What determines the future?

[PseuTonym]

I asked Bahman inside a thread (in response to a claim that Bahman made).

While I am waiting for a reply from Bahman, I would like to give everybody else an opportunity to reply.

Outside of context, that word “determines” could be too ambiguous.

What creates the overall shape of the future, and causes the details to unfold as they do?

In other words, it’s not a question about how forecasting or prophecy is possible. It’s not about knowing what the future will be. It’s about what causes it to become precisely what it becomes.

 

[PseuTonym]

You told us the number of people. What’s the number of butterflies?

 

[AlphaFoxtrotNW]

I feel, if i am understanding this right, that telling the future is not really possible. I have made predictions based upon world events, economics, politics, science, etc., most of which have been correct and incorrect. I do not claim to know trivial things like what tomorrows winning lottery numbers are, but the best a person can do is predict.

 

[Giggly_Giraffe]

I love the study of fractals. In studying fractals we can see how a pattern that is repeated can be original and influenced by the enviroment which surrounds the fractal. This mathematically illustrates how the future is guided by rules, but how free will can change the direction while maintaining a predestined boundary.

 

[PseuTonym]

Bahman:

We determine the unique future with our decisions.

What is your concept of causality? You manipulate a light switch and a lamp becomes luminescent. In other words, it emits light.

What would have happened if you had not manipulated the light switch? Why didn’t you simply wait? Surely you thought that if you merely waited, then the light would not go on.

Let us suppose that you wait half an hour for your light to go on. At that moment, you decide that you don’t want to wait any longer. However, before you move your hand to manipulate the switch, the lamp turns on, apparently spontaneously.

Please list some alternative explanations that you consider to be appropriate for a philosophical discussion.

In the meantime, I now begin to do what I requested from you …

1. Somebody you know and trust is secretly planning to become a stage magician, and is using you to test out his or her first great trick.
2. Beings who have technology beyond our comprehension live among us and can manipulate our environment from somewhere on or near the Earth.
3. A miracle occurred.

Note regarding 3:
If it happened enough times to you, with enough witnesses, and with enough investigation of the equipment, then I would imagine that you could be canonized as the official patron saint of en-photon-ment, where we assume that the theoretical construct “photon” can be substituted for the word “light.”

1. You have a genetic mutation that allows your mind to directly manipulate switches that don’t require much force to manipulate.