Part 101: Archives

Now where the hell do we start looking...

Listen in: [English/Japanese]


I doubt it really matters. If it's here, we'll find it eventually.


So what about that Jupiter stuff?


We can talk while we look. Now get started.



999 OST: [Digital Root]




Our consciousnesses seem to be able to jump through time.


...No, sorry, "through time" isn't really accurate.


It's more like we move through worlds.


Worlds?


Yes.
I don't mean physical planets in this case...
I'm talking about a whole different universe, really. Parallel worlds.


Wh-What...?




Well... kind of... I think I've heard of it once or twice...


Hmm...
Oh well. I'll just explain it.
Let's say... Hm...


...




Uh...?


Scratch your head, cross your arms, put your hands on your hips, anything.



I had no idea what this was supposed to explain, but I did as she asked.





Hrm...



I could put this up for a vote...



...But come on, now. Let's be realistic about this.



Listen in: [English/Japanese]


W-Was that supposed to be... moonwalking?


Yeah. I'm pretty good, huh?


Uh... yeah... sure...
But you might want to try going backward next time, not forward.


Were you even looking?
I was going backward.
Watch...
*Slide* *Slide* *Slide*


...
_{I'm... just going to pretend I didn't see that...}
Anyway you just did the moonwalk, right?
But you could have chosen to scratch your head, or cross your arms.
Now maybe there are other Sigmas, in other worlds, who did all of those things.
All of these worlds and realities are branching off from one another.
The choices you could have made branched off from the moment you decided what you were going to do just now.


...
...




Each of those branches is an alternate world.
A world where a version of you did something different.


...


Haven't you ever thought about what life would have been like if you'd made different choices?
What if you'd gone to this high school instead of that one?
What if you hadn't started a study group?
What if you hadn't told that girl you liked her?




Or are there other worlds out there where you did those things?
Anyway, that's the many-worlds interpretation in a nutshell.
I've simplified it a lot.


...




I just used your actions to make the explanation easier to grasp.
The actions of a cat, the flight of a bee, the movement of a microorganism, even fluctuations in air tempretature... all these can change history.


Whoa whoa whoa...
Hold on a second here.
I'll let microorganisms slide, but there's no way that air is conscious of anything.




...What?


All of your actions are caused by the cells in your brain.
If we go down a little further, then you could say all of your actions are the result of atoms, or electrons, or smaller particles we haven't even discovered yet.
Are those atoms and electrons still you making a decision?
At that level how different are you from the air? I'd say not much.


...


Human existence is just one part of reality.
Falling in love is like a tulip blossoming.
A tulip blossoming is like tornado forming in South America. See what I'm say?




That's where history happens. That's where universes branch out.


...

[Music fades out]




Oh. Uh... No, not yet.


Well keep looking while I talk.
How familiar are you with quantum physics?