Topics Freedom

Question If I for example went out in my car and somebody pulled up at a junction waiting for me, do you think his life would be different later on because of the wait at the junction, thus altering the time to get to his destination and also the chain reaction of other people delaying or speeding up their journies? In other words, is everything meant to be, like the order of the universe? (Note you could have missed an important event by answering or not answering this question.)

Accepted:
June 19, 2007

Comments

From what we know, the answer would seem to be yes. The effects of small events like the one you describe will reverberate through our modern traffic, trade, and communications systems and will have a slight impact on the schedules of many people (probably excepting only those who die shortly after your drive). In many case, this impact will suffice to affect the DNA of future persons, which depends on which one of any man's 20 million functional sperm cells (per ejaculation) will get a role in reproduction.

As time goes on, you can be increasingly confident that, had you not taken your drive, none of the people who is in fact be born would have been born without it. A few years down the road, all newborn human beings, animals, etc., will owe their existence to your little outing. And these beings will be displacing a similar multitude of beings who would have been born then if you had not taken that drive.