The Cosmic Rambler

(THE TWO LIVES)

The above quoted statement is more than just a flawless arrangement of carefully chosen words. These words offer a peek into the person’s life, or aptly, lives. These words put in the foreground both lives, one the person is living in and the other which they would’ve preferred to. More importantly, it also signifies that their existence isn’t just defined by themselves, but also shaped by the world they live in, and the same words could’ve been in different positions in a different world parallel to this one.

This is exactly the case for every living person in this world; at a given moment a person may subsist in one world but he lives many, and all these worlds are holding a different version of the same person living either a very different life or a nuanced version; all these versions are in fact the result of differences in the realities created by the difference in choices.

Whenever we examine the study of the existence of parallel worlds, the word ‘choice’ always pops out. The choices that a person makes, the path that he takes, all shape his reality. A different choice may produce a different outcome; our choices affect the world we live in, and that world in turn affects the lives we lead. As Plato said:

“Reality is created by the mind; we can change our reality by changing our mind.”

Indeed, what he meant was that the two versions of the same person in two different realities exist because of the different paths they had to take whilst living in their respective versions.

An important mental model in this regard is the ‘Butterfly effect’. It’s a mathematical model which states that “Small things can have a non-linear impact on a complex system”. This concept is imagined as a butterfly flapping its wings and causing a typhoon.

 The idea that a butterfly can cause a typhoon seems insane and indeed it is until you contemplate upon the hidden meaning, that even a smallest of changes can produce the biggest of differences; and you realize that the two worlds which seem awfully dissimilar may not be so different and what made them so different in present could be an insignificant event in the past, and one person who lives his life as an honest ordinary man in one reality may have a hitman as his counterpart, and what sent them on two different paths could be a turn on the way to school.

Another important concept which is integrated into this model is the chaos theory, which states that “-within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns and interconnectedness”.

According to this, something very intricate, which appears all too random may just dial down to a few well-placed patterns. Another underlying concept is the interconnection of everything i.e. everything in this world affects every other thing, and no event, no matter how small, is totally independent and will produce unforeseen changes in the complex system. From here we can also say that life like any other complex system may just be based on a template consisting of a well-placing and deceiving pattern, and all the intricacy may just be a hoax. In simple words, what if life which so many of us often refer to as a game of chess may very well be a game of hex with the same person playing on the opposite sides and thereby controlling the circumstances in which the two sides are just two different versions of his life, and which version triumphs is based upon the person’s choices and a different set of choices changes the pattern on the board triggering the event in which the other version prevails.

Going back to the first quote; we feel that our life could’ve been different if only we had taken a different path and indeed it would’ve been; In fact, there may be our counterparts living in that version of our life, but that life no matter how tempting might not produce a better version of yourself; but then again what is better? And what is not? All of this is dictated by the circumstances of the reality we all create which might be very different to the parallel version with its own premise.

Lastly, I want to say, how we turned out may not be completely in our hands and we may want different lives but that can also be said for the people leading that life.

Author: Malik Nauman Rauf (Aerospace 17)