Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Perceiving the future

Is it possible to perceive the future? Some astrologers say that they have seen the future through the stars; some claim to know events that will occur before they actually happen. Astrologers study the patterns of the stars to try to predict what's going to happen tomorrow. Do you think that astrology is a valid way of perception even though astrologers are not directly witnessing images of the future? If you supposedly know the future, can it ever be descriptive knowledge or is it always acquaintnace knowledge? because you can't claim to have known than an event will occur in the future because you always have to wait and confirm that it happens.
i.e. Let's say I predict that an asteroid will crash into Earth and destroy Antarctica exactly 1 week from now. Can I claim it as knowledge right now or would I have to wait 1 week and then confirm my prediction? Let's say that I perceived this through the stars, and it does turn out to be true; is it a valid way of perception or did I just make a wild guess and got it right?

5 comments:

Vvyynn said...

I would have to say that there is no way to correctly tell the future. True, Astolorgers may be able to look into the stars and see a possible outcome of the future according to that certain time, however each and every human (and every living thing, really) is given a special quality: A free will. This free will causes us to be in charge of our own future.

EXAMPLE TIME! Let's to say that you look up into the stars and see that a comet will crash into the earth and destroy antarctica in a week. Now that we have this assumption, we (meaning scientists and possibly Sweden...I don't think they're doing anythign right now. Ooh! And Al Gore!) will do everything we can to save Antarctica. Thus, we will fire a missle at the comet, destroying it before it reaches Antarctica, making your prediction false.
Eample number two, because the last example wasn't that great: Let's to say that you look to the stars and see that Charles Davidson of Eastern Montana will die tomorrow. So, the day begins, and I decide that I will eat eggs this morning, so I fire up my stove. The energy used to fire up the stove is taken from the whole of Colorado, and they will need to burn more coal in order to supply this electricity. Thus, the coal miners up in eastern Montana will go to work earlier that day, and will cause massive traffic congestion. This congestion will make it difficult for Charles to get to work on his usual route, so he will take a seperate amount, where the bear-torpedo doesn't hit his car. Thus, Charles lives and the stars were wrong.

So, it is very improbable to tell the future due to free will. Also, Stars are blobs of burning energy, I don't think they know the future.

Vvyynn said...

Is it still valid? I would have to say yes, only because everything is a valid way of perceiving. There, that'll bring up conversation.

Vvyynn said...

No, no I don't think so Salad. Then it would be asking us if there's knowledge. This post is asking us if we can predict the future. And no, we can't predict it with 100% accuracy, not even 80% accuracy.

laughingcorpse said...

Deep explain to me. WHat is your definition of future. Is it a future of what you have planned? or that of the near future? Could it be that by random probability you have the ability to guess as to which is right in front of peoples' faces but do not know its there?

laughingcorpse said...

Then there is probably not a very long future than one can predict and it is not true to say you'are a seer just because you can say Somtin bad is going to happen tommorow