Since the dawn of awareness, humanity has always yearned for the ability to predict the future. Prophets, fortune tellers, and stories of foresight have existed as a dream throughout all eras. Recently, social media has been flooded with information about certain seers and religions predicting that the apocalypse would occur on December 21, 2012 (?!)
What is the Future? Where Does it Come From? Can We Predict the Future?
The future is a concept derived from the notion of time. According to current human understanding, time is unidirectional, flowing from the past, through the present, and into the future. Thus, the future encompasses events that have not yet occurred and those that will occur from a present point of observation.
If we delve a bit deeper, we might ponder the “father” of the concept of the future, which is Time.
Time, from an idealistic perspective, is also a human concept used to distinguish the sequence of events. Events occurring before the observation point are considered the past, while events occurring after that point are viewed as the future.
An Indian philosopher once said: “You cannot step into the same river twice…” Indeed, the river is in constant motion. At a glance, it may seem unchanged, but in reality, it transforms moment by moment. When we bathe, the boat may not have been present before, but now it is different; the water we are bathing in is no longer the same as before. Everything is constantly changing.
Humans, in their lives, also stand before a river, where events continually unfold in chronological order, from past occurrences to present happenings, and then to future events…
Thus, it is not difficult to recognize that the concept of time exists only in motion. Without movement, the concept of time would not exist, and perhaps the world would not exist either. The essence of all things and phenomena is change, movement in space and over time. Nothing exists without some form of change in the infinity of time; without movement, we do not come into being, nor do we perish, and there is no day or night… broadly speaking, nothing exists at all, according to our current understanding, which we consider a given…
From this, we can infer a consequence: The future is the result of movements in time and space. So, can we predict the future?
From a certain perspective, the future can be viewed as a function of time, dependent on various variables. These variables can be few and simple or numerous and complex. We can consider a simple function over time, such as Y(t) = sin(x), representing a rotational angle at a fixed angular velocity. With this function, we can indeed predict the value of Sin(x) in the future at the present moment.
From a philosophical standpoint, this represents a cause-and-effect relationship; the future is the result formed from causes in the past and present.
For example, if we have a good seed planted in fertile soil, with appropriate moisture, temperature, and conditions in the present, the future will yield a green plant. That plant is the result of the causes: the seed, moisture, light, temperature, etc.
Thus, we can draw an important initial conclusion: The future depends on the factors that cause it, existing in the past and present.
So, can the future truly be predicted? Returning to the concept of the future as a function (Y) dependent on variables (x1, x2, x3…), with a simple function like Y=sin(x), we can easily know what has yet to occur. However, in reality, a result can be created by numerous causes, which in turn become a function dependent on other variables. We end up with a complex function governed by various rules, which can be so intricate that even the current capabilities of humans, coupled with sophisticated machinery, cannot solve it.
We can consider another whimsical example: The result of a vase breaking on top of a cabinet is due to a cat jumping and knocking it over, but what if the cat jumping did not actually knock over the vase? And if the mouse had not run across the cabinet, the cat would not have jumped up there? And if the window had not been opened, the cat would not have been able to enter the house?
These observations might lead us to a second conclusion: There is no randomness in life. What we perceive as random occurrences actually happens in a close relationship with their precursors. People mistakenly believe that an event is random merely due to limited awareness, unable to see or calculate the complex rules of those precursors.
We can conclude a third point: The future can be predicted based on the past and present.
So, how can we know the future?
Firstly, based on the laws and precursors, theoretically, we can calculate the results that will occur in the future. However, our current capabilities only allow us to determine outcomes for simple events. For example: When will water boil if we heat a 3-liter kettle under standard conditions with a 2KW electric kettle? For complex events, we have yet to solve them, but who knows, perhaps one day, with supercomputers, humanity’s dream of predicting the future will become a reality?
Secondly, it involves developing the latent abilities of humans. The mechanism of human information processing is indeed very complex, and daily we uncover many things that seem inexplicable. The brain, once regarded as the absolute material basis for all conscious activities, is now being reevaluated. One day, it may be proven that the human brain functions similarly to an airplane’s control panel, merely receiving commands from the pilot to manage the operations of the machinery.
So, what truly controls our behaviors and consciousness? We hope that one fine day, this question will be answered, and we will discover ways to harness our latent abilities, including decoding the future.
In reality, some individuals have mysteriously tapped into such abilities. Many prophets have gained fame for their accurate predictions, such as Edgar Cayce (USA), Vanga (Bulgaria), Nostradamus (France), and even Trạng Trình Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm from Vietnam.
Additionally, there are methods steeped in mystique and incredulity, such as the use of the I Ching, essentially an information map for divination, developed hundreds of years before Christ in China. It is based on the principles of dualism, with the proliferation of numbers from the Tai Chi generating Liang Yi (2), Liang Yi producing Si Xiang (4), Si Xiang generating Ba Gua (8), which then expands into 64 hexagrams, each comprising 6 lines with numerous complex combinations to create myriad rules. Historically, the Chinese have been able to accurately predict many events based on this information map; even today, it is applied to weather forecasting with a level of accuracy that sometimes surpasses official broadcasts on television and radio (According to Thiệu Vĩ Hoa – I Ching and Prediction Studies – Cultural Publishing House 1995).
With an insatiable quest for exploration and discovery, continually conquering broader realms of knowledge, many of today’s seemingly unbelievable dreams will become reality in the future. Let us wait and see.
