Kassandra's Dilemma: Would you like to know the future if you cannot do anything to change it?
So if you remember your Greek mythology, you'll remember that Kassandra, Princess of Troy, is gifted with the ability to see into the future, but cursed in that no one will ever believe her. Thanks Apollo, you jerk! Kassandra predicted not only the fall of Troy, but also told the Trojans to beware Greeks bearing gifts. No one listened to her (thanks curse!) and Troy was destroyed.
Anyway, let's say that Apollo also decides to bless and then curse you too. Like Kassandra, you are gifted with the ability to accurately predict the future. However, nothing you do will change future events. You can't change a damn thing. Even when you try, you only end up doing what you predicted you'd do.
So, would you want to know the future? Or are you happy living in the moment?
This sounds like absolute hell. Absolute hell. I'm trying to conceive of positives to having foresight that you can't use, and I'm absolutely bereft. I'm not sure if I need futility lessons quite that badly.
This would effectively make you the protagonist in the movie The Dead Zone. That's based off of a Stephen King book. Has there ever been a Stephen King protagonist you would want to be?
If I can't do anything about it, I don't want to know about it. It would be torture...
I'm a Stephen King junkie, but you are right Dan, I can't think of any of his protagonists that I would want to be.
Well, you can mentally prepare yourself for what's coming.
Actually, humans deal with this every day. As a friend of mine says - humans are the only creatures who actively disremember every day the fact that they're going to die and that they would not be able to live without this neat skill.
We all know our ultimate future and yet we are all better off being generally ignorant of that fact except at particular moments. So the answer has to be "Present Tense" because I think that's the way humans are wired.
@Larry
That's absolutely right on. I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're absolutely right.