Fated Destiny or Destined Fate?

Serendipity, a 2001 movie about two people letting fate decide if they were meant for each other. I've watched this movie about a hundred times already and I still get excited everytime "fate" brings them both back together. To be exact, this is my all time favorite movie.

But was it fate that really brought them back together? And is our destiny really tied to our fate? Don't we have any say on the path that fate will bring us? Is there really nothing we can do when fate has already decided our destiny?

Going back to the movie (spoiler warning for those who haven't watched it yet), they first met each other when they were trying to buy the exact same pair of gloves. Unfortunately it was the last pair so they had to decide on which one of them would get to take it. During this meeting, something inside them clicked (fate locking them both together?). They started to like each other but unfortunately they already have partners. In the end they just let fate decide if they were really meant for each other. They both went off their separate ways without telling each other their last name, number and even where they live. If by any chance they get to see each other again in the future, then and maybe only then would they be able to say that they were really meant for each other.

I won't go into the details but yeah in the end they got to meet each other again. A happy ending for a good movie all about leaving everything to fate. But was it really only fate that brought them both back together? Would they still have met if they haven't tried looking for each other?

Each one of us have different opinions about fate and destiny. It is either our paths were already carved with some grand template and that there is absolutely nothing we could do to change or even affect your destiny. Or we make our own paths and decide our own faith. Which one are you? If you ask me, i would just say, "Fate can go begging, destiny has to be won!"

Red is not red

Do you ever wonder if other people see the same things as you do? If I look at a ripe apple I see a red, shiny and round object. Others would also see the same shape but what about the color? Is your version of "red" the same as their version? I mean, since the day we were born we were trained to see red as "red". But the thing is, our brains are not wired the same way. Their red may be "green" in your perspective. Does it make sense?

Think of our brain as a machine that learns. It was trained by repetition, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement, punishment and more learning methods that even today our Machine Learning technology hasn't even developed yet. We were exposed to lots of data and input and we have had at least 5 years to interpret and learn the basics. Imagine if from the start we were told that an apple is a banana. When you grow up you would be pretty sure that an apple is a banana since that is how it was engraved in your mind. Now try to shift this thinking to colors. Colors, unlike shapes is free for interpretation. Meaning only one sensory organ can interpret it (eyes) while shapes are interpreted by two (eyes and skin for touching). This means that we have no other way to verify if what our eyes see is really true and the colors I see may not be exactly the same colors as what you see.

Traveling through time

Is time travel possible?

Imagine yourself traveling back in time. Going back 10 years ago but far from home. How would you convince other people that you are from the future? Bring some futuristic device maybe? But what if only your body can travel back? Or better yet, what if only your consciousness can travel back?

If you read the news, you will see people claiming that they came from the future. However, we all think they were crazy and just sent them to mental hospitals. There was this one guy who claimed that he was sent back from 2048 to warn the people that aliens would invade earth in 2018. Creepy right? Then they checked his blood alcohol content and found that he was drunk. He then claimed that the body needs alcohol in order to time travel (made me think that all this time I may have been preparing my body for time travel).

Another thing to consider, if at one point in time we develop time travel technology and send one person to the past. Then this person changes some things preventing the future where he was from from happening. You still with me? The result, time travel technology never gets developed and we start from scratch again. Think of it as the universe trying to fix itself. This brings me to another interesting theory that I have about the universe being alive, but that would be for another blog.

Time travel technology may be real but some unknown forces would always try to stop it from being developed. We may not know it but hundreds or maybe thousands may have already traveled back in time. How do you think Einstein knew about gravitational waves back then when during that time no such technology exists that can detect it? How do you think we managed to avoid a nuclear war? How do you think smart phones were conceived? And more importantly, how did we come to be?