The Sword and Laser discussion

I always have a problem reading this type of novel. If I found out I lived X number of year/months in the future, my first thought would be, "Great ! That means until then I am immortal - nothing can kill me"

If I thought of this then you can bet that most crooks, soldiers, etc. will have too. Rob a bank and not be killed - Great ! Walk ithrough the middle of a firefight and not be killed - Great !

So - how is this dealt with in the book?

I didn't read the book yet but listening to the author in the interview it seems clear to me that is the central conflict he was writing about in the book. If you believe that people have no free will then your right about how people would act. If you believe they have free will then their actions would change the future they glimpsed by their actions they take now. I thought Frank Hebert spoke to this issue also in the two books that came after Dune. I think you change your future when you act on knowledge you have so you wouldn't then be immortal.

I'm talking more practical than theoretical.

I'm not really discussing free will. That would be too easy to prove or disprove in this case.

Your friend tells you he will be alive - push him in a snake pit. He lives then he is immortal for X years/months. He dies - well then good thing you tried it out on someone else before you did it yourself

seems pretty random to me. What if your friend lives so you try it then you die?

someone tells you wou will be alive in ten years guaranteed. yes you can take risks like go to war rob a bank etc.. but now you are doing this because you have been told this.

this is the situation in the book and now that you know this future havent you changed the outcome? before you lived that time without knowing that you were going to live so now you are doing things differently thinking you will survive. arent you now going to make different decisions.

things were different in the book because they were told, yes alot were the same but slightly different. not to list spoils but alot of people died who lived and lived who dies because the world changed due to this foreknowledge.

so this book is about free will or predestination, whether now that you know the future do you change the future or is it the case that the futured you were told is a result of being told the future and hence free will is only an illusion. the author i think is very much addressing this issue, and as a philosophy major brings in many philosophical and theoretical debates and arguments that have been written.

Ahh... So the book took the "you only saw a *possible* future - not the only future approach"

Essentially the Alternate worlds concept.

You could still be horribly, horribly maimed. :p

Yeah a lot of characters who think this through explain their future looks away by potential advances in health sciences.

Also you never find out what happened to dr. Beranger's son, to explain his vision of the future, do you?