Everyone has wanted at least once in their life to change some things in their past or to see the future. But none of us have yet been able to change the past, or few of us have been able to consistently predict the future. So, if we could change the past, what would we change and what would that lead to?
Some of us want to forget an embarrassing memory from childhood like it has never happened, while some of us want to solve a recent problem that is important for the moment. For example, most of us have taken important exams in our past and got a good or bad result, and if our result is not good or at least good enough, the first thing we think about is that we may have studied harder and got a good result or changed an answer that we gave but was not sure about. But unfortunately, it has already happened, and it is not at our will to change the past.
So, what would happen if we could change the past whenever we wanted, what would be the cost? First of all, we would experience a burst of self-confidence. Because that moment which made us shy and unhappy would now be replaced by a happier and proud moment, and therefore our self-confidence would increase immeasurably. And this increased self-confidence could have had many good and bad consequences. So how could this increase in self-confidence benefit us? For example, it could make us braver. Because if we made a mistake, we would have a chance to fix it, and that would make us more assertive. Thanks to this assertiveness, we could be more successful in the future.
Of course, there are also some downsides to this situation. For example, people around you might be jealous of our success and try to exclude us. In addition, the power you will gain through the success you have achieved could also make you power drunk, and therefore, it could cause you to bully people and win many enemies or rivals.
Until now, we’ve spoken of the changing of the past and now it’s the changing of future. So, what would happen or what would we change if we could predict the future consistently? First of all, the reason we want to predict the future is fear and uncertainty which is the reason we want to survive, because people are afraid of what they don’t know and try not to happen to them. Likewise, we often cannot predict the future correctly and we fear it because we do not know it.
So, what would happen if we could predict what would happen in the future or if we knew what would happen in advance? First of all, the world would be a wonderful place. Because we could predict natural disasters and any problems that may arise, and we could minimize the damage by taking precautionary measures. But if people didn’t care as they do today, it wouldn’t matter how accurate the prediction was, and everything would still be the same as it is today.
If someone had asked me which of these two abilities I wanted, I would probably have chosen to predict the future without thinking. Because changing the past would have a huge impact on me and my personality and could take away some of the things that made me who I am. On the other hand, predicting the future might have solved all my problems and also help me solve others’ problems too.
So now its your turn, would you predict the future or change the past?