If you could see into your future would you?

Question

If you could find out what was gong to happen to you next week or next year or whenever with complete accuracy would you really want to know?

If your future was bad and unavoidable what you would you do?

I'm glad that we can't see our own futures and would not want to know even if we could. There'd be no fun in finding it out at the time.

Answer 1

Well, i wouldn't look at my future, that would be far too boring. I'd look at things i could use to improve things today.

"If your future was bad and unavoidable what you would you do?
" - well, who cares, it doesn't matter.

Alternatively if your future was good, and unavoidable, that means you could do exactly what you wanted today knowing it'll be alright next week....chaos

Answer 2

When I saw your question and it had been posted for half an hour I'd figured that most of the answers would reflect that people would indeed want to know of their futures. I'm very surprised that there was not one indication that anyone would not want to know what their future was.

I'd have to agree with them all, I wouldn't want to see my future either. On the surface it sounds like a good idea, but as in most things time gives you perspective. If people were capable of seeing their futures, they would always be second guessing themselves and for all intents and purposes, end up with no real life at all.

The movie "The Butterfly Effect" immediately comes to mind, even though it ended well.

Answer 3

I was thinking about this exact same thing a few minutes before I saw your question... oooh spooky! Maybe we CAN see the future.. :-)

No... I wouldn't want to see the future. I was thinking about this little old lady who had something really, really horrible happen to her recently (as told on the news), and it made me so sad to think that people can hurt the elderly and infirm.

Then I started to contemplate myself when I get to that age, and how I hope nobody hurts me like that when I am weak and frail. I'm sure that lady wasn't asking for the abuse in any way - she was just very unlucky.

No I would rather not see what happens - good or bad.

Answer 4

The universe is infinite, for if it were not then we can understand that there is something else in existence besides the universe, may be another universe or two or may be countless - a multiversity in existence. For the sake of simplicity however, I call all that exists the existence – the entirety.

Now, time is but an attribute or quality of all things in our physical world. The world is a transformation and time is a menifestation of this. All things in our observation grow, decay, rust, age and undergo transformations, sometimes fast and sometimes very slow but they do change all the time. The change permeates and governs all that exists. Time in this sense is a relative entity and not an absolute one - time is because there is in the nature of all things that change, and cannot be static or stationary.

Now if there are an infinite number of things in existence then there are infinite ways they can change and interact with each other. The probability of finding out what will happen in the future of anything is infinitesimally small and therefore not computable. We cannot predict the future, even our own, to any reasonable degree of accuracy. We can only foretell the likelihoods and possibilities. We must stay prepared however rigorously and finely we plan for things to take place the way we want.

You can consider the answer this far just an attempt to spoil your wonder, but there are more to this topic then we can ever find out. For example, if somehow I know what will happen tomorrow then that knowledge of my future will altered the way something was supposed to happen. If I would not know what is going to happen that thing will happen unaffected.

Or alternatively my knowledge of the future will add up to the present events in my life leading me up to the next day’s events. You can say that what was going to happen in my future became observable to me before hand as a part of the beginning of something that is going to happen. And if I were not told what will happen then that thing would not have happened at all. Just imagine an evil apparition appearing to someone to tell that they will have an accident tomorrow. And this just to screw their mind before hand into doing something silly causing that fateful premonition to eventually and actually come true.

By far dreams are considered the most popular means to foresee the future. And I believe we intuitively foresee our future all the time even with our eyes wide open. And then we continuously change our future as it unfolds, shaping our lives the way we wish, desire or aspire. If this were not the case our lives would not have been as logical as they are; we would not achieve anything, or accomplish anything by planning and making strenuous efforts. We intuitively anticipate our future and constantly alter it without realising what we are doing – carving up our selves from unformed and unshaped marble stone of otherwise random spread of existence.

We create from existence our own existence – peculiar and unique. We change our future by our wishes, prayers, aspirations, hopes and deeds to carry our purposes forwards and dreams come true.

Answer 5

Could be interesting, working out how life mapped out for wich ever future you saw to come about.

Although the temptation would be there to try and change things if you didn't like what you saw.

So although i would say no i'd probbaly give in to temptation at some point, usally a few minutes b4 betting on the horses

Answer 6

Buddha said uncertainty was the cause of all pain and suffering. If we know the future for certain, we should be spared the pain and suffering - for, if we can see the future, we can see all of it, not just one event - the totality of all events can neither be good nor bad - it would simply be cause and effect.

I think that certainty of future may fail the test of thrill or excitement, but simultaneously it would also eliminate ego and emotion which cause joy or sorrow from a result.

Our instinctive urge to know the future may after all be based on sound logic!!

Answer 7

A difficult one, I would say no as I did would not want to know what is happening.

But there is the whole issue of 'self fulfilled prophecy' to take into account.

EG You could catch a glimps of youself say, in Paris. Then at some point, you would willingly go to Paris, just to see why you were there in the first place. You MAKE this vision come true !!!

Answer 8

Is it always so that future is unfathomable ! Past and future are present in the present, there and all there. Awareness of them lies embedded into the present like fragrance in flower or reflections in a mirror. Past and future are both illusive. Present is the real moment to concentrate upon. Nature of universal life force tends to defy impediments of any division of time Consciousness -the governing energy of life's dynamics -may even flow un obstructed by laws of birth- cycles. Where the power of conteplation is strong enough,to visualise the state of life one year or ten years hence, the turn of events along the course of life presents a satisfying experience . This is a result on two counts- namely, by the sheer fun of a dream-come - true and by the vindication of what was correctly speculated before it happened. The fun part of it is assured anyway.

Answer 9

With no offense meant,,,Thank you for the opening sentence after the Q.

The Q suggests no choice.

Certainly the past is old news, and obviously we don't all "learn" from it.
Many don't have a "Plan" and perhaps still might not, if they could "know" the future.
I also like the fact that you used the word "unavoidable",,,and perhaps "seeing" OUR personal futures would only cause stress and degradation?

My personal feelings are that to know it is to deny any surprise, negative or positive, and more,,, the challenge to use cognitive thought in dealing with what happens.

One aspect of our species is that we also, often, deny that consequences,,,negative or positive,,, are the result of ANY actions we take in the NOW.

Steven Wolf

Answer 10

I don't think we have one future but many futures...depending on what path were on....

If I could see the future of the path I'm on now...and it wasn't favourable...I would change my actions now to hopefully have a better future...