I know Coke is bad for you, but it tastes so goooooood...

Head spinning. Just watched 12 Monkeys. It wasn't the movie itself that caused my head to spin, but more so the ideas that Ruby and I discussed while watching it. And I finally got to explain my one of my ideas of time and space to someone who cared enough to listen. We talked about calculus, Nietzsche, reality, non-reality, time, the Matrix, Plato's Cave, virtual realities, etc. I now have a newfound determination to plough through all of Nietzsche's work, and a newly sparked interest in a philosopher by the name of Deleuze(sp?).

OK, so my explanation of time and space and why events cannot be changed by time travel. Keep in mind that I currently have no physical or mathematical explanations to back up what I'm saying. This is just philosophical musing on my part based on the things I've read and seen.

Time is not linear. Every single event that occurs, occurs simultaneously. What happened on some random day in ancient Egypt is happening at exactly the same moment as you are reading this, and both of these events are happening at the same moment as something happening on December 3rd, 2064. Granted, to even begin to entertain this notion, you must let go of all of your notions of free will and your ability to influence the course of events. Well not completely. I mean my thoughts start going into the idea of infinite dimensions which exist because of the possibility of all the different outcomes that a particular event can have (there's a few really good Next Generation episodes that go into this), which I will hopefully develop more fully upon my readings of String Theory. Looking at one dimension, and reiterating what I said earlier, the past, present and future exist all at once. A time traveler who travels back in time to change the course of events does not alter anything, because events have unfolded the way they did, with him traveling back in time. Take 12 Monkeys for example. If we look at it in a linear fashion, Bruce Willis travels back in time to several points in time. Let's say these events occurred once along a timeline, and then when the point in time comes for Bruce Willis to travel back in time and the events occur a second time, nothing is altered. This is because there are no first, second, or third occurrences. There is only one, and everything that happens in that moment is the only way that it could happen, whether or not someone comes from the future with intentions of altering that moment. When that moment occurred, the time traveler was already there, even though from the perspective of the people who exist in that moment without the benefit of time travel, the time traveler's point in time is non-existent. What I'm saying is that it does exist. And then this also implies that we never cease to exist, because if all moments in time exist simultaneously, then so do all the material components that comprise that moment. I just remembered a portion of an early Ultimate Fantastic Four story that kind of gets into this, and while talking with Ruby, I remembered that the character of Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen also deals with this in a way. (Taleen, put Hellblazer down and start reading Watchmen!) Wow. I've never had a conversation like this with anyone, mostly because no one I know is interested in any of this stuff. Or maybe they are and I just have to go out on a limb by initiating the conversation, and not worry about receiving blank stares and/or funny looks (well if you think about it, a blank stare is a pretty funny look). OK, I'm through pouring my crazy thoughts into cyberspace.

All thoughts, comments, and questions are welcome. I'm going to get back to watching The Matrix now.

Need to buy:
- The Elegant Universe
- Watchmen
- The Matrix Reloaded
- The Matrix Revolutions
- The Books of Magick
- a bike

And can someone please remind me to go visit the Kung Fu school in Santa Monica on Tuesday evening?