Would you like to be able to see into the future?
A few weeks ago, someone mentioned having "foresight" as a superpower, except only wanting to see a day forward, rather than everything. The reasoning was that a day gives balance to provide a lot of opportunity, without having to worry too much about all of the negatives that are possible - like seeing loved ones die weeks, months or years in advance. This was a pretty good justification, as for instance financially, it would mean being able to pick immediate winners that will jump in the next day, and sell what will fall in the next day. Even starting with a tiny amount of capital.
For example, starting with $10 and compounding 10% a day on the markets, it would equal:
$1,422,000
After two years:
$38,398,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
I don't know what that number is.
But it will pay off the US debt, global debt and universe debt;
and still have some leftovers for candy.
Seeing a day into the future will be good enough. Being able to preempt by a few minutes would likely be good enough for most people to make significant changes in their lives and those of everyone around them - perhaps make a difference globally.
It really is a decent superpower.
Foresight.
How much do you have?
How much do you actually listen to that voice in your head that says,
"Hey buddy, just don't".
Just imagine if you could say the perfect thing every time - Or, make the perfect move every time - What kind of compounding effect would that have and how much would your life change?
Small changes add up and when they are made consistently, who we are today and who we will be tomorrow, next year or a decade down the track could be significantly different. Not necessarily better, but different still.
Due to the nature of human existence, we have the possibility to improve and, we are also constantly degrading. If we aim to change with attention, we have the ability to focus our attention on where we think we should be. If we choose to spend our attention on whatever pulls it, we will likely degrade in meaningful areas faster, because our brain is designed to conserve energy, take the easiest path - and the easiest path is doing what it is told, rather than thinking what is the right thing to do.
Just imagine if every morning when you woke up, there was a list waiting for you on the perfect way to spend your day in order to live the best version of yourself - would you do the list?
Seems a silly question?
I don't think so.
Because, while we might not have a perfect list, we do have a pretty decent idea of what we should do each day to improve at a general level. What to eat, how much to move, where to spend our money and time. We have a sense of how we should interact with people and we also have some sense of what is right and wrong. Yet, we probably aren't doing these things daily, so what makes us think that given "perfect information" our nature would change?
People seem to take the position that because something isn't perfect, it isn't good enough to implement, but life is always a work in progress by nature. It has to be, because perfection is dead, there is nowhere for it to move. Even with perfect information of the moment, it is only perfect for a short period of time before it loses relevancy and is superseded, and has to be replaced.
Imperfection is opportunity.
This means that even though we might have a prediction about the foreseeable future, it is always some degree of wrong and also, unlikely to be repeatable. There are constantly shifting dynamics in play that make what worked yesterday, a failure today. This is why we have to constantly be wary of our habits, because by definition, if we aren't paying attention, they run on autopilot, hiding themselves away from us, making us feel like they are suitable, even though we might not be happy with our results - our current position.
In all of my life, I have never met a completely happy person.
Again, this comes down to opportunity, because like it or not, we all have wants, whether it be for a new car or world peace, there is a desire in all of us, a hole that wants to be filled, a need of some kind that says, life is imperfect there can be more, or less, or different.
Change is not only a constant, it is a necessary part of the universe as without it, there is nothing, no movement at all. Blankness, non-existence of all things. However, just because change is a natural part of life, it doesn't mean that we are well-suited to changing, especially since the change we go through in a week now is what might have been a lifetime a few hundred years ago and a millennia a few thousand years ago. We have evolved in that time, but our evolution of mind and body is traveling behind our evolution of technology - it just can't keep up. If we keep progressing at this pace, the only way to survive is to be technologically enhanced, to become cyborg, raising the question as to the line of where humanity exists.
If you could see into the future and adjust actions to change the course of events, it would change the future, but also the course of events, meaning that what did you actually see? Are you the instigator of change, or a product of it? Was it you, or destiny?
It is hard to foresee what the future is going to hold, because we just don't have enough information on it and, we can't predict what kinds of discoveries any random individual might make between now and then. We might know in which direction they are currently heading, but randomness of change means only a guess at what they will find there can be made.
Yet, when you listen to people talk - they often talk with certainty.
Because humans aren't good with ambiguity, so when there isn't clarity, we fill in the space with something we can understand, even if it doesn't make practical sense, like the many gods. They have been created to give us reasons, to give us hopes, to give us dreams - a peak into our unknowable future to help us feel safe, because to think without a framework raises too many fears for too many people. We'd rather be confident that the future is looked after, no matter what we do, and that there are a set of rules to follow, even though we aren't going to follow them.
We are funny creatures.
Each day, we get the same opportunity to improve in some area of our choosing, or degrade passively. I know I am not choosing where I spend my attention optimally, but I do try to improve consistently, often not getting to where I think I should get to, but perhaps, taking the step is better than nothing. After all, without movement,
What are we tomorrow?
It probably doesn't take a superpower to answer.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Yeah, I can't say as though I would make the best decisions even if I knew they were the best decisions. I think a lot of mine would come down to food, but then again who knows. I mean that piece of pie is delicious even if I know it isn't the best for me. You have a lot of people who just want to live for the moment. A cheat sheet would probably be irrelevant to them.
I suspect the same and I make bad food decisions daily. I wish there was a mental switch that could just "say no" to some things without there needing to be a massive amount of willpower needed. I have so little at times.
I totally agree with you there!
I think my foresight or sixth sense is strong. Sometimes I guess right about what will happen in near future. We have a phrase :)
Which means;
A prophet is not without honor save in his own country.
That is an interesting saying I haven't heard before. People never listen to those closest to them :)
i do not want to see into the future because this way humans can become only greedy and selfish .
Do you think we aren't greedy and selfish now?
We humans dream big and also wish to live large if life permits that to happen for everyone but since we all have to strive hard in other to survive means we have no choice than to do our best in fulfilling what we are capable of delivering.
I wonder what a life lived at full potential would look like.
Seeing in future it's my personal experience that many times my sixth sense become sharp and my mind start to think what will happen next and really what's in my mind, happened in some day's, I don't know what's the connection or what type of super power I've???
Never met a happy person i agree with this too, i think if our one wish comes true than our heart start to find something other and in this all a man can't be happy
Perhaps you were struck by lightning as a child and now you have special abilities! :D
They say, suffering comes from wanting - and I think we all suffer.
Maybe i was struck by lightning but i don't remember anything else 😃
All of us having big dreams and want to fulfill them but its a life. Many ups and down came and we should not left hope.
No one can predict what will happened to next. Its today that will make the future. Make it better.
Have a great day.
Today is where everything happens - tomorrow is just the result of actions today that don't matter, because by then, it will be a day of new actions again.
I liked reading your considerations on this... but as I read I thought, 'Maybe I wouldn't want to see the future at all!". I think that knowing what happened tomorrow would also change the way we enjoy life— maybe not to the same degree as knowing someone we love will die in a month etc... but we would always be reacting to the future, at least, I would!
I think that living in the present is something I've worked on too much to want this superpower... But it was fun to think on it, none the less. Thanks for the read!
Aren't we doing that now anyway? We act for a purpose, it is always future based. The difference is how far into the future.
That is a wonderful point, and undeniably true! However, I believe that my general sense of anxiety may be too high to handle a larger concept of the future than I have been given...
For example, let's say I know that tomorrow I will see someone be cruel to another. Now, at night as I should be sleeping, instead I am wondering what I can/should do about that. Shuffling possibilities!
Of course, I do not believe in a predetermined future... So to me, it would be a lot of hopelessly trying to control variables. With this in mind, maybe I should want this super power, it would force me to be more zen to survive 🤣
You've given me a good bit to think about twice now hahaha! Thank you!😁
The ability to see into the future would be a powerful superpower. However, I think it's important to remember that we can still make a difference in the world, even without foresight. By taking small steps each day, we can make big changes over time.
So, let's not wait for a superpower to give us the ability to improve our lives. Let's start taking action today. Let's make small changes that will add up to big results over time.
Exactly - but in which direction should we choose?
Absolutely! We will always doubt and distrust even our own thoughts. Even outward confidence is sometimes replaced by complete uncertainty about the future. And you are right, we can always invent new gods or new fears.
Even now, before this paragraph of yours, I was thinking very differently...)
I think how we act on Social Media is like a religion, a new god. Anything to not have to take responsibility for ourselves, by blaming others for our predicaments.
Great post @tarazkp.
You see, we as humans don't recognize little changes. This little changes also leads to growth like big changes.
Using a computer term, Algorithm simply means a step by step solution approach to a problem. but how many humans are ready to apply step by step approach to a difficult situation ?, Just few!! .
Not many look at personal growth systematically, even though they work on their systematically bad habits :)
Foresee is something like "giving up our responsibility as we know how everything will end up".
BUT, free will plays jokes and there it comes the magic of evolution, when we start digging routes outside what inertia and habits have already drawn for us
It is interesting to consider the counterfactuals of the future - where if we think this will happen and act accordingly, what happens if we act in another way - how does it affect the outcomes.
This is actually how I see religion.
What will happen if you try to see the next day in advance and that next day is one of the worst days of your life? what would you do then?
Here I am 100% agree with you, we are humans and we always complain about different things that comes to our life and also those who are not in our life.
Limited future sight seems like a great ability to have, just like you said -- enough foresight to enrich oneself but not too much that you worry about all the negative events in the future.
This is really the crux of the issue though... if we can see the future and can take action to change it, did we really see the future or just one of myriad possible futures available to us. Is this person seeing the future, or just the current future based on life at that exact time? If more than one person can see the future and they have different incentives, they could both be actively working to change the future in different ways. That would render the future they see as inaccurate, or maybe their vision updates and changes in real time.
Too many possibilities... maybe I will just go back to believing in God heheheh
I agree, if optimism is also brought with action.
As said, some people think the easiest path through life is the best path - they don't seem to have a great love of life however.