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While not nearly as dramatic, this story reminds me a serious accident I had in my early childhood. For a long time I thought that perhaps I did die and that I
by unicornporn 9y ago
While not nearly as dramatic, this story reminds me a serious accident I had in my early childhood. For a long time I thought that perhaps I did die and that I had continued life in a near identical parallel dimension while leaving friends and relatives mourning in the one I had been born in.
I wonder if this thought ever occurred to the pilot.
A fantastic read.
- anonymouslee 9y agoAnathem by Neal Stephenson explores this idea towards the very end. Doesn't give it much time but obviously it's hard to interpret from our end.
- unicornporn 9y agoThank you. I was kind of hoping someone would have suggestions for further reading. :)
- lmm 9y agoAlastair Reynolds wrote a short story with this as an element. I think it's in Zima Blue. Greg Egan goes into such things at length in Permutation City.
- unicornporn 9y agoThanks, I'm looking forward to some inter-dimensional reading!
- graphitezepp 9y agoAnathem is a great book that explores lots of interesting, fairly unique ideas, and does some moderately original world building. But I always tell people Stephenson (the author, personal favorite) isn't for everyone, and Anathem isn't even for all Stephenson fans, it can be a hard read for many.
- empressplay 9y agoThis is known as "quantum immortality" [0] [0] https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_immortality https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_immortality
- unicornporn 9y agoThank you!
- borkabrak 9y agoI guess we're wandering a bit from the topic, but I used to feel the same way about, of all things, that childhood pastime of spinning around with your arms out. I spent more time than I'm comfortable specifying believing that every revolution put me in a slightly different universe, and that in order to get back, I'd have to perform exactly as many counter-revolutions in the opposite direction. While this may sound insanely OCD, I remember thinking that I didn't have to get the number of counter-revolutions exactly right -- within a half-dozen or so should be "good enough". I guess I was an imaginative child.
- unicornporn 9y agoHaha, wonderful. It's a an appealing thought I must say. What if the the "right" maneuvers in space actually open inter-dimensional portals. Sounds like we could've made good friends.