Past or future?

The choice is rather simple. There is no choice, in fact.
Past.

Why? Because it will be possible. All we need is to find a particle faster than light and learn to control it.

Peeking at the future, or should I say infinite future possibilities, is just not possible.
Without looking in the future however, we can predict what will happen globally - but only when we accept that humanity is not dartagnan's utopia. We're Jodorowsy's rotten beasts. Monsters.

Well damn @joxer; you pretty much beat me to it.

Here's my version: IF we could see the future, then we would live in a universe of predestination. I cannot make any choices and nothing I do has any consequences. Everything I have done and will do has been predetermined before I was ever born.

Moreover, neither you nor anyone else can make any choices that have any consequences for me or for anyone else. Everything has been predetermined.

Live is a set, repeating record. Nothing matters.

Would I choose a universe where there are no choices? Where nothing I do makes any difference whatsoever? Nah.

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Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
The paradox here is probably that if one person can see into the future he'd probably also change the future, which means that what he see might change depending on that…….

That will be the best part! Especially if Eye & I could *both* see the future, it could get real interesting. She sees something and how to easily keep it from happening - but I want it to happen and I can see that she sees so I figure out a way to keep it happening. But she sees that I see that she sees so she… well, you get the picture. I wonder if the universe can get a stack overflow error?

Originally Posted by RPGFool
Well damn @joxer; you pretty much beat me to it.

Here's my version: IF we could see the future, then we would live in a universe of predestination. I cannot make any choices and nothing I do has any consequences. Everything I have done and will do has been predetermined before I was ever born.

Moreover, neither you nor anyone else can make any choices that have any consequences for me or for anyone else. Everything has been predetermined.

Live is a set, repeating record. Nothing matters.

Would I choose a universe where there are no choices? Where nothing I do makes any difference whatsoever? Nah.

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I see if differently. Just because you hop to the future doesn’t mean things are predetermined. Your jumping time but that time is still being lived and decisions are being made that leads to the future outcome, just as decisions were made in the past that has led to the present.

So just as you could go to the past and change the present you could go to the future, see the results of actions then return to the present and influence different actions effectively changing the future. So nothing would be predetermined by seeing the future. You’d just be seeing one of infinite possible futures.

That’s how I see it anyway.

My choice would be the future. I can already research the past. I want to see all the amazing inventions and people that I’d never be able to see without time travel. Yes I could hop to the future and it could be bleak and terrible but it could also be amazing.

You presume that you are viewing the future from the past where it can be changed. This is a fault. You can only view the future in the future where it becomes the present. Enjoy.

My primary response was to go to the near future and figure out which lottery numbers I need to get. On second thought, I think I want to go back in time and just see how these events in the past really went down. At a certain point I wouldn’t understand a word that anyone is saying anymore as language has changed so much over time, but I’ll just do with the visuals.

I picked future because I can't change the past. I assume mankind will make many terrible mistakes in the future - and if there's a way to prevent even one terrible outcome, then I think it's worth whatever the personal cost.

I don't consider the future set - and since I'm not given the choice of not choosing - I rationally pick the one that I find most likely to be of use.

It's the utilitarian mindset, I suppose.

There's also the selfish part of it, where I can gain something for my loved ones. Since the future isn't set - I don't think watching my future death would be particularly scary, because there's a chance I might prevent it.

But it's quite hypothetical - and it's very possible that I would end up regretting that choice.

I think this is pointless question! Time does not exists and is an illusion. The ONE is simply be, always and forever!

Did someone hijack joxer's account?

He actually made some sense there, and that post didn't include a single instance of "respawns", "mobs", "instabuy", "hair", or "bears".

I feel confident it's joxer. He managed to include one of his fantasies about my position as per usual

Originally Posted by Ripper
I'd go along with this. I'm pretty pessimistic about our primate prospects, so a peek into the future would either confirm what I already suspect, or, just possibly, give me a whole new sense of hope.

If you subscribe to the silly notion that we evolved from ocean slime, we've overcome a lot bigger hurtles than anything we face today. Sure we might not like the ethics and social aspects of the choices we'd have to make in a dystopia that seems to be looming but I have no doubt we'd survive as a species. We are harder to kill than cockroaches. But hey, evolution has never been about ethics & morality aspects so the pure science folks should be happy.

Originally Posted by RPGFool
Moreover, neither you nor anyone else can make any choices that have any consequences for me or for anyone else. Everything has been predetermined.
Live is a set, repeating record. Nothing matters.
Would I choose a universe where there are no choices? Where nothing I do makes any difference whatsoever? Nah.

Is there really a difference between you thinking you have a choice and you actually having a choice? I'd say if you don't know that the choices you make are predestined, then nothing changes.
*not subscribing to this theory, just commenting*

Originally Posted by Wisdom
Is there really a difference between you thinking you have a choice and you actually having a choice? I'd say if you don't know that the choices you make are predestined, then nothing changes.
*not subscribing to this theory, just commenting*

As I understand, you are asking whether there is a difference between (i) correctly believing one has a choice, and (ii) incorrectly believing one has a choice.

Obviously the answer is yes.

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Originally Posted by RPGFool
As I understand, you are asking whether there is a difference between (i) correctly believing one has a choice, and (ii) incorrectly believing one has a choice.

Obviously the answer is yes.

How could you tell the difference?
You can't tell right now whether its predestination or choice. You *think* you are choosing, but maybe you are not. Maybe its the choices you were going to make and have to make.
I just mean that for all intents and purposes, if you are inside of time, there is no difference between thinking you have a choice, and actually having a choice.

Originally Posted by Wisdom
How could you tell the difference?
You can't tell right now whether its predestination or choice. You *think* you are choosing, but maybe you are not. Maybe its the choices you were going to make and have to make.
I just mean that for all intents and purposes, if you are inside of time, there is no difference between thinking you have a choice, and actually having a choice.

Of course there is a difference,

Setting: Insane Asylum.

Inmate wrongly believes that Inmate is in paradise.

Reality: Inmate is nuts.

Is there a difference between reality and what Inmate perceives as reality, even though Inmate cannot understand the difference?

Answer: Yes.

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Originally Posted by RPGFool
Of course there is a difference,

Setting: Insane Asylum.

Inmate wrongly believes that Inmate is in paradise.

Reality: Inmate is nuts.

Is there a difference between reality and what Inmate perceives as reality, even though Inmate cannot understand the difference?

Answer: Yes.

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You are missing my point. You are explaining the situation from outside the scenario. If you are inside the scenario could you tell the difference?

To the inmate percieved and actual reality are the same. There is no difference.

To you now, your percieved choices and whether or not you actually have a choice are the same. There is no difference.

You don't know whether you are predestinated or not to make choices. So does it matter to the person making the choices?

Originally Posted by Wisdom
You are missing my point. You are explaining the situation from outside the scenario. If you are inside the scenario could you tell the difference?

To the inmate percieved and actual reality are the same. There is no difference.

To you now, your percieved choices and whether or not you actually have a choice are the same. There is no difference.

You don't know whether you are predestinated or not to make choices. So does it matter to the person making the choices?

The Inmate in the asylum (bless her/his heart) cannot understand the possibility of a difference between Inmate's perception and actual reality. Nevertheless Inmate's perception of reality does not determine actual reality.

Just because Inmate cannot understand the difference doesn't mean there is no difference.

Greater truths and all that.

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You win, I give up.

I'd choose future, just because it would mean a wholly new kind of experience, regardless of questions of predetermination or infinite time branches. We can already look into the past, if only in a limited way through personal memories. Got to trust what others are telling us, of course, but that's another branch of philosophy (Descartes IIRC).

Eh? You can look millions of years into the past. Just go out at night and look up. Or are you going to start getting picky about what planet you see?

Originally Posted by Silver
Past. Only by knowing where we have been can we know where we are going.

Future. Only by knowing where we're going will we know where we are.

I tend to ruminate a lot on the past. And the future hasn't seemed very appealing since 9/11 at the very least.