Is the future set in stone?

[the game]

So consider the following. If you had the opportunity to see into your own future and you saw something you didn't like. Is it possible for you to then change that future? Bear in mind that if you saw already know it happened then that future is set in stone. If it wasn't a guarantee then you would not have seen it happen in the future.

[Deleted]

No, you can't change the future, because if you did try to change the future you would already be fated to try to change the future, so the "change" is already taken into account.

[GennGreymane]

Depends, do you believe in the multiverse theory?

[Knolan]

1) Grab the Monado.
2) Really feel it.
3) Change the future.
4) ???
5) Profit.

[the game]

Depends, do you believe in the multiverse theory?

I do believe in multiverse theory.

[GennGreymane]

I do believe in multiverse theory.

Then it may not be technically set in stone.

[Frood]

You are trying to reason with a paradox. Doing so makes no sense. That's why it's a paradox.

[schwarzkopf]

Changing your future isn't a problem, as long as your plans agree with the universe.

But in essence, we already can see the future - just not very well.

If you find out it is going to rain next Saturday, you might change your picnic plans - that's literally changing your future based on a sort of seeing of the future.

Now here is the catch, the future is also set in stone - including the bit where you looked into the future and changed your plans.

- - - Updated - - -

That's why it's a paradox.

It isn't a paradox if you believe in the steady state hypothesis of time.

[shade3891]

By knowing the future when you should not, you all ready changed it.
So you never get to know the (new) outcome.

[Kujako]

Yes, the future is predetermined. But there are a lot of them, and we can choose/influence which one we end up in.

[Shadowferal]

I wanna find that stone and break it into millions of pieces...(millions of possibilities)

If people could know the future as children and realize that what they see is unalterable, that the life they would have now is it, I could see suicide being a big deal...and legitimized.

[Soeroah]

I believe in a multiverse, in which case the future is set in stone, but a person's decisions dictate which future they end up in.

Up to you whether you feel that means it's set in stone or not.

[Rukh]

It doesn't matter. Either it isn't, or it is but the equation is so complex as to be meaningfully unsolvable

[Independent voter]

Religious people believe in free will.

Science believes your future is determined, fate if you will.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

It's set in stone. Because whatever we do to make it that way then it will be that way. Now that doesn't mean any predictions about it are. Or if you could see where it ends up that you couldn't alter events to then change it. But we don't have that power. So we just ride the wave of time and its events to exactly where they take us.

[Deleted]

There's no paradox in seeing the future. If you have the persistent ability to see into the future, then any changes you would make from insights due to this ability will cause changes in both the future and what you see. So the future you see will be the future in which you make all your decisions based on your ability to see their outcomes.

[Swalload]

If we could see the future we would only see perfection, because it would take into account the fact that looking into the future would show us our mistakes and decide at that moment to take action so it doesn't happen. So the vision of the future would always be a version without your mistakes.

[Frood]

It isn't a paradox if you believe in the steady state hypothesis of time.

Never heard of that, and I doubt it exists as the steady state hypothesis relates to thermodynamics and nothing else – I'm a chemist :^). Given the OPs criteria, he clearly described a paradox. He literally tells us to bear in mind that it's a linear timeline, and that seeing something happen in the future means you can't change it. He then asks us if it's possible to change it, contradicting his own criteria. It's a paradox.

[Draco-Onis]

Religious people believe in free will.

Science believes your future is determined, fate if you will.

I don't think that's true especially for religion if God has a plan that pretty much means your future is already written and there is no free will.

Science I believe says we don't know if the future is determined depending on which theory you adhere to the answer will be different.

[Deleted]

As fun as time travel and future-sight is in theoretical discussion as pointless it is to ask any real questions about it since it isn't possible. Time travel will never be possible (I am talking about that "Back to the Future" kind of time travel) neither to the past nor to the future. You will never be able to see your future and you will be able to travel to your past. If someone would like to disagree, please proof me wrong?