[stavros]

Not only is it possible, but there's a narrator part in the book where she chooses to do this. It's been a while, and tell me if I'm misremembering this, but what I remember is her choosing to live this way, to know the future but to "act it out" so that it will happen, rather than trying to change it.

[edanm]

Well this is kind of a philosophical question, I think from her point of view there's no choice involved - if you throw a ball, it doesn't have a choice but to fall to the ground, and she likewise "acts out the scripts" that she knows happens.

I think that's kind of the challenge the story poses. From our point of view, she knows what will happen and "chooses" not to change it, from her/their point of view, it's all already happened, she can't change it.

[stavros]

I can't really speak to it as it's been years, but I remember her likening this to a play, where the actors can change the words, but they don't, for the sake of the play. IIRC she was very clear that this was a choice that the aliens were making, and not something that was enforced on them, but, as I said, it's been years.

[edanm]

Years for me too :)

You're right that she compares it to that, but my reading of it is that that is the whole disconnect/point - she does it view that way, but also doesn't change it in a way that is incomprehensible to the way we view it but that is the only way it could go from their perspective.

I don't think we're disagreeing, just viewing the same actions from a different lens.

[stavros]

You may be right, I read the story again and she does say that it's a completely different viewpoint, where free will doesn't apply. Not that it doesn't exist, but it's not applicable.