(December 21, 2016 at 6:46 pm)robvalue Wrote: Let's also say precognition is possible. So it is previously knowable, at all points before this decision is made, that I will pick the number X. What number do I pick? I pick the number X, of course.
Pretending we believe free will is a thing to begin with, If I pick a number between one and ten, and video tape it, would you agree the tape is a recording of me exercising choice?
Let's pretend you say yes.
Now we send the tape back in time. What is on the tape now? It's still a recording of me exercising choice. The time change doesn't change what the tape is.
Precognition is a form of time travel. Some aspect of the precog travels to the future, witnesses an event, and the information is returned to the past. It is just a copy. A VHS tape of the real event, and there is nothing about the tape being in the past rather than being after the event that changes the nature of what is on the tape.
If you want precognition to be magically knowing things on a linear timeline without any time travel (or other temporal weirdness), I agree with what you're saying. But in the frame of this discussion, I don't think you can put that precognition in that box.
