Thursday, March 22, 2018

On alternative universes

Last week, after Stephen Hawking died, there was some talk of alternative universes. I don't know if Hawking literally believed in them, or if he liked to joke about their existences, but two instances I saw on the internet:

1. Hawking was apparently asked at meeting what he thought about "Zayn" leaving "One Direction" (a boy in a boy-band; apparently one much-loved by the fans). And apparently Hawking said that given alternative universes, there were some out there where the band was still together, and in fact, there was one where the young woman in question was happily married to him."

I don't know if that's literally true or just one of those things that makes the round of the internet. (I want it to be true). If it is true, if Hawking did say that, that was incredibly kind and....goes against the stereotype of the smart, powerful adult mocking a teen girl's fascination with something.

(I've heard from other sources that Hawking, for all his brilliance, was by and large a decent guy. That makes me happy, in a way. I mean, I know I am a Bear of Very Little Brain - especially compared to Hawking - but I hate the trope that's out there that says "If you're a brilliant person that gives you license to be an a-hole; you don't have to be kind" or, even worse, "It's silly and stupid to care about people's feelings.")

2. But Hawking could also rag on people who could take it:

Hawking may have had (at least 1) Ph.D. but he also Mastered the sick burn.


(John Oliver - I think that's who it is? is asking him if there exists an alternate universe where he (Oliver) is smarter than Hawking, and Hawking responds, "Yes. And also one where you are funny"

And then, despite his limitations from ALS, he smiles, and you KNOW how pleased he was with himself to have come up with that. Then again, I think people who are brilliant in one way often have that kind of quick mind where they can come up with clever retorts or funny things to say. I love making people laugh and while I don't claim any especial brilliance, I am happy that on good days, my mind is quick to come up with things. I'm too "nice," in most cases, for the "sick burn," but I do tend to come up with funny absurd responses to things)

But anyway. Riffing on that....I admit the idea of "alternative universes" appeals to me. Because there's one out there, then, where I wound up well-loved and famous. And another where I'm a wife and mother and am happy doing that. And yet another where I am (as I've talked about before) Benign Dictatrix, and thus can make rules like NO ONE SHALL PLAY LOUD MUSIC THAT EMERGES FROM THEIR CAR IN EITHER RESIDENTIAL OR EDUCATIONAL AREAS (last week, someone parked out behind the labs with their car stereo on "11." It wasn't close to my lab - I could hear it but not enough for it to interrupt the students' work - but had I been in the lab he had been parked right outside of, I might have been out there, yelling and flailing my arms about how the students couldn't work)

I also noted, on Twitter, on the 15th:

"In the alternative universe where cartoons are real life, and Bob's Burgers is a real restaurant, Mr. Belcher is probably having a lot of fun today:

The "Et tu, fruit?" Burger: burger with a slice of pineapple on it
The "Caesar burger": burger topped with caesar salad and stabbed through with a knife."

Later on I thought of:

"The Ides of Starch" - a burger with fries ON TOP OF it, and stabbed through with a knife.

But yes. The alternative universes I can imagine are always more fun than, or nicer than, the one I actually inhabit. (That's actually my "help my brain stop yammering at me so I can sleep" trick, or my "stuck waiting somewhere and don't want to go nuts" trick - imagine another type of universe, whether basing it on some novel/movie/tv show I like, or imagining a different life-path for myself (Lighthouse keeper! Bookstore owner/manager! Pastry chef!)

I've also read a half-baked idea that the Afterlife is actually one alternative universe where we go on living, and we just wink out in another one when we die....so presumably, the way you know, is suddenly you find people who died in your "other reality" are there again....and that's kind of a little comforting to think about.

I've also contemplated that maybe novels are peeks into alternative universes that exist, and therefore, each of our lives is a novel in one of those alternative universes...

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