Prediction, Free Will and Muad'dib

During a recent public reading event, I was rebuked by a hoodied something-teen with the proclamation, "I think it would really boring to know my future." While I can't completely share his sentiment, I can agree with him on principal. In fact, when I attempted to look into the future, I saw the face of Muad'dib staring back at me.

Anyone familiar with Frank Herbert's "Dune" series knows the name. The central character, Paul Atreides, through the agency of the hallucinogenic spice Melange, becomes Muad'dib, the Kwisatz Haderach ("Shortening of the Way"), who can see past, present and future simultaneously. Ultimately, he comes to understand that to know the future is to become trapped by it, funneled into an ever-narrowing door of possibility. While his father Leto had admonished "Knowing that a trap exists is the first step in avoiding it," Muad'dib's son Leto II declares, "I assure you that the ability to view our futures can become a bore." The young naysayer who refused the reading had a bit of mythological backup.

Yet, on the other side of the equation (and there is always another side), the Uncertainty Principal in quantum physics states that the very act of observation affects a change in the observed. When we have a conscious awareness of what lies ahead, alternatives are immediately created. You see the precipice approaching, and in an effort to avoid plummeting over the edge you realize the benefits of turning left or right or even back. The future suddenly branches off into several possibilities, each with their own separate destinations. Once this happens, the future is nearly impossible to predict - to use the words of another omnipotent science fiction character, "Always in motion, the future is."

Faced with these questions about questions and free will versus determinism, I recall a moment where, in a fit of despair, I came to the realization that I was where I was as a result of the choices I had made up to that point. My present is the result of what actions I took in the past, and as such, my future is determined by the actions I undertake in the present. As such, a reading about one's future is not so much about foretelling as it is about projecting which way your present course could take you, and what options you have for altering the vector. Futures are created, not predicted.

The rejoinder I gave to the adolescent striving to forge his own reality was "This isn't about knowing your future, it's about empowering you in the present." And the caveat I would deliver to those desiring that prescience would once again come from the timeless pages of "Dune": "The eye that looks ahead to the safe course is closed forever."