I was just thinking, wouldn't it be cool if you could see just 5 seconds into the future constantly? Not enough to really change the outcome of world events, but just enough to see it coming.

Our recent threads have focused on being mentally prepared to deal with a situation. I wonder, is it possible to be able to almost predict what will happen in the next 5 seconds, all the time. Seems like I know people kinda like that, an older Seargent from Iraq, one of our construction field superintendents, my brother the physicist...each seems to be constantly able to anticipate what's about to happen, within their particular realms that is. It is almost like they know what is coming, just before it gets there. You could call it the Annakin Skywalker effect I suppose.

I think being able to accurately predict what's about to happen all the time is a possible trait, but it requires a lot of discipline, and a fair amount of knowledge. The chance for success is inversely proportional to improbability (see Hitch-hiker's guide to the Galaxy).

Might make for some interesting times in Vegas.

Heightened awareness through continual personal development and broad-based life experience could be a large factor in the "phenomenon". The more active the mind/body/spirit is on a daily basis the more likely you are to be sensitive/aware of a larger variety of possible stimuli. Hence, you have a greater capacity to process an increased number of them. Then again, I could just be blowing smoke.

My 2 cents worth

It's an interesting topic. I've met folks in life who have a sixth sense about their environment, like Benjamin's folks. I think MoBOB is pretty close on this, its heightened awareness of their surroundings. Where I've seen it most acute is in the smallest physical places strangely enough - a tailor, a dentist, a barber. Each moved with a physical grace that was almost a ballet, but they had moved about that particular room for 40 years or more, and were happy doing it. I think my old dentist could do a filling with his eyes closed, he was so adept. The most expansive environment I've seen it exhibited is a construction site safety officer, Phil, who really had it good (or bad), word was he could call every single safety issue including the two accidents he was too late to stop.

Maybe not the same, but I got the same chill watching Clemente in Right Field as a kid, and Fred Beckey going up a vertical rock slab outside Leavenworth WA one day. I think they can both anticipate the future just a bit.

I think it's a skill that can be developed.

What seems like magic is really more of a level of awareness and informed response that has developed from somewhere.

It starts with observing and analysing rather than just seeing.
Actively assess the environment then act. After awhile it seems almost instinctive.

Most of us get the concept with driving as an example. Some people drive and accidents happen to them and they get hit by road debris and people cut them off and they cut others off and they generally just blunder along.

But others see that blunderer coming and know that the blunderer will have to change lanes shortly and that there will be a conflict with the guy 2 lanes over who is also going to have to change lanes ..... and they aren't there when the situation gets bad.

One can do this for the outdoors, or flying, or boating as well.

I wonder how we'd react to seeing our own demise, or that of a loved one, five seconds before it happened.

That can be arranged.......

(just kidding!)

The plan might already be drawn up.

I had this basic idea as pertains to having kids...through my own experience, I came to think of the saying that parents have eyes in the back of their head comes from having to predict what kids will do. I've walked out of a room they were in, and it clicked that they were going to get into trouble/do something self-destructive with what was in the room, or that they'd be heading toward something breakable, etc. I've walked back into the room to catch them just in time.

So my thought is that having eyes in the back of your head is being able to think about 5 seconds into the future for what the kids will do.

Dave

Experience in similar situations, and a good memory, can give a person a sense of how certain things tend ti work out. I go on a job and see a bunch of young bucks who are inexperienced, highly enthusiastic, trying to prove how good they are, or are being paid by the job and the first thing I do is grab the first-aid kit. No need to make a production about it. Not having an accident is good to.

But groups of young guys, enthusiasm, lack of planning and experience, and an inherently hazardous job usually means someone gets hurt. Someone will leave a tool on top of a ladder. Someone else will start to move the ladder and the tool will come down on their head. A load will get dropped on a foot. Someone will fail to use gloves handling a sheet metal fixture and slice their palms. But odds are it will happen.

And when it does your Johnny-on-the spot with the first-aid kit and and a well practiced safety talk that makes the injury an object lesson on safety. An outside observer might conclude you knew what was going to happen ahead of time.

Experience shows that if the young bucks are used to unload fragile materials they will damage a certain percentage. So when ordering it pays to order a few extra. Makes it look like you saw into the future when they break one and people assume it will delay the job. Only to be relieved there was extra.

Experience and an eye toward how things tend to go and how and why things fall apart might be construed as being able to see into the future.

Not really.

You'd be going a N+5s, and you see the most likely outcomes. At N+t, with t being the smallest possible time lag between comprehension and reaction, you recalculate, and see the possible outcomes at N+t+5s. Over and over and over. You'd overload.

The human brain evolved to live in N-, due to that lag between sensing and reaction. Humans live in the past, literally. The future can't be accurately seen, and the present is an illusion.

And now I'm going to go take some aspirin. Ben, you made my brain hurt.

"Experience shows that if the young bucks are used to unload fragile materials they will damage a certain percentage. So when ordering it pays to order a few extra."

Overall, it would probably be cheaper to hire older people with a halfway decent work ethic.

Sue

Interesting subject.

I notice that some people are more intuitive than others, and they pick up patterns that lead them to anticipate events. Other people seem to be constantly unaware, and are always caught off guard. While I would not say that it could not be learned to some degree, I'm inclined to say that this intuition is innate. People who pick up on things are getting better at it because they're always doing it. People who rarely do so will get better at a much slower rate.

I can think of quite a few instances in my life where I had a strong sense that something was going to happen before it did. At the time, I could not tell you how I knew what I did, but the thought was still very clear. Looking back, I can identify clues that I must have picked up on that even without realizing it, I was able to piece together a predictable outcome. It's like my subconscious got it, even though my conscious mind didn't realize until afterward.

We are constantly discerning inputs from our environment. Somehow we have to decide which of our sensory inputs deserve our attention and which does not. Sometimes it's something obvious like a threatening sound, or seeing something moving toward us. Other times, it's more subtle, like a pattern that changed somewhat, and gave us a clue that something was up. It's these subtle inputs, and the way we process them, that seems so mysterious.

Majority older crews can often get more done by planning, tight cooperation and a superior knowledge of the job. But in a lot of cases there is a certain amount of grunt work that benefits from youthful strength, enthusiasm and endurance.

Generally the best crews are a mix.

When the allies were planning D-Day they purposely made sure the vast majority of the troops were young and had no previous combat experience. These are the guys who can be convinced that that it is entirely possible, even noble and heroic, to charge uphill across an open beach into a well entrenched enemy force.

Combat veterans and older men are far less enthusiastic about such propositions.

But to this inexperienced majority they added a leavening of older, experienced veterans. The guys who could pick up the pieces, organize and lead.

The young troops were there because they didn't know any better. The older troops went along because they knew that the young guys were babes in the wood and would need guidance once their illusions about war had been dashed.

It is a fair model for our crews.