Seers and Ethics

[ObsidianFelix]

So a friend and I were discussing the ability to see the future and how useful it would be in real life. Along the way we hit a snag in that acting on the visions started getting into a gray area for us morally. So we decided to open it up to other people to see what they thought, so here's the thought that opened the can of worms:

In a world where the future is not set in stone is it right to act against people who haven't done anything yet? Just because they might do something in the future, can you treat the innocent younger self differently? Does it change if you aren't just a random Seer, but the leader of your country? Does the amount of time in the future the vision takes place in change anything?

Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated.

[Intempestivity]

If the visions are of a potential future and not a predetermined one, do you have any right to act at all? If, for example, you saw that someone was going to commit murder, but that's because the path they're on right this moment may lead them to it, however, said path may yet change and thus no crime is ultimately committed--do you have the right to make a pre-emptive strike? Probably not. The most you could probably do is try to give them a cryptic warning that they're on the wrong path and to watch out for signs of it getting worse. Is giving a cryptic warning enough to change their path? Does it require further intervention from someone without that knoweldge?

Personally, I think that the cryptic warning is the most a seer could offer, but the seer could also provide cryptic warnings to others involved and keep an overall eye on the matter. If they continue to see the terrible act as the date of the act draws closer, their hand would be forced--however, it would be best to do so as an anonymous tip (e.g. "I overheard so and so saying he was thinking of killing his wife"). This way, the act can be safely stopped before it's begun, but the seer would have to wait until the last possible moment before directly intervening on the basis that the path could yet change.

[druidgarden]

Among the esoteric community, these points are actively discussed.
The main problem seems to be the extremely limited nature of the information. Plenty of diviners, seers etc. see a single image, for example a friend hitting someone else in anger. But the nature of the situation is usually unknown. That is to say, perhaps your friend is the assaulter, or perhaps they are defending someone else, and the person getting hit was threatening someone. In the vast majority of cases you cannot be sure and have no way of knowing. Trying to focus on the same situation again is tiring, and it is almost impossible to recall the exact same vision. Telling your friend not to come to a party because you saw them involved in a violent situation may prove to be a very poor call.

Easier than such specific visions, i.e. concerning specific individuals and specific moments in time, are larger events concerning more people. Wars, large-scale accidents and other such events tend to hit many different seers at once. Large emotional impacts concerning many people seem to act as anchoring points. However, knowing a war will break out in a certain region gives you no knowledge as to when, who the agitators will turn out to be, and definitely not how to stop them.

Some diviners work in organized groups, using more controlled ritual methods, a lot of probing and repetition, and try to construct a more accurate image by sharing and comparing all of their findings. These groups tend to get a bit more insight into the situation, but still nothing I would personally feel confident to act on. I suppose they could try to prepare themselves and loved ones for events like floods and the like, though. One of the problems is that we're working on an extremely limited scale.

Empires of old such as the Romans and the Chinese had entire governmental agencies devoted to collecting sights of supernatural beings and omens from around the empire, then interpreting what the sum of these visions meant for the future. According to esoteric lore, every person is capable of visions to some extent - some are born naturally talented, but anyone can be taught to consciously and actively induce and interpret visions. The problem is that what is transferred to the diviner seems to not be an actual physical image or situation, but an emotional or symbolic 'echo' of the situation. The mind can translate this back into something resembling an image, but learning to interpret the raw emotion or symbolism directly usually leads to far more accurate prediction.