#prescience

[federer7]

Prescience #135, 1960

Photo by Ralph Eugene Meatyard

[revoevokukil]

The Trap of Prescience

What else could be explained in the Witcher if we were to interpret the elven Sages' & Ciri's prophetic abilties in the fashion of Dune?

Dune's take on prescience is that once a future is perceived, it is set in stone.

It's basically the QM measurement rule bringing about wave function collapse into a defined state, which means a particle (I'll grandiosely call it "reality" for the sake of fantasy) loses its superposition (potential to be in all potential states) and takes on a defined property; i.e. one actual reality is chosen from among the many possible ones. Alternatively, the wave function might not collapse at all (many worlds interpretation), with all possible worlds continuing to exist as we, upon observation, simply become part of one of the realities while losing track of others.

In the case of the latter, this poses a question whether it is at all possible for a prescient being to continue "course-correcting." (and what about other observers, equally capable of collapsing the wave function? that would mean other prescients for our literary purposes, as we ignore that actually it could be light, air, etc.)

“This is the awe-inspiring universe of magic: There are no atoms, only waves and motions all around. Here, you discard all belief in barriers to understanding. You put aside understanding itself. This universe cannot be seen, cannot be heard, cannot be detected in any way by fixed perceptions. It is the ultimate void where no preordained screens occur upon which forms may be projected. You have only one awareness here — the screen of the magi: Imagination! Here, you learn what it is to be human. You are a creator of order, of beautiful shapes and systems, an organizer of chaos.”

Everything being an ocean of pure energy potential, the reality we think we know sort of "emerges" based on the conditions and our perception of those conditions. Truly the waves of reality remain in constant fluctuation, while we experience the "concrete" reality—that we label and categorize (imagining a shape for it)—as emerging from those more fundamental levels.

Magic, then, is about the perceiving mind creating the ultimate meaning for what can and cannot be over the raw senses. When an Aen Saevherne, for example, is able to perceive the future accurately they are, in effect, creating it.

At the quantum level our universe can be seen as an indeterminate place, predictable in a statistical way only when you employ large enough numbers. Between that universe and a relatively predictable one where the passage of a single planet can be timed to a picosecond, other forces come into play. For the in-between universe where we find our daily lives, that which you believe is a dominant force. Your beliefs order the unfolding of daily events. If enough of us believe, a new thing can be made to exist. Belief structure creates a filter through which chaos is sifted into order. - Analysis of the Tyrant, the Taraza File: GB Archives Heretics of Dune

Knowledge, however, has no uses without purpose, but purpose - arising out of wishing, desiring, and hope - builds the enclosing walls and diverts one away from infinity into a particular narrow possibility. That is the trap of prescience - to (seek to) know the future absolutely is to be trapped into that future absolutely.

To put a stop to pretending like QM is actually my thing, back to literature. I pondered the orb on this matter in April. And I have addenums to make! (for example, it's not correct to equate the Aen Saevherne to Laplace's Demons; we're beyond classical mechanics)

First, as noted, if prescient beings are more or less blind to the movements of other figures with foresight, it should make conspiring around Ciri possible for someone like Eredin. Secondly, characters who can predict the future might not necessarily wish to look for certain things precisely should they suspect they might not like the answer. For example, contemplating one's own demise (as Auberon may have done).

'"Every judgement teeters on the brink of error," Leto explained. "To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty. - Leto II Children of Dune

There are ways then, in which to use prescience correctly, and ways in which to use it with terrible ends.

The future that you see is the future that you will act upon (even by choosing not to act upon it). In fact, you can say that you have already acted upon it. A thing seen is a thing that has been. And, by being a character of sufficient Influence, positioning, and time, who envisions this, you will be locking everyone else into your future. So if the future includes something you would rather not see come about, you will be locked into a cascade of decisions you have to make in order to steer it - you might alter things by killing someone, or yourself, but things could proceed toward that destiny anyway and with much larger costs. You become trapped, you cannot step off course anymore.

Basically, the art of foresight then, seems to consist in knowing or sensing how - when looking ahead - to maintain degrees of freedom that would allow for creativity in the act of creating the future. An unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty, so future can happen itself in a desirable manner.

"...no one aside from them is capable of understanding their writings. Elven manuscripts, in most cases, mean tortuous symbolism, acrostics, occasionally even codes. The Elder Speech is always, to put it mildly, ambiguous and, when written down, may have as many as ten meanings." - Codringher The Time of Contempt

Can you imagine Ithlinne slapping her colleagues in the world of the Aen Seidhe with her augury, signalling that all the landscaping and fey architectural drip must again be packed up in a bit, because this world too will go to the dogs? A very frustrating way to start the day, to be sure. Except then it becomes difficult to move between realities at will. Bffr. I'd wager a portion of Aen Saevherne's to-do list includes handling the infernal catch-up game that results from their own gift to elvendom.

And, as ever, it's the character and desires of the dreamers that play a central role in what happens. This is literature; here, on the screen of the magi, you learn what it is to be human.

Imagine then Lara Dorren, who is locked into a future of her race's making, hoping for a union between that which is elven and human, knowing it will happen eventually, as it has already happened before.

Imagine Avallac'h, whose sight is set on a time beyond the tale involving the child surprise and her witcher, since he is yet to accept amor fati and how nothing is lost and everything is transformed.

Imagine Auberon, holding on to his role as the demiurge-ruler whose expired ambition tempts him to glance at fate that remains beyond his own existence, glimpsing, in the process, at the sole thing he has yet failed to experience.

Imagine Ciri, who cannot grow and begin to face herself and the fate she will forge until she has returned to the beginning of her needs and slain the darkness that took herself from her.

Or imagine Geralt, who cannot see the future, but can only hope for one, and acts as his heart wills it regardless of what he is told the narrative is going to be like; nothing for him can go differently than it does.

...and eventually humanity, before learning the value of balance, goes on to conquer nature and achieve transhumanity, facing exile from the world they've destroyed (that has tried destroying them). Long-long after the elves, familiar yet so alien, have left for the beyond. And the two remain differentiated only by their mirror image standing several cycles ahead and parallel of the other in Time. Everything repeats itself. The fantasy worlds fragment and multiply, ad infinitum. Everyone learns something, nobody learns anything.

[j-august]

He realized suddenly that it was one thing to see the past occupying the present, but the true test of prescience was to see the past in the future.

Frank Herbert, Dune

[dreamofmourning]

"Willfulness might strike in a moment of suspension: what gets in the way of what is on the way."

"The project form of the will is how a body comes to stretch out, in the very process of actively converting a possibility, or at least of feeling itself as involved in this conversion [...] As a possibility comes within reach, a density of experience is acquired."

[intelligentchristianlady]

Time to Reread It

“In a way, the world−view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.

“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable—what then?”

– George Orwell, 1984

[capsulas]

Los personajes de "Hijos de Dune" son complejos y multifacéticos. A través de Leto y Ghanima Atreides, Herbert explora la carga de la herencia y el peso de las expectativas. La lucha interna de Alia con las voces de sus antepasados añade una capa adicional de conflicto y profundidad psicológica.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Time, inexhaustible wound, for your unwitnessed and destitute coronation. —Franz Wright

[Thanks to Hasham]

[sjerzgirl]

[crescentsandcrossthreads]

Thinking about my response from a while back about the nature of prescience in the Dune novels and how it was so incomplete, another fan had to rightly point it out.

Just makes me want to write a proper essay about it with citations to be really thorough.

But damn my chores!

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Hand of the Gods: Prescience by Eksafael

[jrmilazzo]

Today's necessary noise.

Trans Am, The Surveillance (Thrill Jockey, 1998).

[j-august]

The Guild navigators, gifted with limited prescience, had made the fatal decision: they'd chosen always the clear, safe course that leads every downward into stagnation.

Frank Herbert, Dune

[dreamofmourning]

prescience (which is quite directly connected here (as ever) with beauty but that's another issue)

youtube commenter-philosopher tcv12 and ME: greatness tells you what's about to happen next

(under a video of the mcdavid rangers goal, the second best part of which is the included 20 straight seconds of stunned silence. "It has no precedent or it has as its only precedent that which is itself unprecedented." and therefore no ready language to describe it)

from 1/13/24 and 1/26/24, crosby reacting to goals before the player even takes the shot:

dufourmantelle vs. wallace:

via the athletic:

he uses his premonition

[kinkicherryblue]

THANKS FOR THIS QUITE IRONIC "CONFESSION".

[intelligentchristianlady]

Look what I found! Click the link ;)

[capsulas]

¿Por qué deberías leer "Hijos de Dune"?

Recientemente terminé de leer "Hijos de Dune" de Frank Herbert, y me gustaría compartir algunas razones por las que creo que es una lectura esencial para los amantes de la ciencia ficción y más allá:

Profundidad Filosófica: La serie "Dune" es conocida por su riqueza filosófica, y "Hijos de Dune" no es la excepción. Este libro te invita a reflexionar sobre temas complejos como el poder, la libertad, la predestinación y la ética. Es una obra que te desafía a pensar y a cuestionar el mundo que te rodea.

Desarrollo de Personajes: Los personajes de "Hijos de Dune" son complejos y multifacéticos. A través de Leto y Ghanima Atreides, Herbert explora la carga de la herencia y el peso de las expectativas. La lucha interna de Alia con las voces de sus antepasados añade una capa adicional de conflicto y profundidad psicológica.

Construcción de Mundo: Arrakis es un personaje en sí mismo. La descripción detallada del planeta, su ecología, cultura y política, es tan envolvente que te sentirás transportado a este mundo desértico. La atención al detalle de Herbert es impresionante y contribuye a una experiencia de lectura inmersiva.

Tramas Intrincadas: Si disfrutas de las historias con tramas políticas y conspiraciones, "Hijos de Dune" te mantendrá al borde de tu asiento. Las maquinaciones y las luchas de poder son un reflejo de la complejidad de las relaciones humanas y la lucha por el control.

Legado Literario: Leer "Hijos de Dune" es también una forma de apreciar y entender mejor el legado de una de las sagas más influyentes de la ciencia ficción. La influencia de "Dune" se extiende más allá de su género, y este libro es un pilar fundamental en la historia de la literatura especulativa.

En resumen, "Hijos de Dune" es más que una simple continuación de una saga popular; es una obra que combina una narrativa emocionante con una exploración profunda de temas universales. Es una invitación a perderse en un universo alternativo que refleja y desafía nuestro propio mundo. Si aún no lo has leído, te animo a que lo hagas y descubras por ti mismo la magia de "Hijos de Dune".