Charting the Unpredictability of a Distant Future
Given that this is 3 days from the author's (once again) departure from Malaysia, the author is has a very relaxing time not doing much, well, at all. Reflecting back on the another year spent here required so inputs so the author found himself watching the new Terminator movie that just came out across the theaters here in Malaysia. While there is little notable about the plot worthy of in-depth discussion here, this particular installation in the series put a much stronger emphasis on the ability of time travel to change events, and the idea that knowledge about events in different timelines can be simultaneously had by one person.
It relates to a point that many people, the author included, probably dwell on often. People make choices and substantiate upon those choices by series of actions. Those actions, combined with any resulting consequences, may cause complete divergence of what life could have been in different timelines. It does seem an alluring proposition if a person can observe the development of all these timelines, however blurry and incomplete, just out of curiosity of what life could have become if different options were pursued. It is not so much desire to see past or future but possibility of a different present.
Ultimately, such desires to acquire knowledge of something that can hypothetically happen but in the present reality, never happened, speak volumes about the average human's uncertainty toward his or her decision-making skills. Terms such as "quarter-life crisis," "mid-life crisis," or even simpler ones like "regret" and "remorse," relate to the lack of confidence humans express toward their current status quo, which in turn place doubts upon the rationale of choices that got them to the status quo in the first place. They want some sort of assurances, or at least of hints of such, that the right decisions were taken, given multiple choices.
Perhaps that explains the growing obsession with multiple dimensions that supposedly contain alternate realities, in big-budget Hollywood films such as the new Terminator or the critically acclaimed Interstellar. The possibility that the theory is real piques the viewers'interests because everyone seems to have certain desires to understand what they can become in the alternate reality versions of themselves. Hollywood, as always, have capitalized on such fascination with the topic, providing a blatantly American version of the scientific theory and its possible implementation in the future. But it is by no means alone.
And to take the argument a step deeper, it can be said that the fascination with alternate realities can also be attributed to perceived uncertainties of the future. People think there are possibilities of better options out there, and feel possible regrets in not making those possibly better decisions, precisely because they do not know where they are heading with the current set of decisions they have made and the consequences they must deal with. Hence, the anxiety toward the unpredictability of the future brings out the previously noted notions of personal "crises."
This notion cannot be any more familiar to someone who is intentionally on unemployment. While the so-called "travel sabbatical" can be fun, eventually the overwhelming sense that the opportunity cost of working somewhere and gaining experiences/skills instead really gets to the person. It can be so intense to the point that the person may start questioning the very logic behind quitting the previous job in the first place. The fear associated comes from the fact the unemployed may imagine the worst, of a situation where they cannot find new jobs, leaving them financially compromised with new source of steady income.
While the author is no longer one of these intentionally unemployed for the moment, previous experiences do tell him that being uncertain about the future is in itself highly positive thing for the individual. After all, being unemployed and broke can be more positive than being stuck in a job where one remains unhappy and the only reason for continuing is to earn a salary. Personal development come from being able to look to vagueness of the future as the fact that there are many different options available for one to choose. The uncertainty, thus, has value in itself.
Conversely, the obsession with wanting to figure out the "what-if" situations of making a different decision in the past is highly overrated. Sure, future technologies may be able to give individuals accurate assessment of what alternative timelines of their lives may look like, but a person will never be able to live multiple lives at once. Even if one is able to move across dimensions to experience different selves, overdoing so would risk one not being able to focus on developing any particular one life to its possible perfection. That, for the author at least, is not a life (or more than one life) well-lived.
It relates to a point that many people, the author included, probably dwell on often. People make choices and substantiate upon those choices by series of actions. Those actions, combined with any resulting consequences, may cause complete divergence of what life could have been in different timelines. It does seem an alluring proposition if a person can observe the development of all these timelines, however blurry and incomplete, just out of curiosity of what life could have become if different options were pursued. It is not so much desire to see past or future but possibility of a different present.
Ultimately, such desires to acquire knowledge of something that can hypothetically happen but in the present reality, never happened, speak volumes about the average human's uncertainty toward his or her decision-making skills. Terms such as "quarter-life crisis," "mid-life crisis," or even simpler ones like "regret" and "remorse," relate to the lack of confidence humans express toward their current status quo, which in turn place doubts upon the rationale of choices that got them to the status quo in the first place. They want some sort of assurances, or at least of hints of such, that the right decisions were taken, given multiple choices.
Perhaps that explains the growing obsession with multiple dimensions that supposedly contain alternate realities, in big-budget Hollywood films such as the new Terminator or the critically acclaimed Interstellar. The possibility that the theory is real piques the viewers'interests because everyone seems to have certain desires to understand what they can become in the alternate reality versions of themselves. Hollywood, as always, have capitalized on such fascination with the topic, providing a blatantly American version of the scientific theory and its possible implementation in the future. But it is by no means alone.
And to take the argument a step deeper, it can be said that the fascination with alternate realities can also be attributed to perceived uncertainties of the future. People think there are possibilities of better options out there, and feel possible regrets in not making those possibly better decisions, precisely because they do not know where they are heading with the current set of decisions they have made and the consequences they must deal with. Hence, the anxiety toward the unpredictability of the future brings out the previously noted notions of personal "crises."
This notion cannot be any more familiar to someone who is intentionally on unemployment. While the so-called "travel sabbatical" can be fun, eventually the overwhelming sense that the opportunity cost of working somewhere and gaining experiences/skills instead really gets to the person. It can be so intense to the point that the person may start questioning the very logic behind quitting the previous job in the first place. The fear associated comes from the fact the unemployed may imagine the worst, of a situation where they cannot find new jobs, leaving them financially compromised with new source of steady income.
While the author is no longer one of these intentionally unemployed for the moment, previous experiences do tell him that being uncertain about the future is in itself highly positive thing for the individual. After all, being unemployed and broke can be more positive than being stuck in a job where one remains unhappy and the only reason for continuing is to earn a salary. Personal development come from being able to look to vagueness of the future as the fact that there are many different options available for one to choose. The uncertainty, thus, has value in itself.
Conversely, the obsession with wanting to figure out the "what-if" situations of making a different decision in the past is highly overrated. Sure, future technologies may be able to give individuals accurate assessment of what alternative timelines of their lives may look like, but a person will never be able to live multiple lives at once. Even if one is able to move across dimensions to experience different selves, overdoing so would risk one not being able to focus on developing any particular one life to its possible perfection. That, for the author at least, is not a life (or more than one life) well-lived.
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