Everything is Connected

“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.” – David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas. What a majestic film. No, “film” isn’t the right word. Cloud Atlas is an experience that is so rich, beautiful, philosophical, and multifaceted that it can only be described as “epic”.

It begins with a simple idea: What if everything was connected? Well, it is said that history repeats itself, and indeed, there have been circumstances where history has done so. From the rises and falls of civilizations and empires to religious conflict, in a way, similar events occur periodically. Of course, not all historical recurrences are large-scale events; some recurrences can be little more than coincidences. For instance, the many similarities between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy is a commonly cited example of this.

But is it a coincidence? Cloud Atlas doesn’t solely imply historical connections, but also an inherent familiarity that is inexplicable. Cloud Atlas explores the idea that people are destined to cross paths endlessly. Though they eventually die, they are reborn and somehow cross paths once more as if destiny is an endless loop. Events play out differently, but sometimes things happen that seem too familiar for some unknown reason. Sometimes you meet someone and you feel like you have known that person for a long time. I’ve had that feeling before, and you probably have too. Perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence. Perhaps it was meant to be.

There are those who fully accept the idea that everything is predetermined and that we are just going through the motions, but I find this to be somewhat of a depressing outlook on life. I personally believe the choices that we make ourselves are also a determinant of our future. For instance, I could choose to save up my money for a better place to live, or I could go to Vegas and gamble it all away. However, one of these outcomes is far more beneficial in the long run than the other. My future would be affected heavily depending on which choice I made. Think ahead, that’s the moral message du jour.

Despite all of this, we can’t see or predict the future. It’s one of those things that we all want to be able to do because it would be both awesome and helpful at the same time. It is also something that is theoretically impossible; I’m sure someone once said “That which we cannot obtain is what we most desire.” That said, people often don’t ask the most important question in this situation: Why do you want to see or predict the future? Personal gain would be the most common answer. But a part of me believes that not knowing what the future has in store makes life far more exciting and makes personal accomplishments feel far more worthwhile.

“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet, what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”  – David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

Seeing the future would probably be as problematic as traveling through time to the past. By going back in the past, theoretically one could alter the present and future. But is history really so easily altered? If the future is an ocean, then making small changes to the past would be analogous to throwing pebbles into the ocean. From that standpoint, the future is relatively fixed in place; it could be difficult to actually change the future.

But what if every stone thrown into that hypothetical ocean displaced a great amount of water? Is there only one fixed timeline that gets altered with every action? But every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Does this imply that with every action, there is a parallel universe that is created in which the opposite action occurs? I mentioned before that the choices we make in life can radically affect our future. But some choices have more than one alternate option, and with every second that goes by, one has the opportunity to make so many different choices. Perhaps there are an infinite number of choices, an infinite number of parallel universes.

Or, perhaps, everything is based on chance.

Geez, no wonder time travel movies always have plot holes.

Random Access Memories

Why do we remember the most random things?

When I think about the past, there are parts that I remember so vividly that they feel like they just happened yesterday. Other parts are simply blacked out; I can’t for the life of me recall them. But it sometimes seems like we remember the most random things from the past. Like, I can remember what I had for lunch when I hung out with my friend two summers ago. I can remember a conversation I had with a friend when we were training for cross country back in high school. I can even remember my 4^th birthday party. Yet, I can’t remember what I had for dinner last Wednesday.

Sometimes, I feel like I remember these things for a reason. Maybe these were crucial life events that had a more subtle and less profound effect on my life, but affected it nonetheless. The whole idea of memory is to store information that is “relevant” to us in some way. This info ranges from simple things we have to do or say, to more complicated, abstract things like life-changing events to highly emotional moments. That said, I’m not sure how remembering what toppings I had on my frozen yogurt last spring is important, but who knows? It must have been relevant somehow, right?

Researchers believe that strong memories are associated with strong emotions felt during those events. For instance, one would most definitely remember his or her 21^st birthday. It is a time of extreme happiness and excitement, and there is also the inexplicable feeling that one has finally “come of age”. It’s a moment of realization that almost feels mystical; one can suddenly do things that they weren’t legally allowed to do before (drink, gamble), but more importantly, one suddenly realizes that from this moment on, he or she will be treated differently and be expected to act differently. Intense emotion is often something that won’t be easily forgotten.

Stress is also a key factor since it correlates with high levels of emotion. We’ve all had those moments where we’ve nearly collapsed under pressure; all those stressful exams from school, all that drama in your household, and all that pressure from finding a job or a home in this crummy financial situation. It’s hard to erase these memories.

Alas, life is difficult sometimes. That’s why I prefer to just listen to Random Access Memories, the new and aptly-titled album by Daft Punk that was released recently, in order to de-stress. I think it is probably the best album I’ve heard in ages now. I can say that it evokes strong feelings of joy; there’s nothing like discovering new music that caters to all of your tastes. Listening to instant classics such as “Get Lucky” and “Doin’ It Right” is quite relaxing. I suppose it’s appropriate to say that this is an album that won’t soon be forgotten.

Now go and reminisce on the good times.

Brain Farts and Nightdreaming

A Typical Conversation:

Person A: “So yeah, whose idea was it to make it “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”? Why not make Harrison Ford the celebrity?”

Person B: “Who knows? Oh, I’ll be right back.”

Person A: “Sure.”

(SOME TIME LATER)

Person B: “OK, I’m back.”

Person A: “Sweet! Um…uh…what were we talking about again?”

Person B: “I don’t know, you tell me.”

Person A: “Oh my god, this is going to bother me. Like, it’s right on the tip of my tongue. Brain, whyyyyyyy now???”

We’ve all had this happen to us before. We have little brain farts and we forget what we were just talking about moments ago. Sometimes, at least for me, it happens right in the middle of a sentence I’m saying. It’s a frustrating experience.

Scientists have actually studied “brain farts”. The actual scientific term for them is “maladaptive brain activity changes”. That’s for those who want to sound intelligent. Anyways, the reason they called them that is because they believed lapses in memory are caused by the brain taking a break in order to conserve energy. In theory, this makes sense because the brain actually consumes up to 20% of the body’s energy, more than any other organ. It could use the break.

It’s probably the same idea as when one starts to daydream. Our brain is probably taking a break because we’ve spent so much time and energy focusing on the task at hand. When we perform a repetitive action over and over, it literally becomes mind-numbing and we start focusing on other things. Really, our brain is just resting; it’s not really “being lazy” unless you’re aware of it. Sometimes, you tune out and you don’t even know it until something snaps you back to reality. Like if you were sitting in the classroom listening to your boring professor drone on and on while reading directly off of the handout, and you begin to think about something else. Then someone next to you drops her notebook and you snap out of your daze. We’ve all been there. Brain farts and daydreams are just a way to help you spend less energy. They’re annoying, but in a helpful kind of way.

But speaking of daydreaming, why is there a term for “daydreaming”, but no term for “nightdreaming”? Like, a red squiggly line is popping up under the word “nightdreaming” as I type this because it’s not technically a word. Also, is it daydreaming if you’re daydreaming at night time? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that you were nightdreaming? But then what would dictate when it would be correct to call it “nightdreaming”? 7:00 p.m.? 8:00 p.m.? After midnight? Whenever it gets dark?

Oh forget it. What were we talking about before we got sidetracked? Oh, right! Brain farts.

This is where backtracking comes in handy again. When I forget where I left off in a conversation, I think back through the whole conversation. By retracing my steps, I can probably see the transitions leading up to where we were and jog my memory. Also, repeating my physical actions works too. Like, if I were pacing the room before I forgot what I was doing, I would pace back and forth again to see if that jogs my memory. No need to really resort to something as drastic as Guy Pearce in Memento, what with all of his tattoos.

Speaking of Memento, I think I should watch that movie again. It’s pretty awesome and kind of brilliant. Fun fact: If you rearrange the film into chronological order, it’s like watching a completely different film, and plot holes form from the gaps in between the memory lapses. It’s pretty trippy.

Now where’s my copy of Memento?

Six Degrees of Separation

The best kind of conversation is one that takes you on a journey.

Sometimes, when you begin a conversation, you don’t know where it’s going to go. One thing leads to another, and by the end, the topic of discussion will be way on the other end of the spectrum. This is the point where someone will chime in with “Wait, how did we end up talking about this?” From my experience, it is inevitable that someone will ask this question or some variation of it.

Then begins the process of what I like to call backtracking. It’s like someone hits the rewind button on the conversation and everything goes “Memento”. It goes something like this.

Person A: “Why are we talking about Star Wars?”

Person B: “Because we were talking about Star Trek Into Darkness and how J.J. Abrams was picked to direct the next Star Wars movie.”

Person A: “Right! You wanted to know what good movies were coming out into theaters because I mentioned that I just saw Iron Man 3.”

Person B: “Yeah, you said you thought it was all right, you being a comic book nerd and all.”

Person A: “Well, you don’t read comic books. I was just educating you.”

Person B: “Just like you were educating me on video games right before your comic book lesson.”

Person A: “Video games might as well be considered an art form now, man.”

Person B: “I remember how this all started now. You were telling me about your trip to France, and how you spent time at the Louvre. Then we started talking about the evolution of art.”

Person A: “We have the best conversations.”

Person B: “I know, right?”

It’s fascinating because it’s so true. We’ve all experienced this “backtracking” phenomenon because it just happens. The best conversations are just a random mishmash of randomness that somehow makes sense by the end.

Backtracking is like taking the whole concept of “six degrees of separation” and reversing it. For those not familiar with “six degrees of separation”, it’s basically the theory that everything in the universe is connected by six or fewer steps. A simple example would be having a friend who is a friend who is a friend of President Obama. This would mean that you and Obama are four degrees of separation apart. It’s a small world, isn’t it?

While all of this is simply theory, it has become increasingly useful in our social media-infested culture today. With Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc., it is easier for people to make connections and start up friendships than ever before. Met someone in class or at work? Add them as a friend on Facebook. As you get more friends, you begin to notice that many of your friends have mutual friends. Like I said, it’s a small world.

Social networking is the norm nowadays. Everyone has a Facebook or a Twitter, though I don’t know anyone who has a MySpace account anymore. But I digress. Six degrees of separation and the whole notion of a “small world” are important enough for people to have actually developed algorithms for calculating degrees of separation. According to Wikipedia, this stuff is used in social networking sites such as Twitter for optimizing search techniques. Pretty insane, eh? #toomuchtimeontheirhands

And everyone’s heard of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”, which is challenging others to link Hollywood actors and actresses to Kevin Bacon. I guess someone (who was probably inebriated) decided that it would be funny to connect people to Kevin Bacon (why Kevin Bacon, I have no idea), and it took off. Wish I thought of that, because then I could be famous like Kevin Bacon (hey, a connection!).

I think Kevin Bacon is underappreciated. Sure, he’s won a Golden Globe and everyone knows him because everyone compares everyone else to him in six degrees or less, but really, the guy is an excellent actor. Give him bigger parts, Hollywood.

You also got to wonder if Kevin Bacon actually likes to eat bacon. Mmm…bacon…

Wait, how did we end up talking about this?