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| Asteroid not to scale* (*maybe) |
Time enough for life
To unfold all the precious things
Love has in store
We have all the love in the world
If that's all we have
You will find
We need nothing more
—Louis Armstrong
***
THERE IS A THEORY...that literally everything in the universe happens simultaneously.
That the past, present, and future are a unified event, happening *now* at the theater in your head.
The experiences that you thought you shared with others? They didn't happen. Or, more precisely, they didn't happen for others in the same way or even at the same time as they happened for you.
Don't take my word for it: ask a mathematical physicist at Cal Tech!
"...you have a very basic concept in quantum physics known as quantum superposition. Quantum superposition basically says that what we think of as a single universe, the quantum superposition, is the interference of an infinite number of universes. Each one of them has different things that are happening at some microscopic level. When you zoom out from our microscopic human perspective, we get to see certain patterns like space and time and matter emerge, and particles that have some more definite positions, in both space and time."
Do I understand how that actually works? Nope! But I love nerding out on it just the same.
At the microscopic level it means, I imagine, that I'm simultaneously writing AND never learned to write AND am writing in multiple languages I don't speak or read or write.
Are all these possibilities useful at all? They are! Because each of them opens a door that I hadn't considered before, any of which might send me down infinite paths toward fame and fortune! Or, just as plausibly, a life of obscurity on a remote island!
Who can say? Not moi!
As the Wicked Witch of the West observed as she melted away: "What a world, what a world (what a countless number of worlds in which I finally get that wretched girl, and her little dog, too!").
***
Contemplation of concurrent selves contemplating quantum chaos...
...inevitably overwhelms my little brain—which craves the relative order and calm of things closer to home. That's where, to quote writer Nelson Henderson, "The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."
Life may be slightly more complex than that—but as a matter of cosmic importance I have no quarrel with the sentiment.
***
“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives."
—Annie Dillard
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