fandomhigh | Practical Philosophy, Thursday

"Every once in a while, the island likes to remind us that our futures are not as empty and expansive as they might seem," Ender said. "Or perhaps, the lesson you can take from these weekends is that the possibilities are endless - that your future might not be what you think it will be. Sometimes it's good to remember that whatever we see, whether it be this particular quirk of weirdness, or the appearance of our future children, or some other twist of Fandom, is a snapshot."

He smiled faintly.

"These weekends were terrifying to me when I was younger," he said. "The island chose to show me what I'd become if I remained on a certain course, and it was not what I expected it to be. It wasn't enough to make me change my trajectory, though I thought it was - I just wanted to change it for the worse. But it gave me a small push, a small taste, of my own failures, my own weaknesses, and what they could do to the people around me."

He picked up a bottle of water. "Of course, maybe that's not what happened to you," he said. "Maybe your vision was happy; my later ones were, as if they were reflective of my new, better choices. But that doesn't have to mean anything. Nor do terrible visions have to mean anything, either. I suspect it's different for all of us. Still, if this happened to you: how likely do you think it is that your future will come to pass? Does it mean anything? It's not an unavoidable fate - my own experiences can tell you that much. But do you think there is anything relevant about what you saw? Did you see portents, warnings in your future? Something you should do or change? Or do you believe we can't change what happens next, and so these visions can't really matter one way or another?"

He took a sip.

"Those are good questions even if you didn't have a weird weekend, actually," he said. "In traditional philosophy, determinism is the firm philosophical belief that our lives are unchangeable, and everything is predetermined. Our free will is meaningless, an illusion. A weaker version is the idea that some things are just meant to happen, and while we can affect smaller things, the big things happen as they should." He tilted his head. "What do you think?"

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Deterministically.

Hyacinthe

Thorin

Mara Jade

It's a longer one this time.

About determinism and the future. Or about something else. Ender always leaves the floor open for that.

Hyacinthe frowned during most of the lecture and continued frowning after it was finished. Several times, he seemed on the verge of saying something, then subsided, expression torn.

"Hyacinthe?" Ender said gently, eyes settling on the boy's face. "Is there something you'd like to share with the group?"

"I..." He subsided again and frowned, clearly choosing his words carefully. "Among the Tsingani, some are blessed with the dromonde, the ability to see down the long road, the Lungo Drom. 'Twas given to us by Blessed Elua because we mocked him and did not give him sanctuary while he wandered through Bhodistan. The dromonde was a gift, so that in the future we could see more clearly."

And, like Elua, were cursed to travel with no permanent home, at least until the Lungo Drom came to an end.

"We believe that nothing is set in stone until it is seen," he continued. "Once 'tis seen, however, it is immutable, a fact that will come to pass, regardless of what you do to avoid it."

"That makes me think about Schroedinger's Cat," Ender said, almost amused, mostly interested. "There was a... scientific philosopher who once hypothesized that if you put a cat in a box with something that could kill it, and closed the box, in a philosophical sense, the cat would be both alive and dead until you opened it again to see. Then its state became fixed."

He tilted his head. "It was a thought experiment," he said wryly, "Which had some impact on a branch of science called quantum mechanics, but we don't have to go into that now. Still, it's interesting your people's power has led you to a similar notion - the idea that many things can be at once, until observed."

Hya's expression was set firmly on Why would someone even DO that but he dubiously replied, "I suppose that is true? In the sense that everything is unknowable until 'tis known. But it takes no great skill to know the poisoned cat will be dead when the box is opened." His expression remained at is was. "Determining what paths and branches a life will take is much less sure."

"It's relevant because it led to the concept of what's called quantum superposition," Ender said lightly. "The idea that... something can actually be in a state of many things at once, until observed. It's the act of seeing that gives it shape, rather than its existing shape simply being something we see."

He picked up a bottle of water. "How does it work?"

"The dromonde?" And again with that careful, measured tone of someone who was speaking around a topic and choosing his words with care. "'Tis prophecy. You can look forwards, though some who are especially skilled can look back as well, as the Lungo Drom stretches in both directions."

His expression finally relaxed, grew into something cheerfully mischievous. "And, of course, it helps do you cross a palm with silver. Gold works even better."

"I can imagine," Ender said, smiling faintly. "So last weekend reminded you of this, perhaps?"

Hyacinthe's smile didn't waver but it was like someone slammed down storm shutters in his eyes. "I have heard most say that what happened this weekend was a fantasy. Some kind of illusion, belike. I would not say that seeing this weekend was like seeing with the dromonde. Ihe dromonde tells true things with perfect clarity. Or so 'tis said," he added quickly. Perhaps a shade too quickly. "I remember little of this weekend."

The speed and the shutters were interesting; Ender was debating the merits of poking at them.

"What do you remember?" he asked.

"Water," Hya replied, though he didn't explain why. He'd seen Ada on Tuesday, it had been clear enough that she'd been upset about the future she had seen. "Faces of people both known and unknown. Food and drinks. Laughter and merriment at being reunited."

Generic reunion imagery that gave away nothing.

"I was still quite handsome," he offered. "And charming. Not that I expected otherwise."

Unlike whatever powers he'd had, ones that he could almost remember, nibbling at the edges of his memory like tiny fish.

"And how do you feel about it all?" Ender asked, blatantly ignoring that last part.

Funny, because that was the part Hyacinthe was going to focus most on. "Relieved, truly," he said with affected earnestness. "No one wishes to discover that the future holds for them ugliness and a sour demeanor."

He's still hanging around.

I am so dead. So here, have some older Dante being Dante.

Forever amused that 'coat, pants, no shirt' is still his most iconic outfit.

Edited 2016-06-02 11:39 (UTC)

Practical Philosophy, Thursday

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