Has anyone else read this book? I'm in the process of reading it right now and... wow. I'm not even sure what to say about it. One particular passage in the book is told from the perspective of a man in the hospital for insanity. Here's part of the passage:
"In retrospect, I can see there were countless souls struggling to control my actions. I call this the Darwinism of Souls. At birth, we are fitted with a multitude of souls. As we grow, those souls that are unfit shrivel and die, as a result of the circumstances in which the body finds itself. Finally one soul wins and defines the personality. How often have we thought it as if different souls inhabited the same child, so changeable were its actions and thoughts? In the physiological world, the Darwinian process leads to the formation of wonderful and complex phenomena such as the eye. In the psychological world, this process leads to the formation of an object no less phenomenal- the individual."
I've always heard about Natural Selection, the idea that the earth chooses its inhabitants by who can survive. You know, survival of the fittest. But in my mind, that concept has always been for the physical world. For animals and for us humans. But the idea that each person is born with several souls and the one that wins out is the one that defines our personality... is mind-boggling.
"The souls that govern in our youth are so numerous and fractious that the records are confused. There are no permanent memories because they belong to the souls that perish."
One might argue that the reason our memories of being a child are so blurry or even non-existent is because our brains are in their beginning stages and don't have the ability or capacity to retain that kind of information for long periods of time. I would agree with this. But our personality is based off of the frontal lobe in our brain, which doesn't actually fully develop until about age 25. It's kind of interesting to think about.
Now I'm not at all saying that I believe the theory. Quite the opposite. I sincerely believe that we were born with one soul and that soul stays with us throughout our entire life.
There are some holes in the theory too. Like, how would you explain how we continue to lose our memories even once we pass that age of 25 where our personalities would by then be fully developed? And then there's always the question of what happens to all those extra souls. Where do they go once the final soul has won out?
I wonder who came up with this theory in the first place. It would be cool if it was the author, but I doubt it. Hmm. Maybe I'll do some research on it.
Meanwhile, here's another little tidbit from the same character in the same book:
"I recently read that every action, every decision, splits the universe in two. In one resultant universe, choice A is made, in the other, choice B. This is repeated ad nauseam for every decision ever made, including the "decisions" of apparently non sentient particles governed by the dictates of quantum mechanics."
Can you imagine? If every decision ever made resulted in alternate universes where you made all other possible decisions in that situation, whether it be deciding to eat a peanut butter or bologna sandwich for lunch, or deciding to answer the phone after 5 seconds instead of, say, 4, there would be an infinite amount of universes out there just from one dicision. And that's just for one person. How many universes would be out there for every decision ever made by every human on the planet? Heck, why limit it to humans? What about every living creature?
And if that were true? How would one know which the original universe was? Is it the one I'm living in right now? What if the life I'm living right now is just someone else's choice B?
The implications are terrifying.
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6 comments:
That sounds like a really interesting book. When was it written?
I'm not sure about souls, but I know that as they age (from youth), people develop different personalities that come into action based on where they are and who they're with. If you analyze yourself you may notice you act and think and behave differently when you're at home than when you're at school (or not, which doesn't completely ruin my theory, but doesn't quite help it). His "Darwinism of Souls" may be similar, where as you approach middle-age you start to blend all those personalities into one personality.
Actually, I learned today that the reason we don't remember our very early childhood is because during that time we're living in our unconscious. Though, I don't know too much about it, but it makes sense.
And as for parallel universes? They're purely hypothetical, of course, and there's an infinite number of them. As in, infinite, because of every possible event in every possible universe.
And clearly this universe is the one in which everything has gone exactly like it has. Imagine living in a universe where Hitler won WWII ^^.
You exist in every universe where it's possible for you to (which is an infinitely small percentage of the total). There is no original, perhaps? Because either it would be, or it would be not, and so there was a parallel universe that was created that didn't happen. Does that make sense?
B.
Umm... I don't entirely remember when it was written but I think it was either '01 or '02.
You're right, that does make sense that we would be living in our unconscious as a very little kid, as bizarre as that is.
I don't really buy into the whole parallel universes idea, but it's a cool thought to roll around in your mind for a while. The thing is that with each decision resulting in an infinite number of parallel universes, there's going to be an infinite number of universes with you exactly as you are in this universe because the only thing separating the two is you getting up at 6:23 in the morning vs 6:24. A tiny detail that wouldn't change anything about your life or personality. So you would have all these exact copies of yourself carrying on in the exact same life. Each of these copies would require a soul, your soul, but I don't believe that would be possible because I don't believe a soul can be copied.
Wow, I had to reread that bit about there not being an original universe a couple times, but I got it now. That makes sense, but the other choice of there not being a universe in the first place would mean that it's not there, which kind of makes it a moot point, don't ya think?
It's definitely a moot point, but it serves to answer the question of an original.
And in fact everything results in an infinite number. You simply can't imagine how staggeringly infinite the infinite number is, because the mind is finite and therefore cannot grasp the infinite.
But to attempt to give you an idea. Not everything has a positive or negative option (yes or no decision). Many decisions include variables, for example, how long I spent thinking before writing this out. Each possibility results in a different universe, and theoretically that results in an infinite number of possibilities, if you can divide the second down infinitely, but let's say you can't, because scientists say you can't.
In each universe the exact same thing happens for every decision encountered. And that's not just my decision. That's every decision or chance that ever happens anywhere. A staggeringly infinite number of infinite parallel universes, given how long everything's been around.
And then this brings up the question of fate - is it really chance?
Could you explain about souls?
B.
I understand why all the universes would be so infinitely multiplying and that's exactly my point. I just don't believe that something of that constantly growing magnitude could actually happen without at least more signs of it.
I think I missed your thought process on how fate linked into this. Please explain.
I'm also not sure what you want me to explain about souls.
There are no signs of it because they are separate universes. Imagine you are in a concrete room with no doors or windows or ways out, completely sealed. There is no way to communicate (or know about) any other world than the one in the concrete room. We're trapped into our universe, so it's impossible to know about any others, this is all purely hypothetical based on some dead white guy's idea about cats in a box.
The thing about fate, is that it would mean all of our actions are predestined and so means there are no alternate universes because there was really no decision to be made.
"Each of these copies would require a soul, your soul, but I don't believe that would be possible because I don't believe a soul can be copied." What do you mean by a soul? What I understand as a 'soul' is a personality, based on past experiences.
B.
I get what you're saying about fate, but I never really believed in that anyway so it doesn't matter.
Many people consider the soul and a person's personality the same thing. I would say that a personality is how a person acts and responds to different situations. A person's soul, however, is their very essence. It's who you are behind all the masks and is the true definition of you as a person. Stuff like that can't just be copied and distributed at an infinite rate. Or any rate, for that matter.
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