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In the story this climbing accident is a powerful example.

It is preventable in the case of not knowing the future (yet it this case we have no idea that it will happen). If we are in the state of knowing the future, it is a part of the reality fabric, it IS, just separated by an interval of time.



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Isn't everything preventable with the benefit of hindsight?

That's an argument for ignoring harms that take place in the present because it's possible to imagine worse ones in the future.

Unfortunately, the future is often unavoidable.

Ah yes. If something hasn't happened yet, it's impossible. This is an excellent future-oriented mindset you have there.

Could you please expand on the experiences that you have had, that can't be explained without future events already existing?

I think what OP wants to say is that despite the timeline for the event being in the future, nothing we can do today will prevent it from happening. The triggers for the event are in the past and nothing can be done, therefore "it has happened".

You are choosing an outcome which you think will happen in the future. It is not certain that this outcome will happen.

I like the first line on the last paragraph - "The future is extremely hard to see through the lens of the present."

What we do in the present can affect the future but we can not predict what will actually happen. There's too much variables involved.


> which are not likely to happen in the future.

Making that determination is something you really only get good at with the experience of making the wrong determination too many times.


> believing their past experience can extrapolate a future they don’t understand

Imagine thinking anyone knows what will happen in the future.


Thanks!

Inventing the Future forbids any hindsight. No one knows how it will turn out.

Hence the title: what if we DO allow hindsight?


> The future isn't always like the past. Causal first principles thinking matters!

Hmm...


In either scenario, there can be knowledge about the future, which, paradoxically, might cause that future never to materialize.

Maybe, maybe not, but agree that your version of the future is just, if not more, as possible.

That said, more complex things get, the more likely that something will be missed, an error made, and/or unaccounted for due to its not having been seen before. On the bright side, intentional disruption rarely have this sort of impact.


I enjoyed your story, but I have one question: to what degree is it actually true?

For example, is it actually possible to see the future? Are you sure (and if so: how) that what you're describing is actually that?


“If it can happen, it will happen.”

That saying predicts the future better than a time machine would.


Future is created by what one is doing now.

One of the things I'm experiencing Now is a sense of limitless unfolding possibility for the future. Ignoring that would also rob me of a deep experience of what I have.

You only know that there will be a red spot on the wall based on your past experiences with the physical world. Why should we believe our experiences in the past are at all relevant to the future? We haven’t lived in the future. The laws of gravity could be totally different.

All of our data about gravity is equally consistent with the theory “If I drop an apple it will fall only if it is before December 2020” as it is with our theory that the law of gravity will continue to exist in the future as it does today.

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