Can we tell the actual future?

Let us try to define some notions of future. The actual future at time t is the one that we will record as our history at a time after t. A virtual future is the one that we can predict through scientific observations, ranging from the Weather Channel forecasts to the NASA calculations for a rocket launch.

Another form of future is the notion of relative future. Suppose you are talking to a blind person when you see a lightning. You tell the person that there is going to be a big thunder, and it happens after a few seconds. As far as the blind person is concerned you actually told the future before it happened. However, you knew that the event had already occurred but its effect at your coordinates would be felt at a later time.

The relative future is interesting in that you can predict it with certainty. For instance, if your ears are sensitive, after seeing the lightning you will cover your ears instead of running into the open where you may also get wet. So, when a president sees the bubble coming he should do something about its effects. Starting a war only blows the bubble out of proportions.

I suppose we do not have the constitutional right to question the wisdom of a president. Only his relationship with Monica is subject to debate. The misery brought upon us is simply a failure on the part of the president. And for his successful failure we will reward him with a lifetime of huge salary out of our taxes!

Going back to our scientific world, the purpose of modeling events and gathering statistical data is to approximate the actual future with a desirable virtual future. When facing the nature itself, as is the case with science, we have no means of cheating. There are no opponents to eliminate and no marketing tricks to apply with the support of lawyers. Depending on the accuracy of our modeling, the actual future can be approximated with a virtual future within an acceptable range.

We cannot tell the actual future until it in fact occurs. A relative future cannot be stopped because it has already occurred. We can, however, try to minimize the effects of a relative future rather than resonating them. The painful Houston evacuation was the result of unnecessary amplifications for getting attention to TV commercials.

Predicting scientific matters falls in the category of relative future, rather than sci-fi. However, a prediction requires signs that justify its inevitability. Most of the articles on this site illustrate the signs for the unavoidable emergence of an abstract software development language. Z++ is my view of a virtual future that will approximate the actual future very closely.

Z++ is freely available from ZHMicro