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Funny, I have a similar cognitive sensation for a kind of deja vu I sometimes get, where I'll remember remembering something and my train of thought about it, b

by derefr 4y ago

Funny, I have a similar cognitive sensation for a kind of deja vu I sometimes get, where I'll remember remembering something and my train of thought about it, but also remember remembering remembering all the previous times I remembered remembering it, and along with it, unwillingly, I'll remember all the trains of thought I had at the times I remembered remembering, sort of replaying all at once, cacaphonously. It's sort of like looking down a well, but it's well of time, where each time I look, the well is one unit deeper and there's another new snapshot of me looking down the well added to the top. It's honestly kind of annoying, because it's almost the cognitive equivalent of an earworm — I have to willfully dismiss it from my focus, otherwise it sticks around. I wonder if this is the original meaning of the term "navel gazing"?

58x14 4y ago
This matches my experience eerily well, especially the "one unit deeper" aspect. I feel like I can voluntarily summon this experience in my mind and travel through it forever. It feels frightening, in a way, being confronted with the depths of an unexplored internal mental chasm. Do you have other "threads" with similar phenomena, or is there a singular thread that branches?
NortySpock 4y ago
> It's sort of like looking down a well, but it's well of time, where each time I look, the well is one unit deeper and there's another new snapshot of me looking down the well added to the top. I had to go digging, but it reminds me of the novella Cascade Point by Timothy Zahn. In it, spaceships can travel through hyperspace, but skimming the edge of parallel universes in this way causes the occupants of the spaceship to see visions/hallucinations of their parallel-universe-selves standing nearby. Being able to see the various results of major decisions in your life -- some which lead to the death or grievous injury of the parallel-universe-self -- is quite a shock to most people, and thus it is customary for all passengers to be asleep for the hyperspace travel portion. But all captains are required by regulation to be awake for the transit, and thus in the story this captain must muse on his life-choices, alone on the bridge, because he runs a passenger liner. It's a bit of a wooden, flat story, with a somewhat basic plot, but I thought it was a neat concept-and-consequence of FTL. A blog post with a quick mostly-spoiler-free review: http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2014/01/review-of-cascade-point-by-timothy-zahn.html http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2014/01/review-of-cascade-p...

by derefr 4y ago

58x14 4y ago

This matches my experience eerily well, especially the "one unit deeper" aspect. I feel like I can voluntarily summon this experience in my mind and travel through it forever. It feels frightening, in a way, being confronted with the depths of an unexplored internal mental chasm. Do you have other "threads" with similar phenomena, or is there a singular thread that branches?

NortySpock 4y ago

> It's sort of like looking down a well, but it's well of time, where each time I look, the well is one unit deeper and there's another new snapshot of me looking down the well added to the top. I had to go digging, but it reminds me of the novella Cascade Point by Timothy Zahn. In it, spaceships can travel through hyperspace, but skimming the edge of parallel universes in this way causes the occupants of the spaceship to see visions/hallucinations of their parallel-universe-selves standing nearby. Being able to see the various results of major decisions in your life -- some which lead to the death or grievous injury of the parallel-universe-self -- is quite a shock to most people, and thus it is customary for all passengers to be asleep for the hyperspace travel portion. But all captains are required by regulation to be awake for the transit, and thus in the story this captain must muse on his life-choices, alone on the bridge, because he runs a passenger liner. It's a bit of a wooden, flat story, with a somewhat basic plot, but I thought it was a neat concept-and-consequence of FTL. A blog post with a quick mostly-spoiler-free review: http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2014/01/review-of-cascade-point-by-timothy-zahn.html http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2014/01/review-of-cascade-p...