callbacks: (glow)
dave mamahecking strider ([personal profile] callbacks) wrote2016-12-11 03:06 pm
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uncertainrelation: and the promises you never were giving me (AVERT ⚛ a thousand lost forevers)

[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
Because that's what happens when the mind tries to reconcile conflicting sets of memories. That is to say, experiences that are both yours — yet not yours.
uncertainrelation: i hear they have clones there, and natural disasters (UNSURE ⚛ but i don't want to go to camp)

[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
Well, that IS the question, isn't it. Were you not bombarded with the memories of those...other Daves, as you so aptly put it? You weren't left perceiving both sets at once?
uncertainrelation: but you can't make a barbershop quartet sing single ladies (LECTURE ⚛ albert i'mma let you finish)

[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
...All right, I'll confess, you started to lose me somewhere around "thirteen of me".

Though I suppose the ability to reconcile all of that has something to do with your time powers? If that's the case, then perhaps you do simply have some sort of natural immunity to the phenomenon. Perhaps you simply manufacture memories at an extraordinary rate, preserving your mind from the stress of trying to perceive thirteen conflicting sets of memories at once.
uncertainrelation: internal is where the blood is supposed to be (LOSS ⚛ oh rats it's external bleeding)

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[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
Well, because of the overlap you would experience in —

Here, just a tick, let me try to map this out.
uncertainrelation: a rorschach test on fire, a day-glo pterodactyl (WRITE ⚛ let z1 be z-squared plus c)

[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 03:36 am (UTC)(link)


All right, to begin with, can you see this diagram?
uncertainrelation: look at me still talking while there's science to do (BUSY ⚛ yes well moving right along)

[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 03:55 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, thank you. It served me very well while I was at Cambridge.

In any event, let's begin with a few presumptions about this diagram. Let's stipulate for the sake of discussion that the black line in the center is "the universe".


[WELL JEEZ, ROBERT, JUST LEAP RIGHT INTO IT, WHY DON'T YOU.]

Let's also assume that Dave 1, in blue, is the Dave that corresponds to that universe. Which is to say, in the natural state of things, there is for every discrete universe a single discrete Dave that corresponds to that universe. Yes?
uncertainrelation: a rorschach test on fire, a day-glo pterodactyl (WRITE ⚛ let z1 be z-squared plus c)

[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 04:10 am (UTC)(link)
No, no, you're getting ahead of yourself. For every universe (black line), there is a single Dave. If you'd like to call him the Alpha Dave for the sake of your understanding, that's perfectly fine, but be careful not to apply assumptions to that Alpha Dave that aren't part of the thought experiment.

Now, then. For this given universe (black line), Dave 1 (Alpha Dave) makes a given decision at the juncture we've called the Divergence Point. For ease of comprehension, let's assign the outcome of his answer to something simple and polar — the answer "yes".

Therefore, in this particular universe, Alpha Dave reaches the Divergence Point, is presented with a choice, and answers "yes". This is where the visual grows a bit deceptive, because as rendered, his divergence is shown by a deviation upward. But don't be fooled by that, because Alpha Dave's line still maps perfectly onto the black line of the universe IN ACTUALITY, because being the Alpha Dave means that all of Alpha Dave's decisions are the "correct" decisions for that given universe.

Following so far?
uncertainrelation: but you can't make a barbershop quartet sing single ladies (LECTURE ⚛ albert i'mma let you finish)

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[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Magnificent. Then let's update our diagram a bit — I understand this may seem tedious in terms of laying the groundwork, but we're quickly coming to the point.
uncertainrelation: a rorschach test on fire, a day-glo pterodactyl (WRITE ⚛ let z1 be z-squared plus c)

[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 05:16 pm (UTC)(link)


Now then, as you can see, we've altered the black "universe" line somewhat to better reflect the way that each individual universe tracks to a particular Dave's decisions. That's because according to the theory of infinite universes, there DO EXIST both of those universes, separate and discrete from each other; in Dave 1's universe, all of Dave 1's decisions are the "correct" decisions for that universe, and in Dave 2's universe, all of Dave 2's decisions are "correct" for that universe.

In summation, every Dave IS the "Alpha Dave" to his own universe (Daveiverse?), which means that the determination of a Dave being an Alpha Dave or not must be considered RELATIVE to the universe he is standing in.

Dave 1 is only the Alpha Dave of his own universe. In Dave 2's universe, Dave 1 is an other, because his decisions do not track seamlessly to the decisions that the universe defines as "Dave's Decisions" (aka Dave 2's decisions, because this is Dave 2's universe in which he is the Alpha Dave to that universe).
uncertainrelation: bleeding like an anime character near his love interest (BLEED ⚛ fucking shit there i go again)

[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Excellent. We're coming to the crux of the matter.





Now, for the purposes of discussion, let's deal only with Dave 1's universe, or the universe in which the Alpha Timeline dictates that "Dave" chose "yes" at our marked point of divergence. As you can see, his decisions are still tracking accordingly with the universe.

However, let's now suppose that Dave 2 leaves his universe and jumps into Dave 1's universe. This is where Dave 2 will begin to have a problem, because:

At any given point on the timeline past the divergence point, Dave 2's internal memories of his experiences will conflict with what the universe dictates his experience "should be". At the juncture point, Dave 2 chose "no" — but the universe dictates that "Dave chose yes".

At this point, what follows is a conflict, in which the universe impresses memories of experiences upon Dave 2 that differ from the experiences that Dave 2 remembers from his own universe. Or, put another way, a given universe recognizes only one Dave, and will therefore treat all Daves within that universe as the Alpha Dave, regardless of whether that Dave IS the Alpha Dave or not.

Thus, Universe 1 treats Dave 1 as the Alpha Dave (which he is), and as there is no conflict between Dave 1 and the universe's treatment of him, Dave 1 remains unscathed. However, Universe 1 ALSO treats Dave 2 as the Alpha Dave (which he is not), because for every universe there is only one discrete Dave, and therefore all Daves within that universe must by extension be That Dave.

But Dave 2 is not the Alpha Dave, despite the universe treating him as such. Thus, Dave 2 is now bombarded with two divergent sets of memories and experiences, both of which are "correct" — even though the nature of a yes/no decision is that both cannot be "correct" simultaneously.

Dave 2 is therefore left to reconcile the experience of having chosen both yes and no at the same juncture, remembering events that he both did and did not do. The human mind is not equipped to handle that level of juxtaposition, and the negative effects of the experience on the mind are usually both immediate and dramatic.
uncertainrelation: once you flip the fun don't...stip... (COIN ⚛ it's probability unless it's not)

[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 07:02 pm (UTC)(link)
It's a largely theoretical field of study, I'm afraid; as there've not been many proven cases of individuals leaping into parallel universes and experiencing the effects of that juxtaposition, we've only really established what we can, and hypothesized by extension about the rest.

But my preliminary guess would be, if your immunity to the phenomenon is simply a natural condition of your universe, then it may also follow that the immunity is a constant in EVERY universe. If that's the case, then part of what makes a Dave a Dave to begin with is the fact that he can navigate parallel universes as he pleases with impunity.

...Which is FASCINATING to consider, if that's truly the case.
uncertainrelation: one plus two plus two plus one (CONSIDER ⚛ was it six shots or five)

[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually, it makes a great deal of sense — and also explains why the phenomenon doesn't appear to be in effect here at all. If a given universe HAS no parameters to define a Dave, then it follows that there are no parameters to impress upon any Dave that enters into it.

However, the part I find curious is that as this city behaves like an empty container, that also means it's not recording a history to impress upon any subsequent iterations of you. You're not being bombarded with memories of interactions with people that you never conducted, even though a different version of you did, are you?
uncertainrelation: shade so hard we'll eclipse the sun (SHADE ⚛ get 'em baby i'll hold yo flower)

[personal profile] uncertainrelation 2017-04-02 07:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, yes. "I was going to have had to have had that conversation", and all that interesting timeline tomfoolery.

I assume you've spoken to Rosalind about that before. She's a fair hand at keeping track of the timelines and the grammatical conventions both.

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