Writer's Block: Prophecy or Fallacy?
Nope. Not as in knowing what exactly is going to happen. In the grand sense of the world, I suppose you can look at the way a society is and the direction to which it is leaning and make somewhat accurate predictions on where this course will lead them, based on history and common sense.
But true, magical knowledge of the future? I don't believe it is possible. I am now going to sound like the plot of a science fiction movie, but they have good base in our current understanding of physics. Pre quantum physics, the future was entirely predictable, as long as you knew the location/energy etc. of every particle then you knew where they were going to be. But in quantum physics the world is actually ruled by probabilities: hence you could only know possible futures. This feature is what leads to the idea of alternate realities: that every single one of these probabilities must occur, in the ratio/percentage of it's likelihood. Of course, all these outcomes can't occur in this reality/universe, so there splits off an alternate one.
See: total science fiction plot line!
However, I suppose that our current understanding of quantum physics is very limited and there is much more to discover. So, who knows: maybe in the future that will change and we can find out that we can predict the future!
But I imagine that that is a very boring place, with your life planned out for you almost like a destiny: then it will appear that we have no free will of our own.
But true, magical knowledge of the future? I don't believe it is possible. I am now going to sound like the plot of a science fiction movie, but they have good base in our current understanding of physics. Pre quantum physics, the future was entirely predictable, as long as you knew the location/energy etc. of every particle then you knew where they were going to be. But in quantum physics the world is actually ruled by probabilities: hence you could only know possible futures. This feature is what leads to the idea of alternate realities: that every single one of these probabilities must occur, in the ratio/percentage of it's likelihood. Of course, all these outcomes can't occur in this reality/universe, so there splits off an alternate one.
See: total science fiction plot line!
However, I suppose that our current understanding of quantum physics is very limited and there is much more to discover. So, who knows: maybe in the future that will change and we can find out that we can predict the future!
But I imagine that that is a very boring place, with your life planned out for you almost like a destiny: then it will appear that we have no free will of our own.