We always wonder, what if I had done that instead of what I actually chose to do. Lamenting over past mistakes and decisions is where we spend half our time. It is always said that we should forget what happened in the past and look forward to the future. No use crying over split milk.
It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
Dumbledore
But what if we could actually see how the choices we did not take, turn out to be? That is the premise of the book Dark Matter. I stumbled upon the book in my Google Play Books app. I do not remember buying it. I started reading because I had no headphones on a plane journey. Since my bag was overstuffed, I chose not to take my headphones. Had I taken them, I would have ended up watching something and would have never end up reading this book.
Back to the book. It features Jason, a smart physics professor who chose family over pursuing a research career. He was happy and almost content. 15 years ago his girlfriend got pregnant and he decided to leave his research career to care for the family. He always wonders what if he ended up continuing his career. And that's when Jason2 enters the picture. Jason2 is the same Jason 15 years ago. Except Jason2 chose to continue research. He went on to do great things. Made a box in which humans could realize multiple realities. He found Jason and his happy life and kidnapped him to experience the happiness for himself. Jason ended up in Jason2's world where Jason2 had achieved everything Jason wanted to achieve 15 years ago but made a different choice. If the number of Jason's now is causing a confusion, hang on, there are a lot more Jason's that pop up in the story.
The book is excellent. 4.5/5 for me. The book will open you up to things you never thought of. The concepts introduced are mind blowing. I wish the author could explain more science, but I am sure it must not have been easy to even come up with such things. In Matrix, a chip is inserted into a computer that is interfaced with Neo's brain and then he instantly learns Kung Fu, that is a holy shit moment. Plenty of such holy shit moments in this book.
The book became more meaningful when a similar event happened to a friend of mine recently. His girlfriend got pregnant and they decided to abort given that they are just a 24 year old couple. Now consider a scenario in which they decide to go forward with the pregnancy and have the baby. Wouldn't it be fantastic to just go and see how that choice turned out to be. May be, despite of having the baby, they turned out happy and successful in a way they could not in their original life. May be it all turned to shit, but they got to see what happened. That's what matters.
Every choice we make creates a branch of us not making that choice. We take decisions everyday, in fact every minute of our life. Should I go to the party today? Should I wear this dress? Should I drive or just take an Uber? Every single choice creating an alternative reality. And before you realize you have infinite realities in front of you. It blows my mind imagining a way we could see how the alternate reality turned out to be. I still haven't been able to fully fathom the possibilities of such a thing. Perhaps it is beyond most of us, as are all the realities except the one we live in.
Link to the book: Dark Matter