Monday, February 22, 2010

The Future: Flash Forward

Has anyone been watching Flash Forward TV series? Well, the basic story is that one day everybody in the planet loses consciousness in a few minutes and during those few minutes, they get a "flash forward" to 6 months ahead.

How do they know that it's a flash forward? 'Coz there are some people who remember seeing the calendar in their flash forward. However, after some investigations, turns out that there are some people who didn't black out during those minutes (I don't know yet why this happens) and there are also some people who don't see anything during their black outs.

Those people who don't see anything feel that there's a chance that they might be dead already by then. One of them is engaged to a beautiful woman, but after the black out, he's confused 'coz he feels that he can't fight "fate". After all, he finds out that somebody else has a flash forward where she witnesses his death. How are you supposed to go on living after getting such information?

Another person "sees" himself being back to be a drunkard in his flash forward. This guy's wife sees herself with another man in their mutual house in her flash forward. They both finally confide to each other about what they see in their flash forwards, so the relationship between them is now tensed and there's less and less trust as the tension grows.

One person is actually about to kill himself when the black out happens. In his vision, he sees himself with a beautiful woman 6 months ahead and thus when he gains consciousness again, he decides that life is beautiful (or will be beautiful in 6 months' time), so he's determined to find that woman in his flash forward.

Another man sees something disturbing in his flash forward, so he decides to end it right then and there by killing himself so that he won't cause grief to those people he sees in his flash forward.

My question is: What's the use of knowing the future then? If the future you "see" is good, then it'll probably do you good (that's if you believe it and you're not skeptical), especially if you're stuck in a rut and in the flash forward you know that things can change in months or years. But if it's bad, won't it ruin everything, esp. if you have a fatalistic POV?



It's interesting to watch those people with different personalities handle this "flash forwards", though. :-))) I myself think that there's no just one linear path to the future. People CAN change and there are so many different factors involved in one's life...the only sure thing that'll happen to everyone is death.

5 comments:

  1. Woah, I'm really glad this can't happen. I wouldn't want to know, no matter if the future was good or bad. But in theory, simply by actually seeing their future lifes, didn't that prevent the people from naturally getting there? Since all of them had to made decisions after having seen the flash forwards, and those decisions directly affected the potential future?

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  2. Bitter Chocolate: I understand what you mean 'coz that's what I think too.

    The thing is, in the series some people are determined NOT to let the bad things in the flash forward happen, but there are some people who are fatalistic about the flash forwards (esp. those who don't get any flash forwards).

    But then again I have this feeling that in the series there are some things that DO happen (bad things) 'coz they have seen the flash forwards...if they haven't seen those flash forwards, they may have done everything differently.

    Take for example the hubby and the wife - whose wife sees herself with another man in their mutual house 6 months from now. Their relationship becomes strained 'coz they tell each other of their flash forwards and their trust is broken, esp. when it's found out who the guy is in the wife's flash forward (which is her patient's father).

    So what's the use of knowing the bad thing anyway in this case, right?

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  3. I wouldn't like to see my future. I want to make it happen myself :)

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  4. I think when we go through hard times we are wondering a lot, "When will this end". I had an awful time in 2002-2003, almost being without hope. Clearly, if I flashed forward (like you say) I would have drawn comfort from that.
    You make a really good point, b/c when I graduated from high school there was a big expectation that I was going to do great things. If I knew how much I was going to struggle, then I would have felt bad.
    That's another big point. If we decide to do something new, I would think for the most part, it's really good that we don't know what will happen. Why?
    Because it takes some sacrifice to change your life and if you realize how much, you likely WON'T do it.

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  5. Rita: GREAT statement! :-D THANKS for answering my question.

    ChicagoWing: Hi, Vince...LOVE your POV and your take on my question. Indeed in many points in life we have to sacrifice some things (or I love calling it: we have to pay the price for every consequences of our decisions) and it does make sense that when you list on those sacrifices NOW to be able to get to a certain point in the future, you'll probably shrink away from it he he he...

    Cheers to life! :-D I think sometimes it's better to just live day by day instead of trying to "build" a future far ahead...you'll never know what happens in between those two points in life anyway. Surprises may come: good or bad. :-D

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