I know how annoying it can be. Again, sorry.

[Aaron LeClair]

Originally Posted by interestedINitall

Oops, sorry - I didn't mean to rehash. I've seen the same ideas raked over and over on other threads and I know how annoying it can be. Again, sorry.

Huh? No, I was rehashing not you

[Yakuzablitz]

Thanks gentlemen, I'd be more willing to accept the possibility of "seeing the future" if it involved somehow gleaning the most likely path a person can take among many probabilities. This sort-of ties in to some science fiction I've read, supposedly based on real physics, that various possibilities or forms for an event or item may exist concurrently in a "wave function" that "collapses" when either observed or when one distinct probability or path overwhelms the others. I don't pretend to understand exactly what that means but it sounds tantalizing.

Can anyone with a better understanding of physics talk about this wave function and the branching universes theory? The little I know comes from books I only vaguely remember and they were written by the so-called "New Physicists", who were trying to tie in recent findings in physics with more New Age beliefs.

Anyway, I believe this may tie in to seeing the future in that, through whatever mechanism, fortune tellers may be able to somehow tap in to that wave function and glean the most likely outcome for an event or series of events.

Can anyone follow my trail of blather?

[Aaron LeClair]

Check out the work of Bohm if you haven't. More specifically "pilot waves", the "holomovement" and "many worlds theory". This should all be easily found online. If you have trouble finding it let me know and I'll see what I can turn up.

[Aaron LeClair]

Odd. On my screen it's indicating that the last post in this thread was me today. No, not counting this post.

[quantumleap]

Why would you want to be preoccupied with the future when the present is so entertaining? I prefer to savor every moment in the now (sieze the day) vs. worrying about what may be coming and miss what's going on now.

[idontunderstand]

Originally Posted by A.LeClair

Check out the work of Bohm if you haven't. More specifically "pilot waves", the "holomovement" and "many worlds theory". This should all be easily found online. If you have trouble finding it let me know and I'll see what I can turn up.

Yo,

Check out the book "The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot. It deals with everything that you have just mentioned.

Its an amazing read.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Holographic-...4659602&sr=8-1

[quantumleap]

Why do we concern ourselves with what's going to happen in the future?
Rather, shouldn't we "SIEZE THE DAY"? What if we created our own reality by willing it into being. So when we think we see the future or let someone else tell us what they see, we allow ourselves to will it into existance. I know I can read my horoscope and if it tells me I will have a bad day, chances are I will go out and have a bad day. I also know for a fact, that if I wake up in a good mood, I tend not to let negative things bother me, where as if I wake up in a bad mood, every little thing upsets me, so I have a bad day.

I have chosen to create my own days by reacting to events as I choose and not be influienced by foretold information from others.

If the sky falls, so be it!