Audioslave
03-18-2009, 11:44 PM
Her legs stretched forever across the folds of her duvet, her arms reached the bed posts and caressed their worn finish. Raising her head, her eyes accosted the pale pink telephone on her stomach. A bottle of sleep medication sat idle on her bedside table, she contemplated.
He stood grandiosely. He assumed the stage and amalgamated the podium into his unassuming, feeble figure. His body, a testament to years of lab work and meticulous research, was no imposing presence. His intellect, however, was sharp and he used to slice open skulls and pour in the viscous liquid of intelligence.
“My friends” He said, “We are the physical manifestation of a collection of billions of points spanning across three dimensions; height, length and depth. We linearly traverse across a fourth dimension; time and can only conceive of a fifth where our independent decisions are undermined and played out in contradiction to another universe. Dimensions six, seven, eight nine deal with the manifest, and inherent contradiction of having an infinite amount of universes that play out an infinite amount of human decisions that determine an infinite amount of results and the connections of these infinities. This means, of course, that our destinies and all of our possible destinies that have, could have, will or could occur are all summed up by a single point labeled eternity. My friends; you are all insignificant.”
She picked up the phone.
His phone rang.
“Darling?” She asked, timid and quiet.
“Honey, I’m just in the middle of-”
“I know. I just wanted to know when you’re coming home.”
“Tomorrow, my love, tomorrow.”
The iridescent light of his cell phone died when he closed the fold, as did the final syllable of her pained goodbye. Rounding once again to his audience; his mouth opened, his eyes sparkling with fervor.
“Friends, I apologize. Perhaps, though, this is a great opportunity for me to illustrate this concept. Imagine, if you will, a universe where I did not answer my phone just now, or rather, that it did not ring at all. This may seem easy on the surface, but we must recognize the implications.”
She doled out two pills onto her ice cold palm.
“If we accept these universes as true, then we must also accept that they are interconnected and closely associated. They therefore must exist on the same plane, on the same dimension. They are, despite being played out in some of the infinite universes, inexorably related. They branch off from a existing set of preconditions, differing only in the action or decision of the parties involved. In another universe, I could have been dead for twenty years. In another, I may have never been born.”
Her teeth trapped one pill nervously before releasing it and allowing it to pass to her stomach.
“Regardless of these seemingly inconsequential events that could, potentially, have enormous ramifications; they are all, in essence, one. If we imagine the quintessential idea of infinity, a snake eating its own tail, zoomed out to a bird’s eye view, we see that it is essentially a dot. This is the concept of our reality; everything comprises one single dot, no more significant than a grain of sand or a molecule. It perhaps belongs to a larger dimension that comprises another reality, but it is far beyond our naïve understanding.”
Her eyelids shut slowly, her muscles relaxed and her mouth silently fell agape.
He stood in the rain, smoking a cheap cigarette bummed from a stranger, another concept. Cars flew by, their headlights blurring and mixing together. His eyes unfocused, his heart began to beat faster, his lungs expanded and contracted with each puff of his cigarette.
She began to slide into a coma-like state, but as the onset of the drugs took hold, she whispered to the empty house;
“When will you be coming home, my dear?”
As he exhaled smoke into the lonely night sky; the irrationally assembled collection of points, he muttered.
“Tomorrow my love, tomorrow.”
________________________________
It is my hope and intent that this story worked on different levels for different people. My question to you is; how did you understand it? If you liked it is secondary. Some may find that it's just a story, which is understandable and perhaps it is. Others may recognize, or understand the scientific concepts in the story, though they're somewhat inconsequential. Others may recognize the significance of the title and grasp another concept. There are also a few things I left ambiguous, so perhaps someone is following one of those trains of though. I suspect most will simply think it's just a story, which is probably the right answer.
Anyway, full critiques and whatnot is welcomed and appreciated.
He stood grandiosely. He assumed the stage and amalgamated the podium into his unassuming, feeble figure. His body, a testament to years of lab work and meticulous research, was no imposing presence. His intellect, however, was sharp and he used to slice open skulls and pour in the viscous liquid of intelligence.
“My friends” He said, “We are the physical manifestation of a collection of billions of points spanning across three dimensions; height, length and depth. We linearly traverse across a fourth dimension; time and can only conceive of a fifth where our independent decisions are undermined and played out in contradiction to another universe. Dimensions six, seven, eight nine deal with the manifest, and inherent contradiction of having an infinite amount of universes that play out an infinite amount of human decisions that determine an infinite amount of results and the connections of these infinities. This means, of course, that our destinies and all of our possible destinies that have, could have, will or could occur are all summed up by a single point labeled eternity. My friends; you are all insignificant.”
She picked up the phone.
His phone rang.
“Darling?” She asked, timid and quiet.
“Honey, I’m just in the middle of-”
“I know. I just wanted to know when you’re coming home.”
“Tomorrow, my love, tomorrow.”
The iridescent light of his cell phone died when he closed the fold, as did the final syllable of her pained goodbye. Rounding once again to his audience; his mouth opened, his eyes sparkling with fervor.
“Friends, I apologize. Perhaps, though, this is a great opportunity for me to illustrate this concept. Imagine, if you will, a universe where I did not answer my phone just now, or rather, that it did not ring at all. This may seem easy on the surface, but we must recognize the implications.”
She doled out two pills onto her ice cold palm.
“If we accept these universes as true, then we must also accept that they are interconnected and closely associated. They therefore must exist on the same plane, on the same dimension. They are, despite being played out in some of the infinite universes, inexorably related. They branch off from a existing set of preconditions, differing only in the action or decision of the parties involved. In another universe, I could have been dead for twenty years. In another, I may have never been born.”
Her teeth trapped one pill nervously before releasing it and allowing it to pass to her stomach.
“Regardless of these seemingly inconsequential events that could, potentially, have enormous ramifications; they are all, in essence, one. If we imagine the quintessential idea of infinity, a snake eating its own tail, zoomed out to a bird’s eye view, we see that it is essentially a dot. This is the concept of our reality; everything comprises one single dot, no more significant than a grain of sand or a molecule. It perhaps belongs to a larger dimension that comprises another reality, but it is far beyond our naïve understanding.”
Her eyelids shut slowly, her muscles relaxed and her mouth silently fell agape.
He stood in the rain, smoking a cheap cigarette bummed from a stranger, another concept. Cars flew by, their headlights blurring and mixing together. His eyes unfocused, his heart began to beat faster, his lungs expanded and contracted with each puff of his cigarette.
She began to slide into a coma-like state, but as the onset of the drugs took hold, she whispered to the empty house;
“When will you be coming home, my dear?”
As he exhaled smoke into the lonely night sky; the irrationally assembled collection of points, he muttered.
“Tomorrow my love, tomorrow.”
________________________________
It is my hope and intent that this story worked on different levels for different people. My question to you is; how did you understand it? If you liked it is secondary. Some may find that it's just a story, which is understandable and perhaps it is. Others may recognize, or understand the scientific concepts in the story, though they're somewhat inconsequential. Others may recognize the significance of the title and grasp another concept. There are also a few things I left ambiguous, so perhaps someone is following one of those trains of though. I suspect most will simply think it's just a story, which is probably the right answer.
Anyway, full critiques and whatnot is welcomed and appreciated.