some slightly cryptic thoughts about time travel i'm not gonna elaborate on for now:
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time travel to the past is about memory and time travel to the future is about imagination. they're parallel because memory and imagination are the same process
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time traveling to the past to change it is about memory reconsolidation
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fixed-timeline time travel where you can't change the past is about acceptance, determinism, free will
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time traveling to the future is about whether your plans are good. do you marry well, are your descendants well provided for, etc.
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from : time loops where you go back repeatedly to try to change the outcome is about the stuckness of emotional memories
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from : time loops where the past and present are entangled (c.f. Holes) are about memory reconsolidation using metaphor (healing either individual or generational trauma)
(i have to admit i don't grok this one yet)
Replying to
from : "Many people, deep, deep down (or at multiple "levels") are seeking an elsewhere, an elsewhen. They’re trying to step outside the universe, break the universe, step through a portal, step to another side, into books, movies..."
meditationbook.page/#160
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lol jinx
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just realized time travel / changing the past stories are about memory reconsolidation lol
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if you wanna know what "memory reconsolidation" means in excruciating and also fascinating detail this is the book for you. unlocking the emotional brain. probably the single most nerdsniping therapy book
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oh shit
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the multiverse and time loops displaced time travel as a genre bc we no longer agree on the past or believe in the future, just infinite minuscule variations on the present
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i've read holes but i don't grok the connection to the metaphor thing yet 😅 wanna spell it out for me a bit more
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Yep. Also, rumination is a problem solving process; when we regret the past or get anxious about the future, our brains automatically run simulations. "How should we have acted (in case X happens again)" or "Let's prepare for if Y happens." Making this process explicit can help.
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Replying to @QiaochuYuan and @visakanv
My latest frame for this: everyone is basically living in a dream mashup of their current external situation and their old emotional meanings. Like dreaming you're at school but it's also on a boat somehow.
& as in dreams, somehow the weirdness of this mashup goes unnoticed
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