Can a precognitive dodge modern firearms?

Question

If you have a physically fit individual who can see up to 5 seconds in the future, is it possible for them to not get hit by bullets by moving away?

(Precognition being defined here as the ability to sense hundreds of futures based on the likelihood that they will occur by doing given actions, plus the processing power to process this information. Precognition is primarily sight and pain.)

Practically speaking, in most ranges, by the time the bullet is in motion it's too late for the individual to change whether or not they get hit, but what about moving before the trigger is pulled, or feinting, or something like that?

If so, what ranges would this be feasible at, and what kinds of guns would be possible to dodge? Pistols? Sniper rifles?

I imagine sustained fire would be almost impossible to dodge without cover.

Answer 1

It's complicated:

First of all, kudos for limiting it to five seconds. More than that starts getting strange. Second, I strongly suspect you're going to start hitting a problem with precognition, which is that prediction alters reality which alters precognition. When your precognitive dodges the bullet, they're still visible and light travels REALLY fast. So naturally, the person alters their trajectory to compensate for where the bullet is going. This creates a nasty feedback where the character now has to dodge the NEW trajectory of the bullet, and all the reasonably probable trajectories of the bullet. Then there's dodging the second and third bullet, all of which may be in the next five seconds. While your character may avoid a lot of bullets at reasonably close range (especially with good reaction time against clumsy/slow opponents) I'd say NO to a short-ranged gunfight.

You MAY still be unbeatable in a gunfight, however. Rather than dodging bullets, you can anticipate where your opponents will be in the future and shoot them first. THEY have no ability to anticipate the bullets, so 9mm of prevention is worth 45 calibers of cure. Also, invest in a bulletproof shield, since they can't anticipate as well where THAT will be. Even a small one might be enough, and these would be useless in a normal gunfight but great for your character. You still get shot, but it won't be nearly as harmful (although anyone who's ever taken a bullet in a vest will tell you it's still a LOT of energy to dissipate).

Long range sniper fire, your character is golden (hard YES). Anything where the bullet already left the barrel by the time the character reacts, nothing the shooter can do will change the trajectory (unless it's a gyrojet smart projectile that tracks targets).

Ambush? The character will know it's coming and can take cover, jump behind people, or just drop suddenly. This greatly reduces the opportunity for a shooter to hit the character. This is especially true if the character isn't the intended target. So a hard YES to dodging stray bullets, if the character is in a position to maneuver. This also means the character would be the ultimate secret service agent—they could deliberately interpose themselves easily between an intended target and a shooter. Invest in good body armor.

Your ability to dodge spraying bullets will depend on the perception of the character. If they can see bullets (and I certainly can't, so just knowing bullets are fired doesn't guarantee you know where they will be) then they would be able to chart a course that misses many bullets. Human reaction isn't perfect, so they might misjudge, or slip, and not realize it until it's too late to change it. So MAYBE on random sprayed bullets.

Answer 2

Single shot weapons.

There is a game called Super Hot that presents a similar situation. Rather than precognizing where the bullets will land you can slow time to see where the bullets are. Note this also slows down the player so you can never move super fast. Might be worth a play to get a feel for what's possible!

The main thing you cannot dodge is a machinegun firing down a corridor. I know the corridor will be full of lead in the next 5 seconds. That's no use if I can't get out of the corridor before then.

Answer 3

Yes, your character is basically unstoppable*

First, I'm going to assume that there is some sort of engine (extradimensional supercomputer, deity, alien, whater) which grants the powered individual this capability and interfaces directly with their brain (or soul depending on setting).

Secondly, I'm going to assume that whatever this Precognition Engine does isn't true precognition but rather simulated precognition. This means there's no actual time travel or future-observation going on, instead, the precognition engine is hooked up to some sort of panoptical system which is capable of viewing the users' entire (or even just local) reality at a particulate level (smaller or bigger adjust prediction accuracies). To "see" the future, the Engine performs simulations. This prevents nasty causality issues and the other weirdness that accompanies time travel.

Finally, I'm going to assume that the Engine is capable of precogging the power's user's brain, effectively granting meta-precognition. Otherwise, the user would only ever see one, rapidly shifiting future, since the Engine is capable of perfectly prediciting the future (in the short term).

Also, if your User has a gun, then they would be absolutely unstoppable.**

A simulated gunfight, from the precognative side:

The person who's connected to the Precognative Engine (the User) is of the opinion that they do not want to get shot. The Engine "knows" this (although it's not necessarily sentient).

Now, a gunman is approaching the user, and the Engine calculates that in five seconds, the gunman will have aimed, fired, and hit the User. Next, the Engine simulates what the User would choose to do when presented with this information, and the simulated User decides to, lets say, take a step to the left a second before the gun is fired. Simulating this course of action, the Engine discovers that the gunman is good enough to partially adjust their aim and the User get's winged on the arm instead. This data, is once again fed to the Engine's simulation of the User, which again "decides" to avoid this fate and chooses a different simulated action.

This simulate-query-resimulate loop continues onwards until the simulated User is presented with a satisfactory action, and this process works onwards continously.

The User, unaware of what's going on "behind the curtain" simply sees all the possible futures of the choices that simulated-User made and eventually settles on the same choice that simulated-User eventually made (free will is dead, but whatever). Then, they perform the exact set of actions that allow them to avoid getting shot.

The same gunfight, but from the gunman's perspective:

The gunman is a professional. They sight the User with their gun, line up a shot, and are about to press the trigger, when suddenly the User steps to the side a bit. The gunman readjusts their aim, but again, just before they're about to pull the trigger, the User is coincidentally not lined up properly anymore. Frustrated, they continue trying to get a bead on the User, but always just before they're about to fire the perfect shot, the User does something that makes them feel like they'd miss if they pulled the trigger. Eventually, the gunman can't take this anymore and losens their tolerances on what's an accepatable shot and starts shooting, even if they don't have a hit lined up. It dosen't help though, the User seemingly dances or limbos across the field of fire without getting hit once.

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*There are scenarios where the User can get hit. Notably, they can get hit by area-affect weapons like bombs or grenades where they can't get out of the danger zone within five seconds (unless they can disable the bomb or grenade before it goes off, for example by shooting it or getting someone else to shoot it) or they can get hit by enough massed-fire, although it would take a serious amount of bullets to make it that there's no possible dodging window and the User would be stupid to put themselves in a situation like that. The most effective way to kill the User is to unknowingly poison them and then make sure they aren't in an enviroment where they can precognatively find the antidote or how to make an antidote in under 5 seconds.

**If the User has a gun, they basically become unstoppable. Then, they can do fancy things like:

• shoot opponents just right so they twitch and shoot their neighbors just right
• shoot bullets which ricochet just right and jams weapons
• shoot enemy vehicles just right so they get disabled instantly
• shoot bullets, grenades, etc out of the air with multiple ricochets
• etc

To highlight how ridiculously bullshit this power could be, imagine the user is in an empty field, with a gun, facing 12 professional soldiers. It's a standoff. Then, the User simply finds the future where shooting one of the soldiers just right makes them twitch their gun to the side and shoot 11 perfect, friendly-fire, headshots on their fellow squadmates before dying themselves. To see an example of what it could look like to watch a precognative fight, take a look at this clip where Bart disables all her opponents, even when starting from extreme disadvantage (although the power Bart has is slightly different) or take a look at Contessa in Wildbow's Worm (although her power is also slightly different).

Answer 4

If your only enhanced skill is the 5 seconds of precognition, and you remain normal in every other way (no super fast reflexes etc.) then there are a few things you can do to lessen your chances of being shot. I'm assuming perfect precognition of all possible outcomes, along with an ability to perfectly adjust yourself in response to the precognition outcomes.

1. If there is cover really close by, you are golden. Just go there. Now they can't hit you.

2. No time to get to cover before the first shots are fired? You can feint. Move in such a way that will allow you to dodge (or if nothing else get shot in the least serious spot). An example would be shifting slightly so the bullet passes just past your body in the gap beneath your arm. Unfortunately, since the shooter can react to anything you do (I assume), any larger more obvious attempts to dodge (which would have to be begun sooner as well, giving them more chance to notice) may result in them altering their aim, resulting in a situation where you're committed to a movement and their adjustment results in you getting hit anyway. But since you can see all outcomes, you already know to avoid any motion where this will happen. Likely in 90% of cases, the most favorable outcome you find will be one where you only move slightly, at the latest possible moment, "tricking" the shooter into missing.

3. Captain America's shield or Wonder Woman's gauntlets. If you have something like this, you can dramatically reduce your risk of getting fatally shot. Simply move whatever it is in between you and the bullet. The smaller it is the better (Wonder Woman beats Cap, again I am assuming you are capable of making perfect movements in response to the precognition. If you can't be precise, then Cap beats Wonder Woman) since a smaller "shield" has less risk the enemy will realize you are blocking and change aim. HOWEVER unless said material is something super cool magic/sci fi tech that absorbs impact, this may still result in a lot of pain and or damage to you. All that energy from the bullet striking has to go somewhere, after all. Still better than the alternative of the bullet entering your body, though. The same principle goes for body armor. If you are wearing a bullet proof vest and your precognition tells you you can't dodge said bullet, just move so it hits you dead center of the vest and at least you won't die. Wearing body armor gives you more "options" for what you can do to result in a non-fatal or less serious injury outcome (at least in situations where your body armor is strong enough to stop whatever you are being shot with from that given range).

That said, depending on distances, cover, type of gun, etc., you are not always going to be able to escape. While you can use the tricks above to have an advantage and be far less likely to die than some other person in the same situation, there ARE going to be situations when you get shot anyway, because no matter WHAT you do it will happen regardless, in which case your precognition doesn't help you much.

Answer 5

No

Guns shoot bullets fast. A quick search on handguns shows a it ranges from 2000k/h to more than double. Let's get that in perspective.

Imagine someone throwing a tennis ball as hard as they can at you from two to five meters away. It's difficult to dodge or feint. You might succeed sometimes and not at all with others.

Now imagine the same, only you are going in slow motion and the ball is not. Suddenly it's nearly impossible to dodge the ball.

With precognition you'll see a lot of outcomes where you'll be shot. Luckily there are probably outcomes where you won't get shot. With only five seconds to work with, you can only know definitely how to move to shake of their aim in those five seconds, making them miss or not shoot yet. The problem is that in the few possibilities you have to survive, some might lead to a dead end after the five seconds. Even with continuous precognition you might go and run into a hallway as it's your only way out, but find out quickly that when they turn the corner they'll shoot you.

In some situations you'll have some chance to evade fire, but I think even with the perfect precognition you describe you'll likely be shot if there's no cover available.

Unless talking is allowed. With seeing all the possibilities, you can also see what words will get you out of it. This can get them rich, or be a pressure point of their psychology or whatever. Many things might make them hesitant or not want to shoot you. I mean most people will want to capture him to check the stock exchange or bitcoin prices for example.

Answer 6

Does the shooter know you're a precog?

Because if he/she does, you're hosed. All I'd need to do is hold the gun on you and then start clogging up your precognition with false starts. Am I going to shoot or not? Now? NOW? How about now? Of all those hundreds of possible futures that could happen in the next five seconds, every tenth of a second represents the possibility of an actual shot because I know you're a precog and I'm jumping random numbers through my head about when to pull the trigger.

If I'm good enough at it, you're vapor-locked because so many of the possible futures cause you're death, you don't know which one to react to — and all I need you to do is blink at the wrong moment once. (Hah hah! picked the wrong tenth of a second suckah!)

The movie Next makes the idea of precognition look almost godlike. But that's only true if the people you're reacting to don't know what you can do. When that's the case, they act very predictably.

When they know you. You're hosed.

Bear in mind you can always create a boring godlike character. "The precog always knows the truth! The precog knows which moment will be the actual trigger pull and which are just fakes to try and clog the vision!" But your character needs limits to be relatable and believable. The twist to the movie Next was that in seeing any distance into time involving Jessica Biel (a middlin' actress... but well worth looking any distance into time...) the movie could create the ending surprise twist (also known as the TV show Dallas' "it was all a dream!" trope). But that ability was meant to bring about a specific plot condition. You must do the same. So, the reality is that your precog must have a weakness — and I think that weakness is that when people know they're facing a precog, they can jam the vision with a lot of false positives, which confuses the precog (what I'm calling vapor-lock).

Answer 7

That depends on your understanding of the nature of time, predestination, and the ability to alter the timeflow. That is, it is your call (as the writer or game designer). It comes down to a variant of the grandfather paradox.

• Under most conditions, five seconds are plenty to move the body so that no body part is where any other body part used to be.
• When a shooter fires an aimed shot, he or see will notice that the target has started to move and try to lead it.

So how will actions by the precog who has seen the future and wants to alter it affect other actors? Say the precog is sitting on a bench in a bar. The shot is going to go through his heart and then through the back rest. The precog stands up because of that warning. Does the future which has been revealed disappear, or does it have to happen? It was the most likely variant a couple of moments ago.

Those "strands" of yours, do they include the precog's own action? In 75% of the probabilities, I stand up, so let's not stand up and the shooter is confused?

If the shooter can react normally, I guess precognition isn't enough to escape.

Answer 8

Here's an aid for the imagination.

First imagine that the gunman is instead holding a long thin rod, representing the trajectory of the bullet. As he waves it around, can you dodge above or below it and avoid being touched by the rod? If you are standing close enough and are suitably agile and acrobatic, possibly. For a short time, anyway. You may have seen people dodging a long sword like this, for example. The further away you are, the faster the rod moves and the easier it is to change its direction of swing, and so the harder it is to dodge.

Now imagine that the rod has a flag attached, that traces out the path of the rod for the last 5 seconds. The trailing edge of the flag represents where the gun was pointing 5 seconds ago. Can you dodge the trailing edge?

From the point of view of the precognitive, it is as if they can see the flag being waved 5 seconds into the future, so 'now' appears 5 seconds ago, and they only have to dodge the trailing edge of the flag. With 5 seconds warning, you have much more time to get out of the way of it. You can either duck under or jump over a moving line quite easily given 5 seconds notice. You should therefore be able to avoid it at a greater range.

But then, you can also see that one sweep at waist height to get you to duck low followed by a low sweep back to catch you before you can jump again may be much harder to avoid. It's a way to think about tactics.

Answer 9

is it possible for them to not get hit by bullets by moving away?

DWKraus's answer gives a very detailed explanation of what it would take to dodge or evade a bullet. That's all fine and good, but you asked about bullets plural, and that one extra 's' changes the situation significantly.

If you knew where a bullet was coming, how would you evade it? You'd drop to the ground, dive out of the way, leap to the side, etc. All of these actions give your body a lot of momentum (most likely in a direction that you wouldn't normally be moving) and place you in a posture/position quite different than where you started. When your attacker adjusts and takes their second shot, they're going to see you moving and aim based on your new trajectory. You don't just have to predict the bullet and react, you have to first cancel your current momentum and throw your body in a completely different direction. If you're in the process of diving to the ground, all the precognition in the world can't stop your midair free-fall, stand you back on your feet, and prime your muscles for another evasive maneuver. The amount of time it takes your body to complete the first dodge and recover effectively eats away at your precognition buffer (it's future that you can "see" but can't do anything to change). You'll likely have half the reaction time for the second shot. By the time they fire their third shot, the benefits of precognition are more or less nullified.

This calculus obviously changes if the attacker is using a weapon that can't immediately be fired again (like a black powder rifle, or they used the last round in the magazine). The time required to reload, re-arm, and re-aim the weapon all work in your favor. If you can pick yourself up and start moving again before they can fire the next shot, then you should be okay. Against most modern weapons, though, you'll want to make sure that your initial evasive maneuver takes you behind cover or into an otherwise protected position. You can't afford to give them a second chance.

Answer 10

You can dodge the bullets. You can do more than that.

In the movie Next, Nick Cage's character can see 3 minutes into the future. This clip is towards the end of the movie. He sees all possible futures and evades the ones where he gets shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC5ZiK6o7uQ

I feel like you might not know about this movie, Piomicron and so I hesitate to share the clip because it is a very cool movie and this is one of the coolest scenes. If you dig stuff like this, stop the video right after the bullet scene because otherwise it will spoil the end. Rent it! Next is a fine film; one of Cage's best and I have never seen a Julianne Moore movie I did not enjoy. Also: Jessica Biel!

Answer 11

It depends on the battle situation. If you have good cover available and aren't too badly outnumbered you can avoid their fire. You know when and where it will be safe to expose yourself for a moment to shoot at them and you know exactly where to place that shot.

However, this will not protect you if there's no cover within 5 seconds, or if you are outnumbered to the point there is no safe spot to pop up for a shot. You jump behind the block of concrete, there are guns aimed all around the concrete, there's nothing you can do while they walk up and toss a grenade.

Answer 12

As others have pointed out, knowing that the room you're in is going to be riddled with bullets in 5 seconds might not be enough for you to run to safety.

In addition, keep in mind that anyone you're fighting can also see the future, to a lesser degree - because you can see the future, and they can see you. If you suddenly jump to the right, they won't bother shooting to the right and will shoot left instead. While your head is in the rapidly changing timelines five seconds from now, they are in the present and have much less to think about. (Read the Mistborn trilogy to see this done in proper epic fashion).

Answer 13

Bullets are surprisingly "slow".

Next time you're out in the desert shooting your handgun at rocks a few dozen feet away, put in some tracer rounds.

(They "light up" like in a video game and you can see them going along.)

Humans have incredibly fast acuity time. (Witness video games like Splatoon, where one frame, about 1/50th of a second, is a completely normal operating time for players.)

Amazingly the first time you do this, you'll actually "see" the bullet going from your gun to the rocks over there. (You'd probably guess before trying this, that it's "too fast to see", that you wouldn't actually "see it travel", but you do.)

The simple answer to your question is that for Really Long Sniper Shots (Like Riggs In Lethal Weapon) it takes bullets a full second or two to get there.

(Definitely not as long as "five seconds" - but a couple seconds.)

The bottom line is, "sniper shots" are 1-2 seconds.

Really, based on that info, you would formulate what happens in your story. Good luck!

Answer 14

It depends on how fast your brain can process all those future possibilities. If your brain can process all those possibilities, then choose the most probable outcome, and finally decide a response to the enemy's action in less than a second, then your ability would really be useful. But since, like other answers, future would change because of our action, the actually useful precognition would be shorter than 5 seconds. This is because our action, and how the enemy responds to our action, would result in a new set of future outcome. In this form, the ability would look similar to the ZERO system in Gundam Wing and the the Geass of the Knight of One in Code Geass. The ones using this power must have a strong will to stare into future, not fooled by the precognition, yet not consumed by paranoia. If you know you are going into a gunfight, then you could put a bullet through the other guy before his hand even start moving to his gun because you know when he is going to draw. He can't unleash his infinite-bullet minigun if he is dead before he could fire it. Even if he is behind cover, you know when he is going to pop out and open fire an instant before he shoot. Even if you don't know you are going into a fight (like a sniping), you can dodge or get away, because the bullet takes time to gravel, the assassin needs time to get into position, etc. Of course, all of these depends on you know how to respond to these situation, have the tools to protect yourself, and are in a condition to act on self-preserving. If you are tied to a pole facing a fire squad, then the best you can do is yell something incomparably cool So you can die with dignity and awesomeness and won popularity among fans. Who knows, if you got enough popularity, the studio would revive you in the next season.