(no subject)

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise 2/8 near Recolle

On the subject of horses, allow me to ask you a question: When you were a child, what was the name of the bear family who taught valuable life lessons in easily digestible books? Chances are, you answered 'the Berenstein Bears'. And, as it happens, that is incorrect; it is the Berenstain Bears. How can everyone misremember this? How can something so patently true turn out to be terribly false? Some people will tell you it is the 'Mandela effect', named after a shockingly large number of people believed Nelson Mandela died in prison... but simple mass misremembering is a fairly boring answer, isn't it? Consider instead a possibility physics allows us: that infinite universes exist, that every possibility spawns a diverging universe. Consider then that these different universes must be ruled by mathematics and science, that were were able to observe them, some concrete, tangible difference must exist to distinguish them. Consider also that the laws of physics as we know them are, in some cases, simply and utterly inoperable. The quantum scale, for example. Or a naked singularity. It is, therefore, conceivable that through some quirk of physics, some awesome miracle... we have merged or shifted into a world in which horses never existed, and chocobos always did. Impossible, you say, and perhaps rightly so... but I have no better explanation.

Comments

[onceandfuturemascot]

Alice Penelope Drake You're absolutely right, Professor.
Alice Penelope Drake That's the only explanation for people believing it was always Berenstain.

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise I find it somewhat more comforting than the idea that horses are a figment of my imagination.

[notblayde]

Matt Miller a letter change is easy to transpose. an entire species is a trans-dimensional shift on a completely different level
Matt Miller this would have to be some incredibly strong anomaly we're dealing with if you're right

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise When you consider all other aspects of life appear to be the same? It is a simple transposition of X to Y, with precedent in historical (or archaeological) records.
John R. Lunise Bird of this size and ferocity existed in prehistory; would it be so great a distortion of record for them to have persisted and been domesticated in place of horses, who instead died out?
John R. Lunise With all else being equal, we're looking at a mild tweak to one number in an infinitely complex formula.

[oceanicbutterfly]

Caroline Banks Wouldn't that require there to be "original" versions of ourselves whom we displaced?

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise And quite possibly they exist in our prior universe, wondering what these large strange animals are that replaced chocobos.

[burningblossoms]

Yukiko Amagi I was going to say Yogi Bear and Booboo...

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise Their life lessons were less prosocial and more how to get away with larceny by virtue of ursine nature.

[rosettareflected]

[There's a long moment as Alicia reads this that she's not entirely sure how to respond to it. It resonates, kind of, and it's really weird, but it isn't necessarily... wrong?]

Alicia Clover It would be impossible to say it's, well, impossible. There isn't enough information to disprove such a theory. Although I feel a little uncomfortable that we've experienced such a once-in-a-lifetime event to replace equines with massive birds. And why us? Why now? There are too many variables. That's... not a scientifically sound experiment.

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise Unfortunately, you are correct; it is a plausible but nontestable hypothesis, which I offer only as a potential explanation.
John R. Lunise We lack another one, after all.

[splinten]

Dirk Strider I'd buy it if it weren't for the fact that the transposition doesn't make sense.
Dirk Strider Sure, we could slip from a universe with horses to a universe where chocobos evolved instead.
Dirk Strider But we don't have a universe where chocobos evolved. Not in a way that makes sense.
Dirk Strider The biology texts should say that chocobos evolved from some chicken ancestor. They shouldn't say they're of the genus Equus and mate with donkeys to make mules.
Dirk Strider That isn't an alternate universe.
Dirk Strider It is, straight-up, a shitty job doing find + replace.

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise That may very well be, since of course it is possible if not probable that we are living in a simulated reality.
John R. Lunise But since all of this is untestable, we have to ask what fits the available evidence, and in the absence of any other factors, what we prefer to believe.

[hjack69]

Jack Dawes heads up i got halfway through and kind of glazed over
Jack Dawes but i'm gonna need some of that weed you're smoking

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise Quantum mechanics is a much better brain-melter than any chemical or herbal substance you can ask for.
John R. Lunise Except possibly salvia, I've heard some stories.

[clear_eyes]

Rachel Hishimura There's the title of a children's book being different from what everyone remembers, and there's the replacement of an entire species.

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise On the cosmic scale, both differences are utterly trivial, you know.

[jyushi]

Jyushimatsu Ono Huh! WOW!
Jyushimatsu Ono So if we shifted worlds, doesn't that mean that there could be a world out there that's missing us right now? LOL I wonder if anyone notices we're gone!
Jyushimatsu Ono Maybe we were replaced by chocobos too!

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise Most probably, several confused counterparts of ours are wondering what these 'horse' beasts are that have replaced their beloved chocobos.

[openhanded]

Surei Doushi it was always the Berenstain Bears.
Surei Doushi Mikleo and I argued about this for two hours once before I looked up the books. I guess not everyone has photographic memory though
Surei Doushi that said, things are really weird lately and I wouldn't discredit your theory too much. it feels like we're part of some prank but my mother swears up and down she has no idea what I'm talking about.
Surei Doushi people can pretend they don't know what horses are but it's a little harder to make up an animal and then... you know... have it exist

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise But consider this: if you looked it up, you looked it up in the universe in which it was always that way.
John R. Lunise Much the same way looking up horses now gets you nothing.

[darkinferno]

Dante Rantanen first tos questions and now this
Dante Rantanen nobody told me retrospec was code for "online classes"
Dante Rantanen if you all start assigning homework i'm out

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise If the sudden replacement of a species everywhere but our memories is not enough to inspire you to a little outside study, I can't imagine what would be.

[swordere]

Melody Sharpe I'm not sure if this is more, or less comforting than the "mass hallucination" theory.

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise As I've mentioned elsewhere: consider that changes of this nature may be happening constantly, with the main difference being that they are undetectable and unknowable.

[me_matey]

May Sfondi shared a photo. 2/9 near The Mayship

what

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Luniseshared a photo. 2/9 near Recolle

Science

[notyourutopian]

Eleanor Lamb But why would only some of us have shifted there?
Eleanor Lamb And how would whoever runs this retrospect app have known who to send it to?

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise It appears to be localized, and so we might consider that an incredibly tiny singularity passed through this specific area.
John R. Lunise Are you implying you have evidence that only people on this social network are affected, though?

[strongestheart]

Maya Aimoto This whole thing makes my head hurt.
Maya Aimoto But that goes without saying, I guess!
Maya Aimoto I guess it would be nice if there could be SOME explanation for all this. Even if it seems way too far out there.
Maya Aimoto but also how dare you remind me of the Berenstein/Berenstain thing (´;︵;`)

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise By definition, there is an explanation; we simply don't know it.
John R. Lunise We may never know it, but that would be a poor reason not to try.

[divine_braid]

That's a lot to take in there, Teach. Is there a tl;dr version?

[myboggartisthemoon]

There are infinite universes. Some of us may have changed which one we are in.

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa Professor. Another possibility is the idea of social reprogramming. Memory is tricky, it has a tendency to recall what you've used the most instead of what might be more accurate.
Hitori Togusa But in a social aspect, which name looks more like one that you might have encountered from a real person? Which ending is more common? -stein or -stain?
Hitori Togusa Your mind jumps to the one that it thinks is more correct, and looks more 'right' regardless of which is correct.

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise All very salient points, and in the case of the book quite likely... but far less applicable to the replacement of horses with birds, I think.

[rebellions]

Ragna Edgson you lost me halfway through
Ragna Edgson "infinite universes"?
Ragna Edgson that's some sci-fi level bullshit

[myboggartisthemoon]

John R. Lunise I can assure you, speaking as a doctor of physics: the most esoteric and amazing reaches of scientific understanding make science fiction seem mundane, dull, and boring.