At a core fundamental level they all
are based on the notion that someone, or something, or the universe as a
whole , can sense, predict, or control future events. That is not compatible
with the physics of the universe we live in.
Well, that's actually not true.
In the most simplistic example, take a center fielder in baseball. The batter swings, the ball comes off the bat, and the center fielder starts to run. He is predicting the future event of where the ball will be in about six seconds. If he's good, he's very accurate at predicting that, and puts himself in the right position to catch the ball when it gets there.
He is, in a very simple way, predicting the future.
Weather forecasters in a somewhat more complex situation predict the future, sometimes with consderable accuracy, and as our computer models get better and better they will predict with increasing accuracy.
Certain mothers can predict with great accuracy how their children will respond to a given stimula.
Those are, granted, simplistic examples. But as we get more and more knowledge of human behavior (now that we are plunging deep into the human brain with our instruments), our ability to predict human behaviors will start to increase. I do not think it is beyond the realm of possibility that in the foreseeable future we may be able to predict human behavior for a reasonably forseeable time with considerable accuracy.
Not that I think that would be a wonderful thing. But I think it will be possible, if not inevitable. |
