How accurately have your past thoughts mirrored the future?

[Deleted member 28564]

Today, as I was working, I stumbled upon a task I didn't know how to complete. A small, insignificant task. One that isn't nearly important enough to expand on, but a task in need of completion nonetheless. And so I did what I always do: I solicited Google's help. It was then that I noticed a 2012 web page. It was also then that I started musing on my habitual visits to older forum posts in the interest of attaining information. Forum posts are essentially time capsules. They represent a collection of recorded thoughts produced and confined in a short space of time.

So, questions:

• Have you ever made a prediction (or ever had thoughts you had recorder in some way or form) about the future,
• Which you later revisited (or can revisit now), and
• How closely did/do these thoughts and reality line up?

And, on another note, have you ever created a traditional time capsule or participated in the creation or unveiling of one?

 

[ClassAndFear]

I'm a novelist, predominantly writing science fiction.

I had a novel published in 2012, called THE TESTIMONY, where everybody in the world hears a weird sound, and then a pandemic starts, and which now reads like some sort of 5g truther text --
I had a novel published in 2014 called THE MACHINE, set in a far-right England wracked by global warming --
I had a novel published in 2015 called NO HARM CAN COME TO A GOOD MAN, where a company called ClearVista (not ClearView) used scoured data in their predictive algorithms to tell you what you were going to do and when --

(Which is to say, science fiction people fucking chance on stuff all the time that makes them look like prophets if you squint in a sort of cold-reading way)

 

[Deleted member 28564]

which now reads like some sort of 5g truther text --

Click to shrink...

You could shamelessly market your work like this, if you wanted to. Selectively quote portions of your novel and present it to the masses. You might face some repercussions, but authors get away with that all the time, don't they? I smell opportunity!

 

[Midgarian]

This was my answer to a High School task about future career aspirations:

It has not yet come true, but I'm working on it.

 

[julia crawford]

About a year sounds right

 

[WellbornWarrior]

I'm a novelist, predominantly writing science fiction.

I had a novel published in 2012, called THE TESTIMONY, where everybody in the world hears a weird sound, and then a pandemic starts, and which now reads like some sort of 5g truther text --
I had a novel published in 2014 called THE MACHINE, set in a far-right England wracked by global warming --
I had a novel published in 2015 called NO HARM CAN COME TO A GOOD MAN, where a company called ClearVista (not ClearView) used scoured data in their predictive algorithms to tell you what you were going to do and when --

(Which is to say, science fiction people fucking chance on stuff all the time that makes them look like prophets if you squint in a sort of cold-reading way)

Click to shrink...

If you have any novels lined up you should probably postpone them to not give 2020 more ideas.

 

[Deleted member 28564]

This was my answer to a High School task about future career aspirations:

It has not yet come true, but I'm working on it.

Click to shrink...

Sculpting your future is cheating! That said, it's highly admirable if you're already on your way there, and will be even more so upon completion. Good luck with your aspirations.

If you have any novels lined up you should probably postpone them to not give 2020 more ideas.

Click to shrink...

2020 will peer into your mind, should you not be forthcoming enough. There's no escape; don't make the mistake in thinking that there is.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

2020 will peer into your mind, should you not be forthcoming enough. There's no escape; don't make the mistake in thinking that there is.

Click to shrink...

 

[ClassAndFear]

You could shamelessly market your work like this, if you wanted to. Selectively quote portions of your novel and present it to the masses. You might face some repercussions, but authors get away with that all the time, don't they? I smell opportunity!

Click to shrink...

GREED IS GOOD etc etc

If you have any novels lined up you should probably postpone them to not give 2020 more ideas.

Click to shrink...

The one I'm currently working on is about an apocalypse, but of linear time, so let's cross our fingers.

 

[Night Hunter]

Lol, if anything, I give all these dumb fucks running around out there too much credit. Every time I think that it can't get worse, it does.

Which probably makes me the actual dumb fuck, tbqh

 

[TGR Sean]

(Which is to say, science fiction people fucking chance on stuff all the time that makes them look like prophets if you squint in a sort of cold-reading way)

Click to shrink...

Came here to say something similar. Wrote a story a few years ago about a pandemic that led to issues with police brutality. The pandemic was more about giving people magical powers than killing them with an illness, though death certainly became a thing as a result of people wielding magic. There was plenty of politics and police fuckery as a result. It's funny this thread popped up because this exact ephiphany happened last night as I was going to bed.

 

[Deleted member 28564]

It's funny this thread popped up because this exact ephiphany happened last night as I was going to bed.

Click to shrink...

Our minds are magnetic. A clear consequence of the 5g beams being directed into our skulls by the cloud people. As ClassAndFear's prophecies would attest.

 

[Maximilian]

In high school, I was laser focused on drawing and becoming an animator. Drawing was almost everything to me. One day in art class, I had a weird thought about my future that didn't end up with animation/drawing. Saw myself as a journalist, or a news anchor of some kind. People would somehow care what I had to say. I ignored it as it was a passing thought and focused on my art and career after HS in 2001.

Career took a turn, worked in the games industry in 2007, started making fighting game videos and by the time 2014 rolled around, had the biggest FG channel on YT. Remembered that moment randomly when I started to do well and realized this is my full-time job. It still weirds me out to this day.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

In high school, I was laser focused on drawing and becoming an animator. Drawing was almost everything to me. One day in art class, I had a weird thought about my future that didn't end up with animation/drawing. Saw myself as a journalist, or a news anchor of some kind. People would somehow care what I had to say. I ignored it as it was a passing thought and focused on my art and career after HS in 2001.

Career took a turn, worked in the games industry in 2007, started making fighting game videos and by the time 2014 rolled around, had the biggest FG channel on YT. Remembered that moment randomly when I started to do well and realized this is my full-time job. It still weirds me out to this day.

Click to shrink...

Didn't even realize you have an account here, cheers.

I say things turning out for the best but not necessarily how you envisioned it is the best anyone can wish for.

 

[Deleted member 28564]

In high school, I was laser focused on drawing and becoming an animator. Drawing was almost everything to me. One day in art class, I had a weird thought about my future that didn't end up with animation/drawing. Saw myself as a journalist, or a news anchor of some kind. People would somehow care what I had to say. I ignored it as it was a passing thought and focused on my art and career after HS in 2001.

Career took a turn, worked in the games industry in 2007, started making fighting game videos and by the time 2014 rolled around, had the biggest FG channel on YT. Remembered that moment randomly when I started to do well and realized this is my full-time job. It still weirds me out to this day.

Click to shrink...

When you have time to spare, please envision me as a millionaire of any kind. Would be much appreciated. Without a decade and a bit's lead time, if you can help it. That's quite something, though. YouTube likely wasn't even a complete thought at the time, so your spidey senses saw an opportunity in the raw, undeveloped market. And perhaps a reminder that the world is constantly developing and opportunities likewise.

 

[UberTag]

I made a conscious decision to create a thread over at the old place a week after Trump's inauguration because I knew how ruinous he would be for both America and the rest of the free world.

I won't be able to link it directly for obvious reasons and I don't exactly consider this to be an amazing precognitive leap in logic on my part. In fact, the most striking thing about the thread in question is that I was calling attention to something Trump had said in an interview... and it may well have been the most honest statement he's ever made.

So here's the skinny...

/threads/trump-on-record-advocating-economic-collapse-is-needed-to-make-america-great-again.1337582/ - January 25th, 2017

Trump on record advocating economic collapse is needed to "make America great again"

He's never, not once, been dishonest about the path he ultimately wanted to lead the United States of America.
And when you consider that this is a man who perpetually lies about everything, that's downright scary.