What if?
That's a huge question that humans have been asking for eons. For many people, "what if?" has an infinite amount of answers.
Alternate reality, also known as a parallel universe, is considered a possibility by at least a few scientists. Nothing is considered fact, mind you, but it's still a possibility.
Imagine if alternate realities are reality. Imagine, if for a moment, parallel universes are more then science fiction. It's easy to imagine this being true. I'm sure most of you have already played scenarios in your minds. Simple thoughts you contemplate are all you need.
As a personal example of a alternate reality, I'll use a personal example. I think it was the autumn of 1997. My brother & I worked a part-time job at a hotel conference center in Moorhead, MN. We worked a late night shift washing dishes. I think they had a wedding party or two. I don't recall details very well.
What I do remember is that we got done with work quicker then we expected. Everything simply went so smoothly, we got out of work in record time......at least it felt like record speed. We stayed at work long enough to have some grub, as it was one of those "benefits" that we got. Once we finished our food, we decided to just go straight home.
At the time, we were too broke to afford a place of our own, so we shared a place with our folks. The moment we opened the door, the parents had this huge moment of relief. For some odd reason, dad was listening to his scanner that night. He could pick up police channels, fire, some EMT......so on and so forth.
From what I can recall, there was a section of road that we had to travel on our way home intersected with an old highway. Minutes after we passed through this intersection, another vehicle that was traveling in the same direction was hit by a drunk driver. The drunk driver came from the old highway, went into a small embankment/ditch, going mid-air into the other vehicle. The driver and his passenger, a father/daughter combination, were killed instantly, if memory serves me right. Never stood a chance.
In an alternate reality, bro & I could've been delayed leaving our job.....being killed instead. In an alternate reality, the drunk driver could've found a safer way home (taxi, sober friend). In an alternate reality, the drunk driver could've avoided drinking that night altogether.
Anyone reading this will have moments in their own lives where one simple change would effect their lives forever. Perhaps it's accepting one job instead of another. It could involve dating someone different during college. Instead of meeting your spouse, maybe you get pulled over for a simple traffic violation.....stopping you from ever meeting that spouse.
There are countless scenarios we could cover.
Some people like to cover big issues in the "what if" scenarios. What if the Confederacy actually won the American Civil War? During World War 1, what if someone had killed Hitler when he served in the German Army? What if Hitler were never born? What if the Soviets landed on the moon before the Americans?
Can you imagine how the world would look now? For any given scenario, imagine just one small change taking place. It could be a small change in your own life. It could be a change that happens on a national or international stage.
Mind boggling, isn't it?
