The Mandela Effect

Chapter 64

All three men left the car and proceeded into C's house. They were so used to it now, that it was almost second nature. In the door, down the hall, keys and phones in the box, down the stairs to the basement. While they moved, Jon explained what Wolfe told him.

"So," Jon began, "in Dr. Who, there are these fixed points in time. They are events that had such long-standing impacts on the timeline that no one would interfere with their natural progression, out of fear of damaging reality itself."

"Ok," C chuckles, "I remember that."

"But, in the Dr. Who universe," Jon continues, "Fixed points can be flexible and don't have to happen exactly the same way in every timeline. They just need the same outcome, generally speaking."

"So, there are fixed points," T asks, "that we can't change in our timeline."

"Well, no," Jon clarified, "it's kinda the opposite. The multiverse we usually think about, from movies and books, is created by every decision we make. Turn right instead of left: new universe split. Kiss the girl or don't: new universe split."

"And, that creates the infinite universes," T says.

"Right," Jon agreed, but continues, "but apparently that's not correct. Basically, the 'fixed points in time' are more like break points in time. A new universe only splits off based on a decision made at one of those points."

"So, it's not really infinite?" C asks.

"I mean," Jon thinks it over, "billions of years and billions of planets. It probably approaches infinity anyway; even if not every decision creates a new one. But those that are similar to ours, ones we might move to, that's probably a much smaller number."

The three men reached the basement and each takes a seat in the planning area.

"Wait though," T asks, "there have to be timelines where Neanderthal rises as the primary sapien."

"Right," Jon agrees, "but those timelines are very divergent from ours. And realistically, thinking of arms of a river running through a delta, they would be much farther away from our own."

"But," T argued, "stepping through rift after rift, you could eventually get there. Especially if there are these special events that create an alternative universe, rather than every decision."

"I guess?" Jon shrugged, "but I don't think you can walk through anymore. I think the machine is like harnessing the energy and power, so its not a gateway anymore."

"But the other universes must have that machine too," C says.

Jon shrugged again, "you'd think, but I don't know. He didn't say."

"What a mindfuck," C says, shaking his head and standing, "Beer?"

C started moving across the room.

Jon laughs, "yea, why not?"

T was spinning slowly in his chair, looking up at the ceiling, but managed, "me too."

"Don't overthink it," Jon advised T.

T laughs, "yea, easy to say, hard to do."

"So, I'll let you in on a little secret from academia," Jon says.

T stopped spinning and turned towards him.

"If something is in my specialty," Jon continues, "I would fight everything, tooth and nail, even if I agreed with you. Doctoral students are sometimes defending their dissertations on topics to professors who also have published on the same topic."

T scoffs at the thought.

"But we do that because," Jon added, "in my specialty, at least, I want to hold everyone to the highest standard. Don't just believe it because I say it, because I won't to you. You need to be able to defend your beliefs."

"Ok?" T questioned, not understanding.

"But," Jon chuckles, "if it's not in my specialty, and I don't have any training or knowledge on it, I will just believe 'experts' on that topic. It's why bad ideas get so entrenched in academia. Because people defend bad ideas that they don't understand."

T leans back in his chair. He doesn't get it.

"You and I," Jon finished, "are not, what even, theoretical particle physicists or whoever studies this stuff. So, I don't try to break it down, I just accept it superficially and apply it, as I understand it, to my own situation."

C returned with three beers and handed them to Jon and T.

"I get it," T says, sitting up and taking the beer.

"BOHICA," C added, sitting back in his chair.

Both Jon and T turned towards him holding their beers.

" 'Bend Over, Here It Comes Again'," C explained.

"Fucked by the universe," T chuckles, "mind fucked at least."

"I'll drink to that," C says raising his beer.

Jon and T raised theirs as well. All three takes a sip of their drinks.

"So, how are we getting to Europe?" T asks.