John Maynard Keynes said, "In the long run, we're all dead." And it is perhaps all that we can predict with any level of certainty, about the future. And yet we strive every day to change the outcomes and influence the future. Makes sense, since it is in the future that we will end up spending most of our time, anyways. However, the fact is that our influence on the future is limited only to a small extent because we cannot forecast what factors will drive the shaping of the future.
A story I heard some time back was of a guy who was scared to die, what is clinically called Thanatophobic. His phobia was very specific though – somewhere in the intersection of Thanatophobia and Dystychiphobia. He was absurdly scared of dying in an accident. I don’t think there is a clinical term yet but, this man was killed in the most absurd way (God rest his soul)…! He lived almost in a child safe cocoon with the inclusion of having his groceries delivered home. He was pale from lack of sunlight and fresh air exposure. He lived the safest possible existence until he died from a brain bleeding caused by his shower head falling on his head in the midst of his bathroom.
So, here is my point. The future is the equivalent of a roll of the dice on a swanky Vegas casino (or any other gambling destination of your choice). And in the long run the house (the alternative or uncertainty) will win. Yes, tomorrow I will wake up, water my plants and get to office after navigating some really irritating traffic. To that end I can predict the future but is that proof of a certain future or that my life is really boring! And yet, fortune telling is such a booming industry that some places have legal definitions of fortune telling and license regulations.
Eastpointe, MI is one such example that details quite extensively what qualifies as fortune telling, and lists acceptable tools, including crystals, coffee grinds and the occult, as well as proper usage of one’s powers, which can be summoned for “effecting spells, charms, or incantations, or placing, or removing curses,” among other things. It’s quite an interesting read.
“Fortunetelling” shall mean the telling of fortunes, forecasting of futures, or reading the past, by means of any occult, psychic power, faculty, force, clairvoyance, cartomancy, psychometry, phrenology, spirits, tea leaves, tarot cards, scrying, coins, sticks, dice, sand, coffee grounds, crystal gazing or other such reading, or through mediumship, seership, prophecy, augury, astrology, palmistry, necromancy, mindreading, telepathy or other craft, art, science, talisman, charm, potion, magnetism, magnetized article or substance, or by any such similar thing or act. It shall also include effecting spells, charms, or incantations, or placing, or removing curses or advising the taking or administering of what are commonly called love powders or potions in order for example, to get or recover property, stop bad luck, give good luck, put bad luck on a person or animal, stop or injure the business or health of a person or shorten a person’s life, obtain success in business, enterprise, speculation and games of chance, win the affection of a person, make one person marry or divorce another, induce a person to make or alter a will, tell where money or other property is hidden, make a person dispose of property in favor of another, or other such similar activity.
Quantum mechanics, more commonly accepted these days as the predominant rules that explain the physical universe (not much help with the metaphysical world), says that outcomes cannot be predicted. Much like the Schrödinger’s Cat experiment (for those of your who do not think very highly of Physics or not a fan of Big bang Theory here is a link that explains the experiment), the future is indeterminate until you are contextually present in it.
Why then the absurd obsession with the future? I have asked myself this question as to why, knowing that we have limited power, if any at all, to influence the outcomes of the future (assuming anything we do is a triggering mechanism towards some outcome), we obsess so hard about what is to be of us tomorrow. There are different theories surrounding the subject – the one that makes the most sense to me, from a pragmatic perspective, is that the future is random within a broadly defined range, at best. Will the end of the world happen tomorrow or not (well the last one failed pretty uneventfully, thank God, fate, destiny or just the carefully engineered balance of power by the global policy makers or whoever)? There are plenty of prophecies left yet. The two that are closest are by Nancy Regan who before her death in 1997 claimed Armageddon would come in 2020 or alternatively Dr. F. Kenton Beshore’s prediction that the world could end in 2018.
I think that humans are inherently built of hope. Hope is the center of our existences and most of our purpose in life is defined in terms of our hope for better outcomes. And it always feels nice to have hope substantiated by some form of authoritarian pretention. And that is really the answer. All our prayers and dependence on the agents of future are basically manifestations of human hope – our greatest strength and weakness at the same time.
A story I heard some time back was of a guy who was scared to die, what is clinically called Thanatophobic. His phobia was very specific though – somewhere in the intersection of Thanatophobia and Dystychiphobia. He was absurdly scared of dying in an accident. I don’t think there is a clinical term yet but, this man was killed in the most absurd way (God rest his soul)…! He lived almost in a child safe cocoon with the inclusion of having his groceries delivered home. He was pale from lack of sunlight and fresh air exposure. He lived the safest possible existence until he died from a brain bleeding caused by his shower head falling on his head in the midst of his bathroom.
So, here is my point. The future is the equivalent of a roll of the dice on a swanky Vegas casino (or any other gambling destination of your choice). And in the long run the house (the alternative or uncertainty) will win. Yes, tomorrow I will wake up, water my plants and get to office after navigating some really irritating traffic. To that end I can predict the future but is that proof of a certain future or that my life is really boring! And yet, fortune telling is such a booming industry that some places have legal definitions of fortune telling and license regulations.
Eastpointe, MI is one such example that details quite extensively what qualifies as fortune telling, and lists acceptable tools, including crystals, coffee grinds and the occult, as well as proper usage of one’s powers, which can be summoned for “effecting spells, charms, or incantations, or placing, or removing curses,” among other things. It’s quite an interesting read.
“Fortunetelling” shall mean the telling of fortunes, forecasting of futures, or reading the past, by means of any occult, psychic power, faculty, force, clairvoyance, cartomancy, psychometry, phrenology, spirits, tea leaves, tarot cards, scrying, coins, sticks, dice, sand, coffee grounds, crystal gazing or other such reading, or through mediumship, seership, prophecy, augury, astrology, palmistry, necromancy, mindreading, telepathy or other craft, art, science, talisman, charm, potion, magnetism, magnetized article or substance, or by any such similar thing or act. It shall also include effecting spells, charms, or incantations, or placing, or removing curses or advising the taking or administering of what are commonly called love powders or potions in order for example, to get or recover property, stop bad luck, give good luck, put bad luck on a person or animal, stop or injure the business or health of a person or shorten a person’s life, obtain success in business, enterprise, speculation and games of chance, win the affection of a person, make one person marry or divorce another, induce a person to make or alter a will, tell where money or other property is hidden, make a person dispose of property in favor of another, or other such similar activity.
Quantum mechanics, more commonly accepted these days as the predominant rules that explain the physical universe (not much help with the metaphysical world), says that outcomes cannot be predicted. Much like the Schrödinger’s Cat experiment (for those of your who do not think very highly of Physics or not a fan of Big bang Theory here is a link that explains the experiment), the future is indeterminate until you are contextually present in it.
Why then the absurd obsession with the future? I have asked myself this question as to why, knowing that we have limited power, if any at all, to influence the outcomes of the future (assuming anything we do is a triggering mechanism towards some outcome), we obsess so hard about what is to be of us tomorrow. There are different theories surrounding the subject – the one that makes the most sense to me, from a pragmatic perspective, is that the future is random within a broadly defined range, at best. Will the end of the world happen tomorrow or not (well the last one failed pretty uneventfully, thank God, fate, destiny or just the carefully engineered balance of power by the global policy makers or whoever)? There are plenty of prophecies left yet. The two that are closest are by Nancy Regan who before her death in 1997 claimed Armageddon would come in 2020 or alternatively Dr. F. Kenton Beshore’s prediction that the world could end in 2018.
I think that humans are inherently built of hope. Hope is the center of our existences and most of our purpose in life is defined in terms of our hope for better outcomes. And it always feels nice to have hope substantiated by some form of authoritarian pretention. And that is really the answer. All our prayers and dependence on the agents of future are basically manifestations of human hope – our greatest strength and weakness at the same time.
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