Future, past and sideways time

I've been watching Eli Stone on Netflix lately, and it got me thinking about some things. For those who don't know, the series was about a lawyer who, after getting a brain aneurysm that may kill him, begins to see visions. Not dreams, not inklings, but 3-D, full sensory surround-sound visions. Sometimes the vision takes him to the past, where formerly unknown things about his family (notably his father, who had similar visions) are clarified. Sometimes they're about the future, letting him know about events like earthquakes or plane crashes that are going to occur, and other times the visions are metaphorical, that when interpreted set him on a path that allows him to help others.

I found the show's depiction of the character and his "gift" to be very sad.

Despite his intermittent peak at the future which allows him help people, including saving lives, it takes a tremendous toll on him, his reputation and his relationships. And why wouldn't it? Who among us, even the ostensibly religious, really steps out on a limb and acts upon the perceived supernatural? Those who do are more often than not derided as crazy, deluded, brainwashed. Maybe they are; it seems like the ones we hear about are listening to voices that tell them to kill people.

What would the world be like if we all had the ability to see the future as clearly as we could see what was before our physical eyes? I imagine it would depend on whether the future was immutable or not. If a glimpse at next week was what absolutely was going to happen, then the only benefit that we would derive would be a secret knowledge of the joy or tragedy to come. We couldn't change our investment strategy because it had already been pre-determined, we couldn't take a different route to work to avoid that fatal car crash because in a sense, we had already been killed in it. We would have sure knowledge that we were merely cogs in a great wheel.

On the other hand, what if we could see possibilities or probabilities? Let's say you received a vision that a plane was going to crash, no one listens to you, so the plane takes off and lands safely? Did your vision fail you? Or did the airline's mechanic receive a similar vision and fix the problem that would have caused the crash? How would you know? Would you stop believing in the accuracy of your visions? Assume you had misinterpreted it? Begin drinking heavily?

An additional thing to consider is the sometimes vast number of variables that contribute to the manifestation of any single event. How many individual decisions in how many combinations determine seemingly simple situations? What looks like a 'yes or no' proposition, or 'either-or', is affected by decisions that others made minutes, days or even years before. And what of unintended consequences? Actions that you take may cause others to rethink the moves that they would have made if you had made a different decision.

Complicated, huh?