Science Fiction: Does God Play Dice?

Futurology: Dreaming the Future

Futurology is a term which was coined by the German historian Ossip Flectheim History and Futurology (1949), which described a new science of prognostication and forecasting future events. Forecasting the framework of social fields including economic, political and sociological trends can be measured by researching dreams. Across history, dream interpretation has developed in most cultures, many of the theories have a forward viewing prospective function (complementing a retrospective function). The Bible takes a forward looking perspective, Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dream as forecasting the agrarian economics of ancient Eygpt. In ancient Greece the dream was viewed as an oracle that foreshadowed the future.

Prophetic Dreams: Experiments in Time

John Dunne Experiments in Time (published 1927) believed that "dreaming the future" was not an occult experience, but instead a scientific curiosity that one day would be explained by physicists. The Canadian newspaper The Hamilton Spectator published an article Dreaming Disaster (April 13, 2002) in which a Canadian woman "reveals the disturbing dream her mother had before Titanic's maiden voyage...a dream that saved her father's life". Based on the wife's dreams of the Titanic's demise and her pleas not to undertake the trip, the husand decided not to go on the fated voyage.  

President Abraham Lincoln reportedly had a precognitive dream shortly before his assassination. In his dream Lincoln found a corpse in the East Room of the White House which was wrapped in funeral vestments. Lincoln asked one of the soldiers stationed there; "Who is dead?", "The President", was the soldiers answer, "he was killed by an assassin." Other precognitive dreams reported appear to have predicted 9//11 and the 2003 Shuttle disaster.

Hollywood Science Fiction Films: Does God Play Dice?

Does God play dice, or is the future predetermined? For Ivan Frolov in Global Problems and the Future of Mankind, humans have always dreamt of a better future. Unresolved social problems are reflected in many SF stories. David is an abandoned android child in search of his human mother. On his Pinocchio like journey, David meets a holographic oracular Turing Machine "Dr Know" in Steven Spielberg's film Artificial Intelligence: A. I(see trailer). After experiencing his reunion with his human mother, David is able to sleep for the first time and "go to that place where dreams are born". In the Stephen Spielberg's film Minority Report (view trailer/the film was based on the short story by Phillip Dick) a computer abets a resurrected Delphic oracle (three women known as "precogs" who can make prophesies) in curbing crime. In the film Déjà Vu (watch trailer) Denzel Washington is a New Orleans ATF agent (Bureau of Alcohol, Tabacco, Firearms and Explosives) Doug Carlin, Carlin after learning that the Government has created a machine that can view the past, makes it his mission to save a woman from her certain death. The film Paycheck (see trailer/the movie was based based on the Phillip Dick's short story of the same name) starring Ben Afflick (as Michael Jennings) and Uma Thurman (as Dr Rachael Porter) work together to destroy a machine which can view the future. In the film Next (view trailer/loosely based on the short story by Phillip Dick The Golden Man) Nicholas Cage is Chris Johnson a Las Vegas magician who can see into the future. Both the FBI and nuclear terrorists are looking for Johnson, the former group wants to recruit him in stopping the terrorists and the later group wants to eliminate any possible causes of the failure of their plans of destroying Los Angeles.

All material Copyright 2006 International Institute for Dream Research. All rights reserved.