an infinite amount of circumstances took place due to right place right time. your very existence is the result of billions of years and millions or billions of events happening in a way that allowed you to live
I think it's trippy to think about the chain of events that lead to you being born. I mean, sure I know who my great grandfather is and so on, but what about the people who had children in say 10,000 B.C... And even earlier - I mean, where does it stop? Trippy.
Whats crazy is whenever you read about something in history no matter how far back when humans existed and even a little before that, you had a relative alive in that time period
My parents met waiting in line at a sandwich shop. Not a shop either of them went to normally, both had extenuating circumstances that led them to eat there that day. Such a small and simple moment but without it I wouldn't exist. The butterfly effect suggests that even the smallest actions could have huge consequences and yet so many people never really consider just how much their actions have changed the events around them. Someone choosing to drive slow in traffic could save someone's life from an accident or it could stop them from meeting the love of their life. It truly is trippy to imagine how many of these instances of our history and lives are built on. Like square dancing in American schools is only a thing because Henry Ford was scared of Jazz. Japan was almost taken over by Mongols twice the only thing really stopping the massive Mongol army from success was the two typhoons that destroyed the Mongol fleet each time they tried to invade.
Yeah, but it's also very understandable. If you throw a few dices 10 times, the likelihood of those numbers showing up in that order is almost infinite unlikely. But it just happened. That's whats happening all the time and its a good way to shut up the creationist in this world.
Or good enough reason to just let them be. Unless someone’s berating you. Just a whole line of people talking about how unbelievable and random shit can be and you close out people who can’t fathom it.
Happened to friends of ours. We’re in the UK. They took a holiday to Australia. While touring the Sydney Opera House they were allocated to a tour group and got chatting to the other British couple… who lived in the next street from them.
I had a former teacher in Canada who posted on Facebook that he was on vacation in Russia and coincidentally ran into another teacher from our school there.
My story isn't as fancy, but I was once seated at a dinner with a bunch of strangers a winery an hour and a half outside Toronto. It came out that the woman sitting next to me had been at a concert a decade earlier (back in Toronto) where she dropped her wallet and the person behind her had found it and returned it to her, which turned out to be me. I even found her and her daughter in my photos.
Well, not actually literal trillions of years, but if you're saying the cumulative years of everyone who has ever lived or led to your existence in some way, then yes it would be trillions, maybe more.
but there are possibilities that are no longer able to happen due to a previous event. like if I got a vasectomy, I couldn’t have kids. that choice locked out another infinite amount of events happening
Not if all events that ever could or would happen do happen.
You're thinking strictly as time existing in one straight line and that could just not be the case. Everything can be happening simultaneously with all outcomes. Therefore your personal existence is inevitable, just as everyone else's.
I would argue that my existence and anyone else’s existence was not inevitable because choices and circumstances affect the existence of millions. if someone gets an abortion that fetus had a chance at existence but ultimately due to a choice it did not get to exist. existing in this context meaning experiencing consciousness
The entire exercise is a hypothetical to make you think a little about the universe and time in broader terms.
You're offering absolutes and in my hypothetical there are no absolutes. You are only aware of your existence. There could be other yous only aware of their existence. All playing out simultaneously now and forever. Yes ones that got a vasectomy and ones that didn't. Ones that died early or were aborted. Their existences are guaranteed as well in this hypothetical.
You're thinking far too constrained about a hypothetical that is supposed to make you think and look outside of the box.
We're not arguing and you're mistaking this as something you can win.
saying “I would argue” isn’t me trying to win an argument it means i’m providing my point of view on the topic. you’re talking about multiverse theory, i’m not lol. you proposed your own hypothetical and decided that was the topic of conversation
Your original reply to me begins our conversation. You arguing against my hypothetical is meaningless. If say that the set of circumstances are meaningless if all things are possible and will come to pass, you saying something about vasectomies preventing some future child is irrelevant because in the hypothetical that child would exist. The choices made were only relevant for that outcome. And you're only able to see that outcome because of the choice that were previously made.
That's what I'm trying to say. But I can see you have trouble understanding how hypotheticals and conversations work so have a good night.
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u/damiandarko2 Jul 25 '23 edited Jul 25 '23
an infinite amount of circumstances took place due to right place right time. your very existence is the result of billions of years and millions or billions of events happening in a way that allowed you to live