Saw the post asking people for mising their plane stories and made me wonder if peoples lives where saved by missing some event so here I am asking
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I did interview with a company in the Twin Towers ~1999. Didn’t take it, wasn’t that interested in continuing to sysadmin. Assuming I’d still have been there a couple years later, that could’ve been the worst day ever.
Not me personally, but my grandpa was transferred out of Pearl Harbor a week before the attack. I often think about how some random person’s decision that many years ago created my entire family line.
I often think about how some random person’s decision that many years ago created my entire family line.
I mean that doesn’t really require your grandpa to die for your family line not to happen. In many cases something as simple as taking an earlier bus or leaving a little early so your grandpa doesn’t meet your grandma would also do. In fact it is sort of freaky how a little one minute change in your schedule could potentially change the lives of dozens or hundreds of people. Looking left instead of right just as someone sneezes might put you in bed for a few days, stepping on something at the wrong angle might screw your ankle for days,… and those changes quickly spiral out of control in everyone’s future timeline for all the people you might interact with.
In fact it is sort of freaky how a little one minute change in your schedule could potentially change the lives of dozens or hundreds of people
If we’re talking about future humans, we get into the exponential growth stage pretty quickly.
You have 2 kids, and they each average 2 kids, and they each average 2 kids, etc, etc
2, 4, 8, 16, etc - 2 ^ n where n is number of generations
After 20 generations we’re already talking a million descendants. With a rough range of 20 years per generation we get 400 years.
That number only blows up from there. In 30 generations we’re at a billion in 600 years.
One minor decision whether to take a train or a bus or what have you can have wide ranging effects on potentially billions of humans far into the future. It’s a bit absurd thinking about it. Everything you do has potential to radically change the future. Of course, your family line could just as well die out with you.
Now imagine how many descendants you have in your family tree going all the way back to the cavemen. Think of how many infinite little decisions led to the chances of your dad fucking your mom on that specific minute of that specific day. It’s effectively a 10 ^ -∞ chance of you being born. And yet you’re still here.
My brother returned from his train trip on Friday, he had looked up bus for yesterday but decided for 20 hour train ride.
This bus collide with another yesterday, 80 people injured 2 died. We joke all the time trains are late but for this to happen on rails multiple things has to go horribly wrong.
A NYE about a decade ago, I went to my then GF’s neighborhood to spend the night together. At around 5am we left the bar and I wanted to head to the bus station to get the first bus of the day about an hour later. My GF proposed to go to her home to sleep for a few hours and return later. Didn’t want to go because her mother would be sleeping but she insisted.
A couple of hours later I went to the bus station. It was completely missing, a drunk 17yo got his father’s car with 2 friends, crashed into the station, killing both friends and a girl waiting for the 1st bus to go to her work. He survived…
Sometimes, it’s surprising how life unfolds. I remember back in my second year at boarding school, we were all set to return for another term, standing on the train station platform. Fooling around, we missed the train.
With no other options and perhaps a bit of youthful audacity, we took dads old ford and we ended up driving it all the way to school.
The car broke down, we almost got caught. Then crazily, we crashed into a famous tree on campus.
However, as wild as that was, missing that train might just have saved us.
We later found out that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened around the time we were meant to be on that train. A deadly monster, a Basilisk, was slithering around the castle, able to kill just by meeting your gaze.
Who’s to say we wouldn’t have bumped into it, had we made that train? With our track record of stumbling into trouble, it seems more than likely. It’s a chilling thought.
Xoxo Ron
Didn’t go to a concert even though one of my frieds was the guitarist for the opening band and I was invited… The next morning I found out the club was on fire and 65 people died. Romania - Colectiv. RIP good people!
