# If you could take a glimpse into your entire future, would you?



## Antipode (Jul 8, 2012)

The catch is, if you take a look into your future, then you will know everything and anything you will do; thus, nothing for the rest of your life will be a surprise. It will simply feel like you're reading a book for the second time.

I asked a Se dominate friend this, and he said he would hate that because he would rather live it and have it be a surprise, while I'm Ni dominate and I would take up the offer in a heart beat in order to secure my own peace of mind for the future.

So what would you do? Feel free to list your type and explain why you decided what you picked.


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## Nope (Mar 13, 2011)

Fuck no, you already know every bad thing that going to happen, and it's just going to make you worry when that time is coming up. Especially your death if it's a violent one.

Also, all the good things won't be as interesting since you already know what's about to happen.

Ti dom.


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## 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 (Nov 22, 2009)

If there was a possibility to change the future, yes, I would in a heartbeat. If the information could not affect the future somehow (as you seem to describe), then I don't see the point. I wouldn't gain anything from it, it would just make things more boring.


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## Bear987 (May 13, 2012)

I surely would. I think it was David Letterman who once said: "If you know the future, you make good decisions. If you don't know the future, you make bad decisions."

I know that quotation is more about how hard it is to make good decisions, or that good decisions are more about luck than anything else - based on the premise that it is impossible to know the future.


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## senlar (Jan 8, 2012)

From what I understand about physics and mysticism, there are multiple futures which are possible at any moment.

If I can see the "good possibilities" and the "bad possibilities", I would like to know so I can avoid the bad ones and select the better ones.

If there is just one bad possibility that cannot be avoided, then I see no point of stressing out about it right now.

I say this as an INTP type 3.


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## Cerasi (Jul 26, 2013)

It would be rather scary to know of every single bad thing that was going to happen. On the other hand, it could also be a comfort to know what's going to happen ahead of time.
Could go either way on this, but I suppose I have to say no.

I am Fi.


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## Cassieopeia (Jan 9, 2012)

I can't really answer a question that withholds such a paradox.
If I know my future with certainty, assuming I don't like some of what I see, do I no longer have the free will to act in the present moment and change the supposed inevitable? Would my present-to-future life then be marked by the act of my looking into the future? How could this be so? Future events could not possibly be predetermined--I am free to change my mind at any given moment, and I conclude that that fact crushes the very notion of one foreseeable future.
(Si-dom)


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## Wonszu (Sep 25, 2013)

Ni-dom

I always had a chaotic life whatever I planned my every step or not. It would be a nice change to know what will be next and I could prepare for the future events.


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## Destiny Lund (Sep 2, 2011)

According to cognitive processes tests, my most dominant is Fe, but my next dominant(almost as dominant as my primary) is Ne. No, I would not.


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## Arya (Oct 17, 2012)

Hell no! Then I have to wait in dread for all the terrible things that will happen. I'm Ti dom.


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## Word Dispenser (May 18, 2012)

Ne dom. I.. Uhm.. Think.

Hm... How would it be possible to _not_ take action if you saw the future?

As an example-- Say you saw that someone killed you early in life. 

You saw all of the events leading up to that point. So, logically, you'd be able to avoid those events, and therefore your death, if you knew it would happen. Are you saying that we would somehow gamble away our free will in favour of knowing our future, and therefore we'd simply be obligated to act in the way we know we would?

Also-- There's a future full of choices, and memories. How could we possibly remember them all? Would part of the deal be that we'd be able to retain this information of the future without forgetting?

If we could, it would be possible to fulfill our obligation, but perhaps simultaneously making us insane.

If you could see your future and couldn't prevent your death, but _could __change _the events leading up to it, then it'd make sense. But, that's overdone in a lot of shows.

I'm not really a believer of determinism, based upon what I know of time, physics, and the universe. 

Our lives are made up of billions of forks-- Paths which we can walk, or choose not to. A choice can cut us off from other paths, but it is ultimately random, and uncertain. So, no matter what future I could know, it would only be one possible future.

There are too many possible variables, and therefore, the premise doesn't make sense without an understanding of the variables and how you might find a loophole, or how the contract could become invalid simply due to memory loss and/or insanity.

In short, there's always a catch. The genie always wins.

''If you choose to see your future, you have to follow that future without fail.'' This translates, to me, to, ''Mwa hahaha, there are _many _futures, and I am forcing you to choose only one, straight, linear path!''

So, that'd be a 'No' for me.


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## marsec (Nov 6, 2012)

I'm not sure how to digest something like that, you would think that automatically by knowing your future you could change your role in the events to come if you didn't like the outcome.

If you say, "well no, you can't change anything just see everything" then even by asking to see your future that should at least change something. What I mean by that is KNOWING that you are on the line to make something of your future you might take extra precautions to make the future even better and that future glimpse you see might be different than a future glimpse where you didn't want to see your future... at which point I don't see why you couldn't try to change it again when you were done seeing it.

I'd say I'd want to know my future only if I could change it, if the deal was governed by some magical law that said I couldn't then I wouldn't since that would be like prison (INTP 6)


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## ENTrePreneur (Aug 7, 2013)

Depends, can you change what happens after you see your future?


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## asewland (Mar 5, 2012)

If it's only a glimpse, then sure. (I don't wanna see my entire future; that takes the fun out of everything)


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## StElmosDream (May 26, 2012)

Nope, what would I really have to learn and understand if I could achieve such a thing, as the type that learns most from istakes, issues and challenges (so far even at 26 I cannot recall anything ever being easy or not requiring higher degrees of motivation and determination to accomplish life goals thus far).


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## Jaime91 (Jul 16, 2013)

No I wouldn't. I think what makes life so exciting is the element of surprise. If we knew everything then we will know (at one point) that life will stop being exciting. Besides, life is too boring once you know everything about it.
(ESFJ here)


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## chickadee213 (Oct 6, 2013)

I feel the whole point of living is experience. What's the point if you already know everything that will happen? Time is meant to happen steadily, not all at once. Honestly, I'm also a little scared about what I would see. It would be overwhelming and I'd probably shut down or go insane from the knowledge. Humans aren't meant to have that kind of superior knowledge, no matter how tempting.


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## braided pain (Jul 6, 2012)

Ni - yes.

For one, I doubt I'd remember everything anyhow, just vague impressions (especially since me=no good with details) and for two, I don't mind reading (well-written) books again to see the things I may have missed out on first time around when I was focused on the plot.


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## angelicblaze (Oct 5, 2013)

I think if we knew everything that would happen to us before it happened we probably would have a nervous breakdown. Especially when we knew about our death or the death of our loved ones. And like someone already said, if our death was a violent one. Do we really want to know that??? You seem like you have a positive outlook, so your book ends well in your eyes. For those who see things more negatively, the book doesn't end well. I suppose I'm in the middle. I might want to know but I would want the option to rewrite it if I could. Without that option I choose no.


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## this is my username (Apr 15, 2011)

Hell no! That is just asking for trouble.


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## AST (Oct 1, 2013)

Pretty much what Cassieopeia said. In theory though, if certain aspects of the future were locked, regardless of what I could do, I'd want to know. It would give me time to prepare myself for that occurence. I hate surprises.

This is an Si dom.


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## knightingling (Oct 15, 2013)

Why not? I say 'yes', while holding on to the belief that the future can be changed even when it is already set before all actions are made. If I can take a glimpse of my future, I would believe that it is not my _real_ future but a part of the present that I must experience to make the actual, real future that I would experience one day, which may or may not be identical to the future I had just taken a glimpse of. This situation is full of paradoxes, but that is how I think it would go.

Even if I 'see' and know _everything_ about 'my future' according to the 'vision' (I'm going to call it vision for the wholeness of this post), there is no guarantee that I will be sticking to that vision for my whole life. I only see that vision as only one of the many possibilities for my future. For example (note: I'm currently 16 y/o), if in the vision, I saw myself as a teenage mother or a drug addict, or if we use a more positive example, an accomplished scientist (whoa), then that was my future _as of the exact moment that I was seeing my future_. It does not mean that after that vision, my future will still be the same.

I also find it as an advantage, since like I said before, I believe that the preordained future can be changed. There is also what we call complacency. If in the vision, I saw myself as a very accomplished, rich person, then I might become complacent and rely to that vision in the wholeness of my life. And then, in the end, when I came to experiencing that vision for real, I turned out to be a poor, jobless woman.

Even if I see my future now, I would only treat it as a possibility and not as my real future. My real future would depend on the actions that I would take after seeing that vision.

I am a dominant Ni user.


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## Bluefireluv (Jun 17, 2013)

Truthfully? I don't know!
But if someone came up to me and offered the chance, and it's a chance I'll never receive again, I'll probably say yes. 

Because I don't believe that we have a fixed destiny. Maybe we have our own purpose in life, maybe there's something we were born to do, a type of path we're meant to follow (like become someone who helps the needy a lot, idk). But there are no details, it's a _type_ of path, but within that type there's so many options to choose from. There is no way we don't have control over what happens to us in the future. There are some circumstances out of our control, yes, but we can always change the way we react to it, etc etc. 

And so, I'll probably agree. For the reason stated above, and because my curiousity will get the better of me xD I _need _to just see what might happen to me, just so I know and can be ready for it. If it's bad I'll probably try to change it, and if (I doubt so, but if) I'm unable to prevent that from happening, then at least I'll be prepared. I'll be ready to try and see the metaphorical light


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## Nightchill (Oct 19, 2013)

Definitely yes, because I could navigate my life better and prevent some bad things from happening.


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## RochiDidItAgain (Aug 20, 2013)

I live for the mysterious. So no.


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## SuperDevastation (Jun 7, 2010)

No point, nuff said.


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## elixare (Aug 26, 2010)

Sure why not. And I reserve the right to deviate from this "future" as I see fit.


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## joe2j (Jun 7, 2012)

Yes I would, I often worry about the future and would like the peace of mind of knowing that everything will be fine, if that turned out not to be the case then it would give me the motivation to try and change my future.


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## Thief Noctis (Jan 6, 2012)

I still don't get this whole 'dominant function' thing and have no idea which I am, but even so I'd still look into the future. If it's gonna happen anyway I might as well know about it then I'll know whether to bother carrying on or not. After all, we only keep living for the future. If we know nothing good is going to happen (or at least not long-term), why would you want to go through it?


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## Father of Dragons (May 7, 2012)

Hell no. I would feel like I'm just going through the motions. Besides, it brings into questions of free will. If I know how my future is going to play out, there wouldn't really be any choice in the matter. 

If the future could still be changed from the glimpse I saw then I might try it. But then, regardless of how great it was I would be compelled to change it. I can't stand making plans for the next week, I would probably lose it if there was a plan for my entire future. O__O


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## Husgark (Nov 14, 2012)

I wouldn't want to. However, that kind of information would be uncertain, even if it was accurate. Because a glimpse like that would also contain the fact that I took a glimpse into the future, and that might compel me to do things differently than if I didn't have information about the future. So seeing the future would itself affect the future.

For example, if I saw that I was going to die in a car accident tomorrow, I would act on that information to not get involved in the car accident. Thus I would not get the warning and end up in the accident. But that in turn would show up in my glimpse into the future and I wouldn't get involved in the accident etc. The whole dilemma would just turn into an infinite regress with no certain answer, so even if I saw the future, I wouldn't know whether what I saw was correct or not.


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## Hanaseru (May 29, 2013)

I'd love to know.

I want the piece of mind.


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## username123 (May 21, 2013)

Gah, I wanted to vote but couldn't decide! I could choose no out of fear that it'd be too depressing, or I could choose yes because I might not be able to control my curiosity...hmm...


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