Spoilers

[da]

Friday night we saw the movie Diabolique, which was one of Hitchcock's style-influences. It was an OK (but merely OK) suspense/horror story.

Which I bring up now because it ended with a spoiler warning. Something like, "Don't be diabolical! Keep the surprise ending from your friends who haven't seen it yet!" ...And fifty years later, I won't say more about the surprise, out of respect for that.

This week, I've also seen a two-part Doctor Who episode from the new Series 4, which involves the Doctor meeting another time-traveller- she knows him very well; he's just meeting her for the first time. The show handled the interpersonal dynamics quite well. She'd tell him something impossible, he'd ask her incredulous questions, and she said, "Sorry, spoiler." The look on his face...

I like the dance in this show, between the Doctor being omniscient yet not- compared to men, he's like a god; but his omniscience usually turns out to be experience over his amazingly long lifespan, being very clever, and having good instincts for how things ought to turn out.

And this makes a story. True omniscience and omnipotence only make good stories in short doses (or maybe as acquired tastes).

(Of course in Doctor Who, he also treads the line on omnipotence; I know some people find it overly deus ex machina, but there seem to be a lot of things in science fiction that I'm willing to suspend disbelief for when it otherwise feels like a good story...)

I was recently thinking about these: would I be happier to know how something will turn out, with 100% certainty? How about probabilities? It seems to me that's the difference between a spoiler and a coming-attraction; it's all in the mystery.

And if I may get a bit theological in my journal; if there's a word for what God means to me, it might just be that: mystery.

So: bring on all the predictions through any human filter you like. But if we get to the time where we've got scientific instruments that can map a person's life with 100% certainty, or if I were to suddenly discover I believe in a God who doesn't respect free will... I expect then I'll have problems.

Comments

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I think I am deeply in love with River Song.

Of course, it is all down to the screwdriver...

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she does seriously rock.

"Just use the red settings!"

[dpolicar]

:-) The joys of ignorance.

I would be interested in your thoughts and feelings about free will and what it means to respect it.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Yes. Though, it'll have to be not-tonight, because da_lj thud down go fall now.

Or something like that.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Daniel Gilbert's book reminded me that free will, or an illusion of free will, is important to my feelings of well-being. ...I'm also aware other people may feel secure in the absence of free will. (And hey, maybe I am too, just in other arenas than I'm thinking about right now).

When I wrote "a God who doesn't respect free will," I was thinking of the analog of an authoritarian leader/parent, the structures that seem to lead to people who think God is smiting Florida for voting the wrong way.

I might have more to say, but the thoughts tend to go around and around without saying much new right now...

[dpolicar]

(nods) Makes sense.