In this blog post, we take an intriguing look at the possibility of time travel and predicting the future from the perspectives of scientific theory and human free will.
Most people have probably imagined time travel at least once during their childhood. We used to lose ourselves in a world of endless imagination, asking questions like, “I want to go back in time and see dinosaurs in person,” or “How will people live in the future?” However, as we grow up, we move away from these fanciful imaginings and focus on more practical matters. Yet the concept of the “future” remains deeply embedded in our minds. Whether it is the distant future or the near future, we are conscious of the time ahead as we prepare for the present, and we move toward the future dreaming of a better life. But what if the future we are rushing toward is already predetermined—an irreversible, one-way path? In other words, what if a future fixed like destiny awaits us, regardless of our choices and actions?
Since the days of Newtonian mechanics, scientists have believed that the world operates according to fixed laws. This belief gave rise to the idea that if we could discover the laws governing all natural phenomena, we could predict future outcomes. For example, if a person drops a ball held in their hand, the ball will naturally fall downward. We know the law of gravity, by which the Earth pulls the ball, and the law that a force applied to an object accelerates it in that direction. Therefore, we can predict the ball’s motion. Although this principle is merely a simple example, the belief that the world operates according to various scientific laws—and that understanding these laws precisely allows us to foresee future events—has long dominated human thought.
Since the Industrial Revolution, science and technology have advanced by leaps and bounds, and many scientists believed that the future could be predicted through the laws of nature. Active research in various fields, including physics, chemistry, and biology, led to the discovery of numerous scientific principles applicable to human life. Modern science even attempts to scientifically understand emotions and behavior by analyzing the activity of neurons and the responses of the nervous system within the human brain. These studies ultimately fostered the hope that even human emotions and behavior could become predictable. In other words, human behavior is also determined by scientific laws. Thus, the belief that “the future can be understood through scientific laws” dominated the thinking of scientists and the public until the early 20th century, reinforcing a deterministic worldview.
However, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, published in 1927, brought about a major shift in this deterministic worldview. The Uncertainty Principle revealed that objects do not move perfectly according to scientific laws but possess unmeasurable errors and uncertainties. This means that the position and momentum of any object cannot be measured precisely at the same time, and the results can only be predicted probabilistically. Consequently, while we can still apply the laws we know to predict the future in localized situations, uncertainty increases as time passes or the scope of prediction widens, making it impossible to predict the future with precision. Thus, predictions about the future have become a labyrinth. We have reached the conclusion that, unless science overcomes the limits of uncertainty, we cannot know the future with certainty.
Where does the human desire to predict the future come from? The reason is that our lives are closely connected to the future. Everyone harbors both hope and fear regarding the future, and uncertainty about the future greatly influences our present choices. If we could know the future in advance, we could prepare for unexpected dangers and act strategically to steer the future in the direction we desire. Ironically, however, this vague longing for future predictions often leads to anxiety and confusion.
The movie *Minority Report* explores this dilemma surrounding future prediction in an intriguing way. In the film, Agatha (Samantha Morton) is a psychic with the ability to foresee the future, and her precognitive powers are used by the police to prevent crimes before they occur. The protagonist, John Anderton (Tom Cruise), learns through Agatha’s visions that he is destined to become a criminal and tries to escape that fate. However, the incident he tried to prevent ultimately occurs, and in the final scene, Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow) gains the opportunity to change his fate through his own choices, even while possessing foresight of the future. The film presents a scenario where human free will is put to the test the moment the future is known, conveying the message that it is not the future that is predetermined, but human thoughts and choices.
This story poses an important question for us as well. Will our desire to know the future truly bring us happiness and peace? Or is it merely a factor that amplifies unnecessary anxiety and stress? While knowing in advance what will happen in the future and preparing for it can sometimes be helpful, the predicted future does not necessarily unfold exactly as planned. In fact, if the events we sought to foresee turn out differently than expected, the disappointment will be far greater. Rather than striving to know an uncertain future, accepting that the future unfolds anew with every moment may bring us peace of mind.
The fact that the future is uncertain actually offers us greater freedom. It is important for us to live faithfully in the present, not in a predetermined future, but in a future that constantly changes according to our own choices and efforts. Rather than worrying about bad things happening, isn’t a life filled with the positive mindset that something good will happen tomorrow the true definition of happiness? Letting go of the desire to predict the future and living with anticipation for the tomorrow that has not yet arrived will make life more fulfilling.
