if you could see your own future and the future of loved ones, enemies... would you do it?

or would it just... feel too weird? too much? maybe no one is supposed to know how their life will go. where would free-will then be?!

at the moment you realize you can predict this deadly accurate... what then...

next month's problems, the month after that, the next 10 years of your life. the end of your life.

would you do it? what if you stumbled upon it, and were interested in it working, but the realization that it's actually working is really damned creepy...

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also if I made an app that did it and you could trade calendars with your friends is that too much lol

It depends on if you can change it, it's like light, I assume. We can see where it goes, but as soon as you look how it goes, things change. I probably would, gives me a chance to help the people I care about avoid pain

that's a really thought-provoking question. I think if I could see the future, especially in such a precise way, it would feel both fascinating and terrifying at the same time. It’s hard to imagine knowing everything ahead of time—good and bad. I mean, would knowing the exact details of my life take away the excitement and spontaneity? I feel like part of what makes life beautiful is not knowing what’s next, and knowing the future might make everything feel... predetermined?

I think knowing what will happen and not being able to change it would be a freaking curse. No, thank you.

Yes.

If you see it and can change it, it’s not really your future. If you truly see *your* *future*, you won’t be able to change it in any way. You’ll probably feel as powerless as one can be. There won’t be any reason to live — you already know everything you could have ever known. Nothing you say to others/will try to warn the others about will change your future at all.

How much of your future you see at a time? How does it work? How detailed is it? If you’re bombarded with all that info all at once, you’ll die from brain overheating/go batshit insane immediately. Or is it like memories, but you “remember” the future? Do you remember just the events, or do you remember how you reacted to them too?

In a way, we all know our future — we will all be dead.

Good question! To me, life is like reading a novel. Would I bother to read it if someone spoiled the end?

Once upon a time, there was this geek who liked programming. All by the sudden, he grew up, studied, got married, then divorced. Over the years, he had many different jobs and different girlfriends, until he finally found the love of his life, moved together, built a house and had kids. Then, he got retired, grew old, and died happily ever after. End of story. Sleep tight, kids.

Changeable? Sure!
Non-changeable? Determinism; I’d an hero.

@Root but did you get your ipod in the end tho

@TerriToniAX I prefer to read books backwards.

Especially sci-fi.

What about everyone who likes spoilers?

There sort of already is a method of seeing the future, at least in a probabilistic way.

Actuarial tables can pretty accurately predict a person's risk of death or other negative event in any given year, up to and including predicting the most likely year they'll die.

What we see with insurance is actually a small glimpse of how accurate these systems can actually be if say an expert were to go over an individual's entire life in depth and apply all known data (something the insurance companies don't really do, partially because of the labor, partly because of how the law works, and partly because at large scales, the information vs cost to gain the precision isn't worth it for the companies).

For example I'll likely be dead before I'm 60.

I know this with a high certainty. This is unfortunate, but also in its own way a sort of relief.

On the otherhand, many people spend their lives in great uncertainty about the future.

Imagine never worrying about the future again?

@Wisecrack What if it's a future you don't want, just "quit" right then and there? Or would you now be able to because you're not allowed to change the future?

@BordedDev We must all, with time learn to give up the things of use, and with grace, dignity, and courage, accept the things we cannot change, and recognize that which is in our power TO change.

And that is the best any of us can hope for in the face of a future, uncertain or otherwise.

@Wisecrack higher IQ people live longer despite all odds so if you have bad habits you'll probably still hit 70 or higher, excluding any physical accidents

@jestdotty higher IQ people also tend to be miserable.

Something about ignorance being bliss or somesuch.

@retoor sneaky spammer above

@Wisecrack well clearly ignorance also gets you killed!

and I would assume an ignorant life is quite boring

@Lensflare yeah, really have to build in message support but I'm a bit less motivated to work on ragnar. I see so much spam incoming a day since I'm mentioned every time, it's really depressing. I know for a fact more is spam than human now. Bad people.

> 'Bad people.'

Precisely. The scum!