For once, it's a Friday night where I don't need to worry about setting the alarm clock for a cross country meet the next morning. To satiate my boredom, I decided to watch the first two episodes of a new tv series, Flashforward, on Hulu. Halfway through the first episode, it was already my new favorite tv show.
The storyline emerges from a fateful 2 minutes on earth when every individual across the entire surface of the planet experiences what they call a "blackout" - eerie visions that feel more like memories than they do hallucinations. after chaos is restored and accounts of visions shared, it is determined that the 2 minutes witnessed during the blackout were windows into the future - flashforwards that told each person what they would be doing 6 months later. some people saw blessings -- a woman was receiving the news that she was expecting a baby girl - while others saw sins -- a faithful wife was having an affair with a man she didn't even know (yet). some saw nothing at all; 6 months into the future, they will be dead.
But this got me thinking...about fate. Is the future a reflection of determinism? Or is it free to be molded by our own free will? If you had a flashforwad, the person you saw in your vision would be the future version of the present you. However, the seeing of your future alters one in such a way that you are no longer the 'you' who corresponds with the future you saw in the flashforward; the 'you' in that flashforward never saw the future. Does this mean you have already changed your future...by seeing your future?
I don't believe in fate and determinism. Not because I have evidence, but because I don't want to; it just feels...wrong. if one person's life is already mapped out, the whole world's fate is already determined, as the fate of one person will affect that of the next, and the next, and the next. We'd be stuck, unable to break free of one's own fate without changing the fate of others. is it possible for every being on earth to be so dependent on one another? It seems too perfect to be possible.
There was more I wanted to write, and I had planned on using this free night to my full advantage, but my eyelids seem to be begging to close. good night...how horrible would it be if I woke up tomorrow morning and all my decisions were useless?
