A question kind of inspired off a Black Mirror episode....

I wouldn't in either scinario. The future isn't real, there's no such thing as fate. Even if something theoretically tell me the future, that won't change the fact that I still have to give my marriage my all, or else the future might still be wrong.

As of like two years ago, I would have said neither cuz I don't believe in fate or destiny, but since then my views on it have changed. For friendships and familial relationships, I'm kinda meh on it so I'd probably do Scenario B for those cuz I don't care about my family very much and I only have one true friend.

On romantic relationships tho...I have noticed I've become rather cynical towards the concept of love in the last two years, taking on a "it'll screw you over if you let it" attitude so I would emphatically choose Scenario A cuz you can't get hurt or betrayed if you don't put any trust in anything.

I realize that's a shitty way of looking at it. I kinda feel bad cuz I used to be upbeat and optimistic about that kind of stuff but eh.

In scenario A I wouldn`t press it. It would be too boring to live life that way. I imagine that would mean that I can`t change future no matter how hard I tried and everything would play out exactly as the button has said.

In scenario B I guess I might use that button if it`d work for, let`s say, old frieds with whom I`ve drifted apart. I would like to know if it`s worth trying to renew the friendship or if they have changed so much that we couldn`t really ever be good friends again.

I'm having a hard time thinking of anything that could actually be gained by knowing that information.

Presumably it's so you can gauge how much time/effort/trust/expectation to put into said relationship, so you aren't horribly disappointing when it ends, but the length of time you know that person would be a really crappy way to try and calculate that.

The time alone wouldn't indicate the quality of the relationship in question. You can have short-lived relationships that were really good and you were glad to have still, or you can be in a horrible relationship for years and years that you hate being in.

Like, I would much rather be close friends with someone that I only knew for like 3 months that still left a lasting, positive impression on me than be stuck married to someone I hate for 10+ years because I'm scared to death of being alone.

And if you just knew how long each of those relationships lasted, and based its entire merit on how long it was, you'd assume the friendship was shit but the marriage was awesome when really it was the opposite.

Consequently, you may put less stock in a relationship you know is only going to last a short while that you actually had a lot to gain from. You may put more stock into someone that's going to drive you absolutely insane in the long run and in the end not be worth it.

And if you weren't going to use it as a way to decide which relationships weren't and were going to be worthwhile, what would you even do with that information? You could say that you can't be hurt if you know the relationship will end in 10 months, but is it really the length of time or the relationship ending that hurts? It's usually something else, something more nuanced, that makes it hurt.
Not to mention that every time you see that person, you're going to have how long your relationship will last in the back of your head no matter what. That would suck, not to mention that it would kind of take away from the organic factor of building relationships.

The only time it would really be beneficial at all in any way would be if it told you that you were going to be in a relationship that you were really happy, but there comes a point in any relationship whether it be a friendship or a romance or a familial thing where you can kind of tell on your own.
And that's assuming things don't go sour and you just stay together because its convenient or something which does happen.


There's really no point in that sort of thing when you really sit down and think about it. Relationships are nuanced.