Keoul said:
Boris Goodenough said:
Why not prevent it? Avoid decades of war and misery and hopefully make a more peaceful relationship between the west and the middle-east?
Because no one is going to believe a crazy guy spouting about terrorists bombing the twin towers and the pentagon and some field with hijacked planes.
They'd probably think I'm drunk.
It's pretty easy to prove you're not crazy. Just remember what happened around that time and start making predictions - word of mouth will take off that there's some guy who keeps making true predictions and it won't take long for reputable organizations like the New York Times to take interest. Then you can get your predictions, still all coming true, published in the New York Times. And when they keep coming true the sky's the limit for what's possible in terms of exposure.
The more interesting question is whether or not this process would influence reality. For example, someone who's taken seriously predicting that the Dallas Cowboys would win the 1993 Super Bowl might lead coaches of rival teams to tailor their strategies to oppose the Cowboys and may result in the Cowboys NOT winning the Super Bowl, then hurting the reputation of the predictor, while the predictor could correctly object that the prediction itself caused the Cowboys not to win.
Therefore, the correct approach by the predictor is to say that this WILL happen, unless steps are taken to prevent it, like 9/11.
But then something interesting happens. Let's say that based on the "prediction" of 9/11 that 9/11 is prevented. Because it's prevented the revenge excuse the Bush Administration used to invade Afghanistan and Iraq is gone, and if the excuse was what allowed that reality to occur then maybe the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan never would have happened, or at least would have happened differently to how they did. Because the invasions never happen all reality *connected to* the invasions never happens - in other words the entire course of history is changed, triggered by the prediction of 9/11.
Notice that this process limits the power of the predictor. Once the Cowboys are prevented from winning the Super Bowl in 1993 they may very well not win in 1994, regardless of whether or not it's predicted. Influence caused by correct predictions alters reality to such an extent that many, or most, future predictions based on the original timeline become no longer true in the new timeline. The predictor only has special information regarding the original timeline - he is as fresh to the new timeline as anyone else, except with regard to whatever similarities between the two timelines remain even after the effects of the predictions.
Arguably in a short time after he starts being taken seriously in his predictions, he is no longer able to make correct predictions and becomes just a regular citizen with very strange circumstances.
