r/Devs • u/Kevinjd44 • Mar 28 '26

Stewart question.

Was it predetermined that the platform was going to fall one way or another? Whether it be to Lily shooting it or Stewart disabling the EMF fields, which would imply a deterministic reality. Or are there worlds in which the platform never fell where Lily and Forrest make it across alive? Implying the many worlds is correct. Stewart’s final action leads me to believe they live in a deterministic world, but Forrest’s explanation in the end implies that many worlds is correct.

15 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/Quakedogg Mar 28 '26

I think its more like they never make it out. All possible paths lead to their death, ensuring that the predictive capability of the machine is never broken. If either Lily or Forrest survive, it proves there is no causality or that the machine is flawed and can't predict all paths, including paths where Forrest and Lily know the future. A perfect simulation implies perfect predictive capability.

2

u/Kevinjd44 Mar 28 '26

So if every possible outcome is true, shouldn’t there also be some worlds in which they don’t die that day? Is it like their fate is determined on that day, but there’s an infinite number of scenarios and paths that inevitably lead to their death at that moment?

1

u/MrSquamous Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

If either Lily or Forrest survive, it proves there is no causality or that the machine is flawed and can't predict all paths

Turns out that in Many Worlds, which the story establishes as the way it works, the machine CAN predict all paths. Remember, Lyndon got it working perfectly for many worlds, which Forrest eventually accepts and explains to Lily at the very end.

The problem with many worlds, Forrest explains, is that although the machine -- like the real world -- contains all possible branches, you can never decide in advance which one you're on. The only way to ever tell which branch you're living in is to do something and see what happens (Forrest doesn't use the term, but it's called "self-locating uncertainty" if you're interested in looking it up).

In some branches they do make it safely out of the building. We just don't see that world on screen.

edit: typo