Double-Think
My idea was to get up early, go to the grocery store before it got too hot, and before the store became too crowded. Got there around 7:30, was wandering up and down the aisles, when I overheard a conversation between two young men, both around the age of 25-28. One worked at the store, though clearly it was not his career - just something he was passing through on his way to someplace else.
One young man said to the other, "The universe came from nothing. This can be scientifically proven. So depending on what you want to believe..."
Distracted by green beans and canned carrots, I momentarily lost track of the conversation as the intercome blurted out a demand for "Clean-up on aisle 4." Went on with my shopping, smiling a bit to myself. It was nice to hear two young men discussing something other than the merits of poontang.
By the time I had covered another two aisles and found myself in the cheese section, the two young men were still talking - more animatedly now. "So, you see, it's scientifically impossible that Buddha and Mohammed ever existed, because both would have to exist in the past and that is only an illusory state in a universe that is always moving forward in time."
Where or how this logic was arrived at, I have no idea. Maybe some sort of extracurricular work the two guys are doing for some professor at the local college. I walked on by... hearing only bits & snatches of their conversation.
Then, before I realized what was happening, I saw myself turn as if my body had been possessed by my double (which it had), and the following words came out of my mouth without volition. "The problem is that you are arguing for a causal, deterministic universe - a cause and effect world, where there is very l ittle variation in the realm of probability, am I correct?"
The young man who was stocking string cheese looked up, frowned a bit, then nodded thoughtfully. "Sure. That's what I'm saying. Einstein proved it."
"Perhaps," I conceded, though I was not myself, but Orlando - who apparently found himself with a wicked sense of humor this morning and was in the mood to rattle some cages. "However, the problem you face is this: if the universe is quantum and actually NOT deterministic, then you are creating a deterministic universe by your own thoughts, and therefore only manifesting what you already believe as a means to validate the belief to itself."
The young man's head tilted slightly. At least he was thinking about it. Frankly, I was surprised he didn't just blow me off or tell me to mind my own business. I would have deserved it, after all. Eavesdropping and injecting myself uninvited into the conversations of strangers in the market.
"The universe sprang from nothing," the young man insisted, as if that were the root base of his argument.
"Perhaps," I said again. "Or... perhaps if you look at it from another angle, you might see that the universe simply moved into the perceptual range of its inhabitants. It would certainly appear, then, that the universe sprang into being from the nothing - an act of spontaneous parthenogenesis, yes? But if you consider the possibility that the universe simply allowed itself to be seen, or the possibility that the inhabitants' perceptual range expanded, it sheds an entirely different light on the subject, yes?"
The young man stared at me, leaning forward slightly. "I never thought of it that way," he said with a soft, almost innocent inflection.
I didn't tell him *I* had never thought of it that way either. What if the universe simply moved into the perceptual range of its inhabitants?
What, indeed?
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