2024-12-05 “Who Are We?” by Hannah (born 2002)

Yesterday, a couple of things happened leading me to somewhat of an… identity crisis. First off, in the morning, Shay and Kent shifted.

Then, after dinner everyone was hanging out. Kent and I were talking about things back in 1880 where that version of me and that version of him are now dating, just like the 2024 versions of us. And if that dream I had on 10-24 means anything, like the versions of us in1984 probably are, as well. The question we addressed was if all the versions of us are the same person in different slices of time.

The main question, to be totally honest, was if I kissed that Kent would I be kissing the same person I was dating. (Obviously it’s the same physical body!)

Well about then, Emma suggested everyone rewatch a movie called “Serenity.”  She went on to mention that she had learned about it at school at a party, at which point Jacob pointed out that the party she mentioned was in 2020. In 2020, that would have been the version of her born in 2005 that now exists in 1984. The 1861 version of her would have never seen it (It hasn’t been watched by any of us on NetFlix or Hulu.)

Kent and I acknowledged that we had memories not accounted for by what we considered our normal life. Devon called Liza; she confirmed that the shifted-Shay also could name modern memories she shouldn’t have.

After a while, Jacob offered what he called a working model of the phenomenon. “So, let’s go with Emma’s idea that each timespace has an instance of the same person in it. Now, we add that each instance is writing data—our memories—into the same table of a database. Each instance has access to the whole table… all of the stored memories.”

Addison then connected the idea to some psychology concepts she’d learned in college. “So, that database could be like the subconscious. Full of things that we can tap into if the right stimulus comes along. And our present selves are dipping into the subconscious without us actually knowing about it.”