Black Box sees into the future

[jewpinthethird]

Wait...if it can see into the future, and thus predict tragedies and the like, then (assuming it became a crediable source) if it predicted a tragedy, wouldnt it also be able to predict itself predicting a tragedy, having people prepare thus causing the tragedy not to happen, therefore it would not predict a tragedy and thus the tragedy would occur?

[alainbryden]

lol. Winner.

[Neonatrias]

Deep stuff, man. But I don't know if that's really what the thing does.

Alright, some religions tend to believe in a uniting force through the world and all creation. Assuming that such a force exists, the strange reactions of that box may be picking up fluctuations in the said force. Of course, you can take that or leave that as you will, and I'm not saying that it's true. I still don't know what to make of it. But if it really works, that's my rationality of it. What I'm saying is, it's like a seismograph, just on a different level.

[jewpinthethird]

Deep stuff, man. But I don't know if that's really what the thing does.

Yeah, I know...but my way is more fun.

[nforcer06164]

There's no way to say for sure what it really does. I don't think one of you is completely right, though. Both theories, those of Neonatrias and jewpinthethird, make a lot of sense in their own rights. I would have to say that maybe both of your statements, combined somehow, seems even more probable that either one alone.

[ffr13524]

It is cool...BUT I doubt it can peer into the future. Anyone watch that Bible Code special on the history channel. Acrostics in the bible predicted things that happened (asassinations, terrorist attacks, etc...). Then again, so did Moby Dick. If you look hard enough, you can say that what im typing now (if I kept going on for a while) predicted the American Revolution.

[Tasselfoot]

Maybe that is because the American Revolution already occured, Nostradamus. The point you were trying to make is that anyone writing something long enough will create a pattern that can be interpreted as a "prediction" of the future. It is along the lines of putting 100 monkeys in a room for eternity and they will eventually write Shakespeare. Or, it is like statistics. Give me data and I'll use statistics to tell you whatever you want it to tell you.

[ffr13524]

Glad you get my point there. In fact I dug up the whole thing about Moby Dick. http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/moby.html It's worth taking a look at.

[psychic25]

Wait...if it can see into the future, and thus predict tragedies and the like, then (assuming it became a crediable source) if it predicted a tragedy, wouldnt it also be able to predict itself predicting a tragedy, having people prepare thus causing the tragedy not to happen, therefore it would not predict a tragedy and thus the tragedy would occur?

Interesting. But anyway, I'm not sure if I believe in this whole thing or not.

Another thought idea: What if the box predicts something and people react to it in a panic, and do something like what Tps said and launch a spaceship, and then that spaceship blows up on the launch pad? That would mean it was the cause of the event, because if it had never gone haywire, the spaceship never would have launched and blown up. Then that means that it didn't really predict the future- rather, it caused a future event.

So this is an argument against ever being able to use the black box- it may "predict" events by making them happen. If the black box's warning was not heeded, nothing would have happened. If its predictions actually happen to be true and humanity prepares for a large disaster, something totally unexpected may happen. So basically, the world just has to sit back and watch while disaster happens.

My supporting paragraph may not be very coherent, and I apologize (It's really late right now) but I do like the thought idea.

[DracIV]

I also thought of something interesting. . . if these random number generators really reacted to 9/11, it would not have been a SPIKE four hours beforehand. It would have been a constantly rising amount of deviation with a massive spike at the 10 minutes between the two plane hits. That is the required pattern for their explanation to be true. However, since it spiked (random, common occurance) and it was off by four hours, they are only reaching for an explanation and it is complete BS. So it has no evidence, no use, and even what they had was interpreted wrong.