the future...

So the other night in my epistemology class we were discussing the future... can the future be predicted? Pause before you answer cause this shit gets u in deeper than you think..

1. we make decisions about the future/ present based on the assumption that the future will resemble the past. ie. if I drop this glass it will hit the floor. We dont expect the glass to float up to the ceiling do we...no we expect it to behave as it always has, hit the floor and probably break. However, what logical explanation do we have that the future will continue to resemble the past? None we make the assumption based on the fact that the future has always resemble the past...But that is circular reasoning. So we have no logical reason to think this right? So then it would follow that we can't make any decisions or predictions about anything....we cant go to work cause we can get there and it may not be there...we cant know anything because each instance could be completely different than the moment before.

2. If we can predict the future then there is no free will and all is written and set before it happens...does that sit right with you? To have no choice in life and no responsibility cause it was gonna happen anyway. I just cant get with that theory so i am sitting in class arguing for the first point that we can't predict the future, and trying to imagine a world that operates in that manner and not really getting with that idea to tough either... but i like not knowing better, than no choice.

Aside from the philosophical points I also began to think of spritual and social & class issues in regards to the future resembling the past. If we can say that the future doesn't necessarily have to resemble the past what can that mean for the millions of people who feel trapped by the current circumstances of thier reality? You can chose in this instant that your next moment will be different and new and in no way similar to the last moment. Choice....choice is yours, thiers, ours.. we can choose. We can choose to live free and unburdened, secure that each moment is a new and fresh one with unlimited possibiities? What can this mean for Africans the world over....even just human beings all over the world? We dont have to accept this world that has been handed to us and continue to let it resemble the past because we expect it to... We can choose to let it begin anew in each moment....what if we just had to choose ?

Yeah... I know I love philosophy wait til i try to explain Descartes and Berkeley and the argument of whether or not there is a real world outside of my own mind ;o)