There have been lots of threads moved to GD to allow full debate.
This is the first time I remember a thread being moved from the austere halls of GD to MPSIMS to allow silliness.
It’s not so much “allow” as it is “bow to the inevitable.”
“If On a Foggy Night”, by Larry Niven.
May I say, your goatee is looking rather dashing today?
I remember a cartoon in the 60s where memory was shown as a bunch of monkeys in your brain, raiding file cabinets to retrieve a memory. Though this is how many of us think of the process, it is NOT the best analogy.
Those monkeys should have been at a workbench, reconstructing a memory out of torn photos, crumpled audiotapes, comments from parents, staticky TV clips and third-hand stories.
Oh, and the monkeys should be stoned.
See, this is my biggest problem with the Mandela Effect…
(I truly want to believe in it, because it would be SO COOL! I mean, visit an alternate timeline? It’d be like living a Sci-Fi story).
But how do you deal with The Law of Conservation of Matter?
When Rachel morphed into a cat (I still love those Animorph stories), the author invented an extra dimension just to store the extra mass. But for someone to just disappear? Big problem for alternate timelines, inter-dimensional travel… or time travel, as well.
(By the way, the last time I traveled in time, I ended up floating in interplanetary space, because the Earth had moved.)
The hall monitor in GD:
And what about the world next door, where there are suddenly two of you? Maybe it’s a loop. You move from timeline A to timeline B. YouB moves to timeline C. YouC moves to timeline D. &c, &c – and eventually youn takes your place in timeline A.
I clearly remember th “Franco-American” jingle being sung at the end of Spaghettios commercials.
I don’t understand having a distinct detail for detail recollection of these paintings, period. I have long been aware, sort of, of dogs playing poker paintings, and I believe Roseanne Connot’s living room had such a painting on the wall. Other than that? I have an image of at least one cigar, and maybe one dog being white with some dark spots, but that’s as detailed as it gets.
Uh-oh!
This is actually solid proof of your contention, as dogs playing poker mostly do not exist in this reality, and hence the paintings are obviously a leakage from an alternate reality. I mean, a dog can try to play poker, and occasionally one tries to get in a game, but they’re so hopelessly bad at it. As soon as a dog gets a good hand (or “paw”, as they like to call it) his eyes light up, his mouth opens and his tongue hangs out in a smile of reckless delight, his ears perk up, and most of all, his tail starts wagging madly. Dogs are completely incapable of assuming the “poker face” so critical to success in the game.
So with poker, dogs generally don’t even bother trying. But if South America moves again, and Stouffer’s starts making stovetop stuffing again, look out! The poker dogs will be back! And there will be more paintings honouring their skills!
A guy is invited to a private poker room, and when he gets there the place is rocking. Four tables, drink servers, chips everywhere… and there’s a dog playing poker. An honest to God German Shepherd is playing Texas Hold 'Em.
He walks over and stares, open-mouthed, in amazement. The dog sits there and patiently waits for his cards, peeks at them, and plays. Makes bets, raises, folds. It’s the most astounding thing he’s ever seen.
“Whose dog is this?” the guy says.
Another gentleman at the table says “Oh, this is my dog Patches.”
“Jesus Christ, he’s playing poker! This must be the smartest dog who ever lived!”
“Hell no he isn’t,” the dog’s owner says. “He’s down two hundred bucks.”
Changing from WHAT? I’ve been alive 49 years, I’m obsessed with maps - I can draw a pretty decent world map freehand - and the map of the world looks the same to me as it always has. It hasn’t changed.
Buddy, if you seriously believe this, you need to go speak to your physician. I am absolutely serious. I am concerned for your well-being.
Well, I mean due to wars, boundary disputes and what not many nations have changed quite a bit. The old Soviet Union is gone, Germany is one nation, etc.
But I do not think that is what he means.
Your memories were altered to match the new reality.
Something, if you’d seriously like to read about how unreliable human memories are, try reading the works of Elizabeth Loftus, like The Myth of Repressed Memory.
I rememeber a television document on false memories that described one aspect of human memory that is very feasible for creating false memories. Human memory reinforces itself every time a memory is accessed. So when someone is suggesting to you that something happened at certain moment you start to remember what happened then and and while yo’re remembering you start to write into your memory the same thing to reinforce the memory and if this process is interrupted one can insert false memories.
It’s not the same as destructive computer memory where every read must be followed by write. But it is something like that nevertheless as the memory is rewriten when you access it.
How do you know you really watched it?