Jul 24, 2019

What really happened in Paris?

Part I

“I don’t know if it’s possible to take that shot and get the stars in one go, must be a composite. Several hundred maybe. What do you think?”
“Right. No chance it’s a single shot.”
“Holy shit, you guys. Are you kidding? You don’t remember? Justin, did you actually forget that?”
“I forget everything.”
“Yeah, but you wouldn’t have forgotten that, would you?”
“Probably. There’s always something more interesting in the now. Pictures of the then are interesting though.”
“OK, c’ mon, seriously? You don’t remember?”
“No.”
“Daniel, you don’t remember, either?”
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
“You were there. Both of you. With me. In Paris. That night that we took that picture. You guys really don’t remember?”
“When was this supposed to have happened?”
“Last night. No. It was the night before. Maybe the night before that. I don’t remember exactly. Within the last week, for sure.”
“I was in Hawaii.”
“I was in Boston.”
“Still, we met up in Paris and took that picture. Justin, you brought the camera. Daniel, you were the one who actually took the photo. You guys really don’t remember that?”
“No.”
“No. Not only that, it couldn’t have happened last week as you say. I told you. I was in Hawaii. It takes fifteen hours to fly to Paris. Thirty hours round-trip minimum. I took lots of photos while I was in Hawaii. My photos are date and time-stamped. I’ll bet I’ve got a photo that shows I was in Hawaii during every twelve-hour period. So I couldn’t have been in Paris last week.”
“You could have been there if it took less than twelve hours.”
“Yeah, but it’s impossible to make the trip faster.”
“It’s not impossible. There’s a calculable probability that you dematerialized in Hawaii and rematerialized in Paris, took the picture, and then reversed the process. So not impossible.
“Technically, you’re right. It’s not impossible. But the probability is close to zero.”
“Sure, but so what? The probability that you exist is close to zero. The probability that I exist is close to zero. The probability that Justin exists is close to zero. Even given that we exist, the probability of this conversation is close to zero. And yet that hasn’t stopped it from happening.”
“But it’s not happening. This is just a story you’re writing about it happening. And you’re just a character in your story.”
“Well if I’m a character in a story then so are you. Are you going to deny your own existence just to prove you can’t have been in Paris? Nice try! But you’re as real as I am and as real as Justin is, and as real as this conversation is.”
“In the first place, I’m not Daniel, I’m Justin. He’s Daniel.”
“No, I’m Justin.”
“You are? I thought I was Justin. Do you want to be Justin instead?”
“It’s not a matter of wanting to be Justin. I am Justin.”
“Fine. If you’re that stuck on being Justin, you can be Justin. I’m flexible enough to be either Justin or Daniel, even if you’re not.”
“Guys, guys, it doesn’t matter. The point is, we were in Paris, and we took that picture.”
“No, we weren’t”
“Then how come I remember it? I couldn’t remember it if didn’t happen, could I?”
“You’re pretending to remember.”
“Well, I say you’re pretending not to remember.”
“I’m not pretending. It didn’t happen.”
“It did.”
“No. It didn’t”

Interlude

“Let’s just take a step back and look at this rationally. Why does it matter what story you choose to believe about the way that photo came into existence?”
“I don’t choose what story to believe. I believe what’s true. If I’m not sure, what’s true, I say I’m not sure. If I know something is not true, I don’t believe it.”
“So you don’t have free will?”
“What?”
“If something you know that something is true, then you’re compelled to believe it. You can’t choose not to believe something true, and you can’t choose to believe something that’s not. Right?”
“Why would I want to believe something that isn’t true?”
“What if you were facing a task you’d attempted in the past and consistently had problems doing. What would you believe would happen the next time you did it?’
“I’d believe that I’d have the same sorts of problems.”
“Supposing I hypnotized you so that you believed that you’d done it successfully many times. What then?”
“Hmm. There’s a good chance that I might do better. I might also be overconfident and do worse.”
“Supposing I conditioned you against overconfidence. Effectively, I moderated your expectation—your prediction, if you will—that you’d do badly.
“I’d probably do better.”
“So being hypnotized into such a belief would be helpful?”
‘I suppose so.”
“Even though it’s false to fact?”
“I suppose so?”
“So would you let yourself be hypnotized whenever you faced such a challenge so that you’d do better?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I’d be giving up my free will. I’d be putting the hypnotist in control.”
“But you’ve already given up your free will. The belief that you’ve failed many times already makes it likely that you’ll fail. And if you can’t choose—on your own, and without a hypnotist—to believe something that would more helpful, then that belief is controlling you. Why not, as I wrote, ” Believe not what is true but what is helpful?”
“I can see that using a hypnotist would replace one form of control with another. So I’d be willing to use a hypnotist.”
“What about changing beliefs on your own. What if you believed that a magical being had granted you the power to do well on that task. What do you believe would happen then?”
“There are no magical beings. So I wouldn’t believe it.”
“So your belief that there are no magical beings keeps you from believing something that would be helpful. That belief is in control, not you.”
“But it’s true that there are no magical beings.”
“Sure, it’s true. But so what? If you can’t choose to believe in things that don’t exist, then reality holds you hostage. Every creator believes in things that don’t exist until they make them exist.”
“Yes, but there’s a difference between believing in things that don’t exist and things that can’t possibly exist.”
“But everything you can imagine can exist. The probability may be low, but it’s still possible.”
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – – that’s all.”

Part II

“Well? Did we take that picture together or not?”
“Of course, we did! It was a hell of a night!”
“Yes. It was so great seeing you there.”
“Let’s do it again sometime.”
​
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