An Alternative You

[IBelieveWhatIWant]

Most of us know the basics behind the multiverse.

For those who don't know (from what I gather). A multiverse is a infinite number of universes where in most of them there is a version of you, sure in some you might have prematurely died so you no longer exist in that world, where every choice you have had to make in your life has been chosen by at least 1 of your "copies".

Now the question I propose to you is, has there been any "life defining" moments where you wonder what would have happened if you picked another course of action for example, instead of "playing it safe", you took risks and went for your dreams... where do you think you would be now.

For me I wonder if I had stuck to my plan to become an astrophysicist whether or not I would be working at NASA or something by now, or if I had gotten into programming earlier would I have made the next biggest game. I like to think that some other version of me is currently working as an Astrophysicist and another is a programming (perhaps making a massive space game).

I know we all have regrets in life but I like to believe in retrospect, ME as a version might have not succeeded in those dreams but ME as a whole might very well have.

Thoughts?

[thyra]

I know we all have regrets in life but I like to believe in retrospect, ME as a version might have not succeeded in those dreams but ME as a whole might very well have.

Thoughts?

it is very nice if it really gives a person some relief over their regrets

I had once watched a movie where an inter dimensional criminal was traveling through the dimensions to kill all his other versions to be "the one" (that was the name of the movie). each time he killed a version of self in other dimension, he was growing stronger. Of course when he met his last version they were equally powerful, so there was a nice battle it was a very inspiring idea but the movie could have been better.

[Skithia]

I have complete sympathy with the question - often wondered the same thing myself, but the problem i keep coming up against if i try to imagine it - is that its not only me that would have made a critical different decision, but everyone else too, so it might be a version of me ina world I would hardly recognise. Possibly I have too much imagination. Would I have found a way to finish college when i was learning computer programming instead of moving to accounts - possibly would it have made any real difference to the life i am leading - possibly not because im not all that ambitious and dont really have unrealised dreams in the sense i think you mean.

[IBelieveWhatIWant]

it is very nice if it really gives a person some relief over their regrets

I had once watched a movie where an inter dimensional criminal was traveling through the dimensions to kill all his other versions to be "the one" (that was the name of the movie). each time he killed a version of self in other dimension, he was growing stronger. Of course when he met his last version they were equally powerful, so there was a nice battle it was a very inspiring idea but the movie could have been better.

Does sound like an interesting movie, you're right the plot seems to have a whole lot more potential than from what I understand was used.

I have complete sympathy with the question - often wondered the same thing myself, but the problem i keep coming up against if i try to imagine it - is that its not only me that would have made a critical different decision, but everyone else too, so it might be a version of me ina world I would hardly recognise. Possibly I have too much imagination. Would I have found a way to finish college when i was learning computer programming instead of moving to accounts - possibly would it have made any real difference to the life i am leading - possibly not because im not all that ambitious and dont really have unrealised dreams in the sense i think you mean.

You are 100% right, there could be alternate worlds out there that are still in the Jurassic era but there would be thousands if not millions that followed the exact some timeline with the only difference being (in this context) you, the choices you made. I could go on forever listing the possible world changing outcomes but this is really just a personal thing, how you would be different, they don't necessarily need to be unrealized dreams either, just to make people think how would their life be different if they said yes to something instead of no or went to a different school. I believe even small stuff like that could and would have dramatic changes on your life. This isn't even about sharing what you think would be different about your life on here, sure if you want to I would love to read it but it's more about getting people to think about the "what ifs" and maybe they could go back re do them and better themselves.

[Skithia]

There is a lot of quite good alternate timeline fiction out there that does just that sort of thing - look up LE Modesitt Jr - his idea shows how different the world could be if instead of Henry Ford getting his internal combustion machine off the ground we continued to develop steam engines - and a few other differences of course.

If you are taking the idea its a limitless multiverse then of course every version of every person is possible and a lot of versions where someone would be missing totally. When I think about these things it seems to me we would be different people - not because we had a different career or school - but because we would have had different relationships in those different situations. But that is my personal belief that its our relationships that make us who we are rather than the stuff we do.

[AbyssWalker]

All the good and bad things I've done make me, me, I suppose. All the other versions of me, I like to think are different people. I'd like to think two other versions of me decided to 'chase his passions' rather than 'follow the other sheep and play safe' (like I did) and at least one of them succeeded in doing so. A few years ago, My head wasn't right, I had everything but just plain 'gave up' and lost it all, now I'm sort of wanting it all back, getting some of it, still looking for some of it. Another version of me probably realized that and took it further.

[moonshadow60]

Regrets, I've had a few, but then again too few to mention. Eventually in all dimensions our duplicates will die, won't they? I do wonder if I had married Chuck if things would have worked out the way they did when I chose Bob, but I wouldn't really change anything even if I could.

[Mikethefox]

You are 100% right, there could be alternate worlds out there that are still in the Jurassic era but there would be thousands if not millions that followed the exact some timeline with the only difference being (in this context) you, the choices you made. I could go on forever listing the possible world changing outcomes but this is really just a personal thing, how you would be different, they don't necessarily need to be unrealized dreams either, just to make people think how would their life be different if they said yes to something instead of no or went to a different school. I believe even small stuff like that could and would have dramatic changes on your life. This isn't even about sharing what you think would be different about your life on here, sure if you want to I would love to read it but it's more about getting people to think about the "what ifs" and maybe they could go back re do them and better themselves.

I'm sorry if you take what I'm about to say in an offensive way, but I'm just stating my point and opinion.

I don't think you understand how ridiculous is the concept of a multi-verse. It means there are infinitely many universe and that each "choice" creates many new universes. Even if you just scale it to the "choices" we made, it means that every decision we made create a whole new universe, and just the simple fact that you chose to open the fridge with the right hand and not the left made a new you, that now has a fridge on the right hand and a yogurt in the left.

What if you decided to open the fridge with the left hand? That wouldn't matter much, but according to this theory somewhere in the multi-verse there is certainly a world where we would have hittler being the president of New Nazi America, or something like that, and some other ridiculous events for us..

And if you take it to quantum level (which some physicists do) you would have to believe that for every "quantum event" that has different ways to turn out, ALL of them happen, but in different universes. Can you imagine the ammount of universes? There would be an exactly equal universe to ours, but in which everyone has to wear hats, because obama said so, or else he would detonate nuclear bombs all over the world. According to the multiverse theory, that must have happened.

Paralel lines are what they are: lines that never touch, even if they exist, there would be no way to actually "reach" those universes, and if you did, what would you accomplish? On many of them there isn't even a planet earth. Infinite ammounts of universes would contain the earth, but there is more ways that the earth cannot exist than ways that the earth exist, simply by removing the sun or something like that

There might be some world where my choices were different, but you know what really is important? That you don't lose your time regreting what you've done or haven't done. You must value your presence and take control of things that you really can: YOUR ACTUAL LIFE. What does it matter if there's another you going around in a "paralel" world?

[jaylemurph]

...I think I'd've become an actual linguist, instead of a historian who just reads a lot of linguistics. The day-to-day of my university life wouldn't change that much if that were the case, though, so it's probably just a question of the Grass Being Greener.

--Jaylemurph

[avs76]

Great post Mikethefox. Great point of view. I have always subscrbed to the multiverse concept since I heard about it. I remember one time I was explaining the concept to somebody I used to know, telling her about how if I had chosen a different course in some point in my life an alternate universe would have been created. She turned to me and said, "But you didn't make a different choice." It really blew me away at the time and all these years later I still reflect on that conversation.

Anyway, your post reminded me of that situation. I guess it just shows different opinions people have.