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I was wondering if this could go in the Great Debates forum, but since it has more personal speculation, I'll throw it our here.
Mods, if this thread just sucks, delete it. It's just a silly train of thought that has been running through my head and I was wondering if there was any other takes on the scenario that I hadn't thought of.
Today you go through your normal, daily routine and go to sleep as you always do. However, when you wake up, it is on your 15th birthday, in your 15 year old body, but you retain all memories of your current age as when you went to sleep. In essence you are a "X"-year-old person in your 15-year-old body.
Local/world events will be different depending on the age of the poster, but once getting over the confusion and doing everything you can think of to see if you are dreaming, how would you handle your life from that point? Do you change events that you see as tragic, or do you try and replicate your life to keep it on the same course as you had lived it before?
I chose the age 15 because for most in the US, it means no driver's license, which usually means limited mobility. If your 15th birthday was August, 2001, would anyone believe you about 9/11 and if did occur, would there be repercussions as to how a 15yo you knew so much detail about the event? If you are a skilled surgeon, you might have the mental knowledge, but would you have the muscle memory to perform? Would you be able to sit through medical school again without tipping your hand about procedures that haven't been invented yet?
Personally, I would have a tough time remembering high school classmate's names and just the normal routine of the day. I could probably remember enough sports to make some money with bets, but still being underage would slow things down. Same with investing. I would have to wait a bit for E*Trade to be invented. On the plus side, I know exactly what to do to get rid of my acne.
As I said, just silliness. Hopefully now it will fade away in my mind.
So, hypothetically speaking, you are 45 before you go to sleep. then, when you wake up, you are back in time when you were 15, but with all the 45 years lived memory? Correct?
I think, it really depends on what year it will put you in. Few years back - times of tolerance has come, you can pretend anything you want to... Put you back into say 1943 - might be quite different...
So, hypothetically speaking, you are 45 before you go to sleep. then, when you wake up, you are back in time when you were 15, but with all the 45 years lived memory? Correct?
I think, it really depends on what year it will put you in. Few years back - times of tolerance has come, you can pretend anything you want to... Put you back into say 1943 - might be quite different...
Correct.
Do you try and live the same life and meet the same partners, have the same children, ect... or just go nuts and run off in a new direction trying not to bring too much attention to your powers of precognition?
Local/world events will be different depending on the age of the poster, but once getting over the confusion and doing everything you can think of to see if you are dreaming, how would you handle your life from that point? Do you change events that you see as tragic, or do you try and replicate your life to keep it on the same course as you had lived it before?
Ken Grimwood's 1988 novel Replay is about a man who dies of a heart attack at age 43, and immediately 'wakes up' as an 18-year-old. He tries to replicate the life he once had, but is unable to do so, primarily because he cannot make all the events that shaped him and his interactions with others 'line up' (no one could remember enough details to do so) and because he was not the same person that he was previously (he has 25+ more years of life experience). Thus, he was not able to reestablish a relationship with the woman who became his life the first time around. When he gets to 'age 43' again, he again dies of a heart attack... and the process starts all over.
Of course, this is only a novel. But it is an interesting thought experiment.
Ken Grimwood's 1988 novel Replay is about a man who dies of a heart attack at age 43, and immediately 'wakes up' as an 18-year-old. He tries to replicate the life he once had, but is unable to do so, primarily because he cannot make all the events that shaped him and his interactions with others 'line up' (no one could remember enough details to do so) and because he was not the same person that he was previously (he has 25+ more years of life experience). Thus, he was not able to reestablish a relationship with the woman who became his life the first time around. When he gets to 'age 43' again, he again dies of a heart attack... and the process starts all over.
Of course, this is only a novel. But it is an interesting thought experiment.
Thank you for the link. I had the feeling that someone else must of thought about this before.
The phrase "If I could do it all over again" doesn't seem to hold water when you can't remember how you did it the first time. I was also thinking about seeing my high school girlfriend again: would a make out session be creepy since I'm mentally 55, but outwardly 15? At what point would romantic relations become 'normal'? Any sort of personal relationship would be awkward since your vocabulary and thought process would not be normal for someone of that age. Giving personal parenting advice would seem strange.
Do you really want to change a sequence of events that could affect your future life. Rearranging perceived missteps in the past in a world of unintentional consequences and random patterns of success and failure is risky business. High stakes gambling.
Do you try and live the same life and meet the same partners, have the same children, ect... or just go nuts and run off in a new direction trying not to bring too much attention to your powers of precognition?
You can't.
You missing one very simple fact. Even if you return to exactly the same point in your previous life, down to the last particular circumstance, from that point on, life will be different. Unless everyone else, entire universe including, you as well, will dedicate to playing a staged play, called "My Next 30 Years of My Life" according to the script, your life, before this time jump, was played.
What is impossible.
I would have to make sure the tragedies still happened or else it would change things in my life that were wonderful. For example, I would have to date someone I now strongly dislike because that's what lead to the chain of events that lead to me meeting the one I am in love with now. Or, I would have to take that stupid move for a job that ended up being horrible because without being in that place at that time, running the errand I was for work, I wouldn't have found a starving, tick and flea infested dog that ended up being my best buddy for nearly 16 years.
And if you mess up just one thing and your future changes as a result, there would be so many regrets. What if my changes result in my brother not meeting his future wife and my niece never being born? No one else would know, but I would be in mourning/blaming myself and I wouldn't even be able to talk about it without people thinking I was crazy.
Best to let go of old memories and accept new ones. I wouldn't want an alternate history with exactly the same results the last time around.
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