Ghost of Christmas Yet to Be

The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently, approached. When it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee, for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. It thrilled Scrooge with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the mask there were eyes staring at him...

- Charles Dickens

Ghost of Christmas Past / Ghost of Christmas Present / Ghost of Christmas Yet to Be

In Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, our happy protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge is given a tour of the (his) future by the ghost of Christmases yet to come. This peek through the veil of time allows Ebenezer to make some moral choices that he might not have otherwise even thought of. The ability to predict the future, altering the presumed course of action, turned out well for Tiny Tim (God bless us, everyone!).

The idea of predicting the future, at first seems like a simple proposition. Consult a psychic, read the tea leaves, break out the tarot deck, or toss the I-Ching coins. Upon deeper reflection, certain physical and metaphysical considerations arise. These concerns ultimately lead us to the great philosophic debate between Determinism and Free Will. The quandary, simply put, is this…

Are all events in a human’s lifespan pre-determined, necessitating that everything… including our moral choices… are the result of a sequence of causes? According to Determinism… an act of will, which is the inevitable result of a series of causes from the beginning of time, can never be free. Since the known cosmos is the outcome of cause and effect, all human choices can only be the result of earlier causes.

Or are we, as sentient beings, imbued with Free Will… possessing the ability to choose between different possible courses of action, unimpeded? Metaphysical libertarians, such as René Descartes conceived free will to be the capacity to make choices in which the outcome has not been determined by past events. The concept of free will was an essential idea in the Age of Enlightenment, held dearly by the American founding fathers.

Free will is key to the sociological concept of individual agency. It is also the underlying principle to a modern criminal justice system that presumes personal responsibility, measures guilt and deals out punishment. One must assume responsibility for one’s crimes. Determinism is key for those seers who deal in and determine the future, based upon cause and effect. One can only accurately see a future that is pre-determined… an inevitable cog in the universal clockwork.

Once again, Universe displays a grand dichotomy… a dualistic, yin-yang binary system… as manifest in space/time. Quantum mechanics predicts events only in terms of probabilities, casting doubt on whether the universe is deterministic at all, although evolution of the universal state vector is completely deterministic… which leads us to the absurdist, tekgnostic take on the “free will vs determinism” smack-down.

As the discerning reader of this blog knows… we at Tek-Gnostics like to keep our options open. So it is quite natural (and predictable) that we would assume the Compatibilism philosophic position. We prefer the notion that free will and determinism are mutually compatible and that it is possible to believe in both without being logically inconsistent. Tek-Gnostics supports and facilitates the idea of individual agency while recognizing the epiphany… that inspirational nexus that transcends the past/future vector, via that rascally trickster known as: synchronicity. In short, the future may be influenced by the individual “intelligence” agent.

We therefore look forward to Christmases yet to be in the hopes of identifying possibilities and illuminating probabilities. Obvious factors currently at play include the dark political trend toward extreme Nationalism. Forecasting this trend leads us toward the “two emaciated children, subhuman in appearance and loathsome to behold” as mentioned in our previous post.

Another current factor we also must contend with is climate change, as outlined in our Apocalypse Now posts. As our Ghost of Christmas Present is inextricably tied to rampant consumerism, we associate climate change with economics. The following was taken from an article by Kenny Luna…

“Economics will have something to do with [this] too, as warming temperatures lead to increased social and political instability across the globe, I'd suspect the price of items produced in China, India and the like will increase along with the unpredictability of weather patterns, increased oil prices, and depletion of various resources… driving down wasteful consumption in the process.

Somewhat ironically, it just may be that the Christmas of the Future will be as much influenced by economics and resource management as the depletion of space in our closets.

Unfortunately in many ways, though fortunately in others, it seems to me that the pace of Christmas just isn't sustainable. It will have to get a whole lot slower, though probably a whole lot more meaningful in the process. The unfortunate part is that it's probably going to be dictated to us by economics and weather patterns rather than the common sense we feel in our bones but often fail to act upon.”

And, of course… the biggest bugaboo looming in the foggy night of Christmases yet to be is our old pal: Singularity. Much has been written on this topic… most of it eschatological in nature.  Be that as it may… the technological singularity, if it has not already occurred, will play an important role in our collective future, here on the Planet of the Apes. We are sure that AI will have “something to say” about how the problematic primates have been running things.

So as the Noö Year is upon us, we leave you with predictions of Christmas future, as seen by Rob Kutner…

Christmas, 2021

Earlier and earlier Christmas preparations each year eventually cause Christmas Space/time to fold over itself, creating a wormhole you can travel to any Christmas through (except for 1979, due to its embarrassment over Disney’s release of The Black Hole). Unfortunately for most scientists, the so-called “Yulehole” only works if you “believe.”

Christmas, 2052

The MexiCanadAmerican economy is back on the upswing, manufacturing toys for global superpower China’s Christmas character, “The Glorious People’s Bearded Elder of Generosity.” Legend says he comes around every Christmas and... due to our unbreathable atmosphere... slides down every subterranean-dwelling family’s vent-hole, bearing marvelous gifts like “protein pellets” and “anti-radiation popsicles.” It’s like a Christmas version of The Postman, except slightly less excruciating.

Christmas, 2084

Eighty-seven years behind schedule (damn one-world government contractors!), Skynet becomes self-aware. But instead of sending back in time a matricidal/motorcycling/California-governing killbot, it sends back the following jolly Christmas tune – which we IGNORE AT OUR PERIL: