Diversity in Points of Divergences

Now it’s the first time in several months that I’m writing a post in this blog. I’ve had the topic I will write about in this post in my mind for several months, but only now do I have the time to write about it.

The topic consists of points of divergences (PODs) of various kinds that result in the different parallel universes that I have described in general in past blog posts. Some PODs exist in the context of alternate histories (e.g. battle victories), but many others are the everyday decisions (or, for that matter, life-altering ones) which people make literally every second. Yet other PODs derive from accidents or other (potentially) life-threatening situations, and PODs can also spring from any one of various moves in games or sports. Concerning the latter, they say that sports are like a peace-time war anyway!

I have already highlighted a few alternate histories, also known as counterfactual histories, in many of my previous blog posts. They range from the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka not being assassinated in 1959 - thereby butterflying away the eventual civil war between the Sinhalese and the Tamils - to Southern Rhodesia joining the Union of South Africa in 1923, forestalling later problems with apartheid, the post-2000 Zimbabwean crisis, etc. Of course, my website on British Argentina and Uruguay (http://www.britishargentina.com) is of the same alternate historical variety. What these all share is some POD for subsequent events to take place differently in each of the parallel universes than in our own universe. (I am especially interested in alternate histories with happy outcomes, as opposed to, say, if the Nazis win World War II.) These make by far the most interesting outcomes to PODs, for me anyway.

Another class of PODs transpires every single second as countless billions of people (not to mention a whole host of other creatures) make decisions big and small on what to do next. As an example, I may be talking about my friend and what I would do with him. When I talk to him on the telephone and we exchange “hi, how are you?”, I might then have the choice of asking him, as the first thing, “Could I hang out with you today?” or “Tell me about your day so far.” If I choose the former in this universe, I might choose the latter in another universe, and I can make a difference in the conversation but generally not more than that.

A bigger decision that I could make is whether on given day I could go to a travel-gear store (to buy accessories for some future trip) or just stay at home. If I choose to shop for travel gear in this universe, and maybe buy some travel accessories, I might elect to stay home in another universe. Then, that parallel universe would be different in that I don’t end up buying the travel gear like in this universe.

Finally, an example of a life-altering decision could be what university to attend after high school. In my case, I was looking for a reputable university, with a large enough Jewish community and a geography department, that wasn’t too far from where I’m from (Montreal). For the final three choices, I had McGill (in Montreal), Johns Hopkins (in Baltimore), and Rutgers (in New Jersey). I ended up choosing Rutgers, in this universe anyway. In another universe, I chose Johns Hopkins; in yet another, McGill. My subsequent life in each of those other universes became different from the one that I knew, because I would take different courses, meet different professors and university-mates, and more generally experience life differently because of the individual environments of Baltimore or Montreal relative to the New Jersey and New York metropolitan area.

Another rich source of PODs is, unfortunately, the myriad of life-threatening incidents that present themselves, like accidents, violent crimes, terrorist attacks, severe weather, and fires. Such situations, especially accidents of various kinds that result in injuries or deaths, bother me greatly especially when comparing such PODs to those for the alternate histories. Anyway, a good example could be the crash of TWA flight 800 in July 1996, in which everybody aboard was killed. On that flight, there was somebody who missed that flight, and as a result lived to tell the tale. The point is, in some parallel universe or another, that person did take the flight, and perished. Yet another parallel universe unfolded in which that TWA flight did not crash, and reached its destination without incident. The POD in this last case would be a catastrophic malfunction (or lack thereof).

The last major set of PODs involves the games and sports that people play. Just like with histories, everyday decisions, accidents, and the like, games and sports involve infinite sets of all possible outcomes - no matter how small. In fact, many sports and games are especially noteworthy for all the strategies that players use, or else sheer luck. For example, if I am playing Trivial Pursuit, if I roll the dice and I have three, I must think of which tile to land on from the tile that my game piece is on now. I then have a choice of whether to land on a history question or one on nature. If I end up moving my game piece to the history question in this universe, in another universe, my game piece ends up on the nature question. Another example of a POD in this category is a soccer match; for example, between England and Germany. Sundry factors will determine whether it’s England or Germany that wins, and any of these are different in various parallel universes than in our universe. In some of these universes (like perhaps ours), England wins; in others, Germany wins.

The point of mentioning all the above PODs is that there is such a diversity (and infinity) of parallel universe-forming PODs, some of which get along with each other but many more clash with one another. The categories I have outlined in this post are independent of one another; they are too different to compare one with the other. That’s not even covering all the various possible categories of parallel universes out there, including myriads of those that have more (or fewer) spatial and/or temporal dimensions than us, or different mathematical constants.

PODs come in all shapes and sizes; many PODs can be truly small-scale (involving only one person to a few people), while some others can be enormous in scope, and yet others in between. The small scale PODs include most of those connected to everyday decisions, small-scale incidents, and games and small-scale sports. Bigger in scale are local and regional alternate histories, major sport matches, and many major incidents (such as jet plane crashes). The largest PODs of all involve alternate histories on a continental or world-wide scale; those have the most far-reaching consequences. See the list below:

alternate history

small scale: Brooklyn remains a separate city from Manhattan to this day.

medium scale: The British keep Cuba after 1763.

big scale: The US South wins the Civil War in the 1860s.

everyday/life-altering decisions

small scale: I decide to order coffee at the café, as opposed to tea like in this universe.

medium scale: I decide to go to an art supply store next week, instead of today like in this universe.

big scale: I decide to become a professor, and not an urban planner like in this universe.

serious incidents

small scale: Due to fatigue, I sleep on the wheel on a highway and get into an accident with severe injuries, and not avoid such an accident like in this universe.

medium scale: In a hurricane, all the people living in a neighbourhood (e.g. in Houston, Texas) ignore warnings to evacuate and many get killed, versus just a few in this universe.

big scale: Bill Clinton beefs up air security in the late 1990s, thereby preventing the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington that took place in this universe.

games/sports

small scale: In a game of solitaire, I unearth a card saying 3 instead of a card saying 7 like here, with different eventual outcomes for the game.

medium scale: In the 13th season of the Amazing Race (a reality TV program), in the second Russian leg of the race, a guy named Dallas does not lose his wallet and passport. Thus, he and his mother are still in the race (unlike here).

big scale: West Germany wins the World Cup of soccer over Argentina in 1986, and not the other way around like here.