Word of Inspiration (Just like the Pappys!)

Compliments of Mr. Nowicki himself, this post's word of inspiration is:

Prescient

I figure with a word of inspiration, it makes it easier to plant the seed of thought. When i open up a new post, i generally have to think about what i want to write about, and that idea begins the process. Instead, im takin other peoples thoughts, and documenting what i understand of them. SO. Lets continue!

I wasn't exactly sure what this meant at first - i really wish firefox had an "autofill contractions apostrophe" feature btw - so Steve filled me in. Prescience is to know of an event before it occurs. Now, i may be paraphrasing, but lets take this paraphrase into consideration. If we were to take that as the definition, would it be safe to say we are all prescient at every point in time that we are conscious? "What do you mean?" you may be narrating in your mind.

Well lets take for instance the act of swinging a tennis racket. We follow the ball (always keep your eye on it!) and watch.... watch... watch... until we are able to judge, position, swing and strike it with the high tension strings that provide 100+mph serves. Lets assume we are NOT prescient. That would mean we would not be able to know where the ball was until the ball was in that exact location. So until the ball was in ideal hitting position, we wouldn't be able to tell until we observed it right? Now if we want to HIT the ball, we would need to take the time to position the racket in space where deemed appropriate for contact. But if that takes X miliseconds, the ball will be long past us, and hitting it would be impossible!

Thus we are future-seers. Or more correctly, future-assumers. At every point, we are able to make split second foresight(s?) and accordingly adjust our arms position to deliver a nice powerful stroke. We are almost ALWAYS prescient, considering we are able to function in everyday life. Walking up stairs, we foresee where our foot will be. Seeing a fish swim downstream, we can assume its position as it swims. So pat yourself on the back, you have just seen into the future! and were right!

Now if we assume the definition to mean some sort of prophecy or omen for an event years into the future, gimme a break. The only sure way of knowing something will happen is by observing it, or by controlling parameters to ensure that there is only one path the event can take. (And even THEN quantum theory states that isnt a surefire way) Which is why i say we are MOST of the time, VERY-short-term-future seer's, but not all of the time.

How else would you explain someone tripping down the stairs? =]

There's probably plenty of fallacies here, but i dont have the time to point them out. Much easier to think them out.

Back to Seinfeld.

-Slater