A more serious what-if thread.
I had the most curious dream the other night. In it, I woke up to find that it was once again the Year 2002, and once again I was 13 years old. However, I remembered everything that had happened for the past 9 years. Effectively, it was as though my consciousness was sent backwards through time. My life as a high school student was (eerily) replicated, with the major difference being that I was acting very differently from how I did in high school, and instead was acting how I do today. I was a lot more mature about subjects, and I was always watching my tongue, lest I mention cultural events that have yet to happen. But it wasn't until I visited my then-alive grandparents that I realized this: I possessed valuable information of events that were going to happen for the next nine years. Who would win the elections, how and when my grandparents would die, and even trivial things like ideas that have yet to be realized by the media like songs and the like. What exactly should I do with such information? Should I withold it in fear of messing with the timeline? Or do I take a chance and attempt to alter it in a manner I would see fit? Would there even really be consequences?
In my dream world, I simply kept quiet, and tried to move things in my favor by myself, without mentioning exactly why I was doing what I did. I withheld the information, but attempted to alter the timeline by myself through my actions alone. I dropped subte hints concerning my grandparents' health, in hopes that even if they were to die on the same day, we would be better prepared for it.
Unfortunately, a dream only lasts so long. While it would've been interesting to see what would happen in nine years, I woke up before I could do anything else major. But still, it did pose an interesting question to me. Had it been a real event, I probably would have gone on the way I did, using the knowledge of the future to my own benefit by subtley changing things to how I would want them to go.
So what do you think? What would you do if you knew of the future?
I had the most curious dream the other night. In it, I woke up to find that it was once again the Year 2002, and once again I was 13 years old. However, I remembered everything that had happened for the past 9 years. Effectively, it was as though my consciousness was sent backwards through time. My life as a high school student was (eerily) replicated, with the major difference being that I was acting very differently from how I did in high school, and instead was acting how I do today. I was a lot more mature about subjects, and I was always watching my tongue, lest I mention cultural events that have yet to happen. But it wasn't until I visited my then-alive grandparents that I realized this: I possessed valuable information of events that were going to happen for the next nine years. Who would win the elections, how and when my grandparents would die, and even trivial things like ideas that have yet to be realized by the media like songs and the like. What exactly should I do with such information? Should I withold it in fear of messing with the timeline? Or do I take a chance and attempt to alter it in a manner I would see fit? Would there even really be consequences?
In my dream world, I simply kept quiet, and tried to move things in my favor by myself, without mentioning exactly why I was doing what I did. I withheld the information, but attempted to alter the timeline by myself through my actions alone. I dropped subte hints concerning my grandparents' health, in hopes that even if they were to die on the same day, we would be better prepared for it.
Unfortunately, a dream only lasts so long. While it would've been interesting to see what would happen in nine years, I woke up before I could do anything else major. But still, it did pose an interesting question to me. Had it been a real event, I probably would have gone on the way I did, using the knowledge of the future to my own benefit by subtley changing things to how I would want them to go.
So what do you think? What would you do if you knew of the future?