# Would you'd rather be a telepath or a precog?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 27, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697 "2010-06-27T18:38:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/61 "2010-07-03T04:14:10Z")

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“I can barely be trusted with my brain as it is!”

Yeah, that sums it up pretty well.

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**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/62 "2010-07-03T15:00:55Z")

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> [@Tengu](#):
>
> The only way it’s any good is if it’s REALLY short term - a world with free will and randomness, but the predictions come close enough, temporally speaking, to when the actual events happen, that, barring my, or somebody directly involved, deliberately changing the circumstances, there’s not enough time for changed circumstances to percolate into significantly different outcome.

My thought is that the precognition described is less predicting what will happen, but rather looking through various possible futures and picking the one you want to move toward. A given person can only experience one track, but that doesn’t mean that the other tracks don’t exist in other timelines. That’s why, once you consciously move toward a given premonition, the spider-sense stops working till you reach that point; you’ve locked yourself into a given timeline.

This has its own problems, of course. If I decide to look ahead to tonight’s Mega-Millions drawing to get the winning numbers, I may not realize that I’ve chosen a future in which I choke on a chicken-bone and die tonight as well.

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**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/63 "2010-07-03T15:19:12Z")

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“I’d rather be a hammer than a nail. Yes I would!”

Sorry, **Skald**! You’re my friend, but I could not resist!🙂

Precog (like my bud **aruvqan** ). I like knowing what’s coming at me! 🙂

Thanks

Quasi

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**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/64 "2010-07-06T20:12:45Z")

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> [@Lamia](#):
>
> I’m a bit surprised by other posters’ take on the privacy issue, because pre-cognitive abilities could also be used to invade the privacy of others. […] I don’t see any significant difference between the two when it comes to respect for the privacy of others.

Really? You don’t see \*any \*difference between something the privacy implications of which are ultimately duplicable with existing technology (e.g., hidden cameras and PIs) and something that can invade someone completely unvoiced, private, personal _thoughts_? :dubious:

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