Predicting the future or changing it?

Question

in scifi, when someone is considered to have precognition, and writes about something happening or paints a picture of something happening and that thing happens, how do they know they've predicted the future and didn't change it?

Answer 1

I thought about that today, when I saw something happen and it did about fifteen minutes later. Did I cause it to happen? Or did I just see the future? And the fact that there have been many, many writers that have written books which have happened in real life later? I don't know. But I'm trying to figure out how to be able to tell which one...maybe it's both.

Answer 2

I have thought about this too. Words are very powerful, especially when spoken out loud.

But the future is changeable with every choice someone makes. Even if someone predicts something for you, the future can be changed for you, because the energy of that outcome must be continued, exactly, to happen. If it isn't, the energy changes and the outcome is different.

I think the difference comes in if people believe the word or not. If someone tells you something and you do not accept it as truth or believe in it, then the power of that word has no affect. So, the more people believe in this word, the more momentum it has to unfold and vice versa.

Answer 3

I think what you are talking about is whats known in literature as self-fulfilling prophecy. They use this device from time to time in movies. Shakespear used it and also a lot of ancient greek plays did too.

Someone predicts the future and it comes true because they know what happens.

Probably the most famous example of this is Oedipus Rex. Laius goes to the oracle and is told that one day his child will kill him. His son, Oedipus is abandoned and ends up being adopted. He is told by the oracle that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Believing that his adopted family is his real one, he ends up conquering and killing Laius and marrying his widow. All of it would have been avoided if the future had not been known.

In the movie, De Ja Vue, Denzel Washington goes back in time and finds himself doing what he saw in the monitor. He knew he would respond to the message on the refrigerator so when he goes back in time, he leaves himself those clues.

When he realizes he is getting caught in the self-fullfilling prophecy he does something he know will break the routine, he drives the explosives off the boat.

Other examples of modern movies that use this device are Matrix and Minority Report.

Answer 4

it has to do with intention and the unconscious part of your mind

Answer 5

The first two words of your explanation are "In scifi...".

The "fi" bit stands for fiction.  *Anything* can happen in fiction.  So you could just as easily say that the painting was telepathised to an blue-tongued lizard, who transmitted it to aliens on Mars, who made sure that evil spirits made it happen.

Really, it's a meaningless question!

.

Answer 6

here is my take on how to change your time line, and I think your question hits on the heart of the time question.

time is not liner, but it appears liner.

here is why.

things like thought can go through time easily.

people can feel big things that happen in the future, I here people say that they felt the traffic ticket coming.

so if this is possible, most people would think that you should be able to avoid bad things.

well, if you do it right then you can.

if you wake up and remember that you will get bad milk at the store, then go and get it, and then send the message back to yourself that this will happen, then the time line is consistent, so it will happen.

if you remember the milk is bad and do not go get it, and send no message, the time line will not work, because you did not send the message, so the time line will not happen.

most people do not think that time works this way, so they do not do what is needed to get it to work well. most people's emotions do not care about time, so some people feel good or bad things coming.

what you have to do to get things to work well is to send yourself a message that will cause you to do the thing you want and to send yourself the correct message to get yourself to do those things. all of this is to make a time line that you want that is possible so that it happens.

so what I would have done in the bad milk case is to get a different container of milk and then send myself a message to get a different milk container than the one I first would have picked up. I make sure that it is a time line that is possible that I want to happen. and the big part is I know that this works, so it shows up in more than my emotions.

if someone asks me when is a good time to work on there car I might answer something like last sat.

but I usually remember not to say that sort of thing to other people, but it is the way I think, and the way I deal with life.

I can't prove that it works, but I miss so much bad traffic now that I think this way.

it took me a few years to send complex messages, and they are not very clear, all I really know is that they show up as a memory of the future. I seem to have the same difficulty remembering the past and the future.

is this how to on how to change your time line clear ?

so to summarize the answer to weather or not they are changing things by prediction is that :

time is not linear enough for anyone to tell.

Answer 7

some believe as U do. My thoughts are a blend of other ideas about it. Like spice it is the variety that improves the flavor

Answer 8

It is very important to consider that perception of the future is strongly colored by your feelings and beliefs.  This process is dependent on the nature of personal reality.

The future is constantly being molded from the present, but there are things brewing that have been set in stone for a long, long time.  Two examples:

1) Massive earthquakes will occur with massive loss of life.  We can predict that.  Its just a matter of time.

2) Religious dramas will play out.  A large group of people  share a vision of the second coming.  This is a very powerful idea that will eventually be expressed with a messiah and an anti-christ.  Self-fulfulling prophecy?  Yes.  It may be something much deeper.  

Reality is much more than the scientific catalog of physical cause and effect.

Answer 9

Supposedly, Biblical prophecy is similar to this. If what is prophesied is a program than it may be changed or modified slightly or actually fulfilling it at the same time. Some events are natural events such as earthquakes and the tsunami. Taking notice to an alleged precognition can mean a small change in the death toll to these events. I don't recall any particular psychics mention that one event. Also, look into remote viewing. Supposedly, there were those who predicted 9/11 and the buildings still came down.But, the death toll could have been much higher too.

http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedit...

http://www.trvnews.com/tsl/031502/index....