Coincidence

[newcastle]

I've always considered myself a supremely rational person. I believe everything in the universe is explicable, from its inception, following the laws of physics...although our reduction of everything to mathematical formulae is not yet complete. There is no mystery about our existence, or what will eventually befall our species. There is no "other world".

And yet, occasionally, something happens that defies rational explanation and makes you wonder whether there's something going on beyond your sphere of comprehension.

I've been without my kindle for a few months and, in desperation for something to read, ran over my bookshelves to find a book I could reread...one who's plot I could be sure I'd forgotten (I have a useful short memory when it comes to some novels!). I hit upon Dan Brown's 'Inferno', settled down to read it and, after several chapters, it was still as if I'd never read it before (though I must have).

I keep the TV on mute when I read and glanced up to see Stephen Sackur interviewing someone on 'Hard Talk'. Being my favourite programme, I put down the book and turned on the TV volume to find he was interviewing....Dan Brown!!

I had no idea that this programme was to be broadcast. The idea of rereading a Dan Brown book had never occurred to me until this morning. Dan Brown has not entered my conscious thoughts in years. The coincidence was, to say the least, slightly disturbing!

Have you ever experienced a spooky coincidence that makes you question rationality? That maybe there's some 'force", or whatever, linking disparate activities...in this case, my choosing a Dan Briown book while the BBC decided to broadcast a programme featuring him.

Or is it just "coincidence"?

[Horus]

I have a friend who is a master with computers and he wrote software for a major American company until his retirement and is still called upon to update some of their stuff even today and he is currently writing code for his sons company as a bit of a diversion in his spare time, so as you may deduce he is no slouch in this field. We are big mates and often spend time in each others company and will chat about all and everything, he will often say in jest “Ah that is because I have a brain the size of a small planet” and again he will joke that we are all part of his own created software program and that we (his friends) are like ‘sprites’ in computer games and are only really there when he thinks us into being. All good fun as he easily answers all our arguments we put against his master computer generated life for us all, things like the reason that particular encounter happened in your life was because he had a limited amount of characters to play with and so had to reuse a few of them. Or the reason you had a déjà vu moment was due to a glitch in the software and it ran a part of the program that had run previously, he had an answer for everything.

It was all good fun but it did beg the question as to whether or not we could all be just a part of some giant computer program? I once read an article about time travel and it basically claimed that the only way that time travel would be possible would be to put you into some sort of computer generated life scenario where you interacted with characters from that era. The main difference would be that each of the characters you engaged with were programmed not to be aware that they were actually part of a larger game and they themselves believed they were real and led a life of their own thus perfecting the illusion, it can make the mind boggle thinking about it.

[Mad Dilys]

Sounds perfectly logical to me!

[Dusak]

Some years back I read quite a good SF book on that very topic, I think it was called Pin, but could be way out. The ''real life'' program was being generated by a past psychopathic killer locked in a coma for some twenty years that had placed his personality within a computer program that had slowly evolved into a world where he could carry on his interests in real time. I think your friend has read this and created his own ''program.''

[Horus]

Some years back I read quite a good SF book on that very topic, I think it was called Pin, but could be way out. The ''real life'' program was being generated by a past psychopathic killer locked in a coma for some twenty years that had placed his personality within a computer program that had slowly evolved into a world where he could carry on his interests in real time. I think your friend has read this and created his own ''program.''

Very likely

[Who2]

It's Relative to logging on to L4U and realising it's slightly pointless to one's existence,
but when one is waiting, well why not "life's a load of sh*t when you look at it"
Life of Brian. 1979 'nighty night....

[Dusak]

Yes, but we all have a choice of logging on or not, but no one can control an act of coincidence.

[newcastle]

It's Relative to logging on to L4U and realising it's slightly pointless to one's existence,
but when one is waiting, well why not "life's a load of sh*t when you look at it"
Life of Brian. 1979 'nighty night....

I find it has some point.

Better than talking to oneself....by a margin of about 6 to 1

[Horus]

During my life I have had several instances that I would describe as strange coincidences, the latest one that really sticks is my mind is this one. I had a brother who 50 years ago left the family home after his marriage broke down, it was not an amicable affair and he was denied contact with his daughter and throughout the subsequent years a hatred of her father was fostered by her own mother towards my brother. Although in the earlier years I would sometimes see my niece when she was with her mother someone with whom I never fell out with or took sides against regarding who was right or wrong and I always felt it was a case of 50/50 in apportioning blame. As time passed and they moved home we lost contact and I had not seen my niece for over forty years.

Although my brother spoke to me of his regret at not seeing his daughter he had moved on and remarried and had three grown up children of his own. He died a couple of months ago and along with my daughter we attended the funeral at a local crematorium, we had arrived early purely by chance as my daughter had arrived at my home early and rather than sit around for 30 minutes “all dressed up with nowhere to go” as the song goes, so I decided to go earlier and wait in the car park.

We sat about for maybe 15 minutes and in an attempt to kill some time I said to my daughter “lets go into the gardens of remembrance and I will show you where myself and your uncle (my deceased brother) have interred your Nana’s ashes". Again this was a sudden decision prompted by our unscheduled early arrival, so off we went. You can access the gardens by several entrances in a long hedge that screens the gardens from the entrance road, each entrance will take you along a different winding path that takes you to various themed aspects of the gardens such as individual plots to internments based upon the year, the month or even the season of the persons death. The point I am making here is that there was a multiple choice of entrances and all led to different parts of the gardens, I chose the entrance nearest to where we were parked as I knew it would lead us to the area I was looking for.

Just after we entered another couple were leaving and for just that few seconds we were in the same place, another 30 seconds either way or on another path or entrance and we would never have seen each other. As we passed we both glanced at each other and I could see an instant look of recognition in the woman’s face, I too had instantly recognised her and she spoke my name and threw her arms around my neck much to the consternation of her husband who kept asking me “excuse me but who are you?” “It’s my uncle” she told him through her tears. Yes it was my long lost niece who had heard of her fathers death and although she had little or no contact with her father since a small child nevertheless she felt she should say her farewells to him. She did not know his new family and so was just lurking in the gardens to see him as the hearse passed by and would not be going inside as she felt it was his new families private affair and she should not impinge upon it. I eventually persuaded her to enter the service with myself and my daughter and we would sit unnoticed at the back of the room which we did, afterwards we left then same way.

I do have a happy ending to this story and although there are just so many coincidences and random chance decisions that led to our meeting again it is all true. It was almost as if someone had pushed us into being in the same place at the same time to meet again, so who knows? I now have regular contact again with my niece and her family and they visit me quite often.

[Dusak]

I much prefer a happy ending, especially in these hard times we now find ourselves living in.

[Major Thom]

No one makes someone subject themselves to Hard Times Dusak, its up to the person themselves to do something about it.

[Horus]

No one makes someone subject themselves to Hard Times Dusak, its up to the person themselves to do something about it.

Will you still be saying that when all those tens of thousands of people involved in Middle Eastern conflicts and subjected to hard times decide to do something about it by arriving in boats on the beaches of Cyprus?

[newcastle]

No one makes someone subject themselves to Hard Times Dusak, its up to the person themselves to do something about it.

Will you still be saying that when all those tens of thousands of people involved in Middle Eastern conflicts and subjected to hard times decide to do something about it by arriving in boats on the beaches of Cyprus?

They already have....

Reuters | about a month ago
NICOSIA - Two boats crowded with 305 Syrian refugees arrived in Cyprus overnight, police said on Sunday, one of the largest group landings of migrants to the island since the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011

http://ewn.co.za/2017/09/10/more-than-3 ... -in-cyprus

It's by far the nearest EU landing spot. The only factor deterring them is that even they don't fancy Cyprus as a home

[Major Thom]

And look whats hapoened to them!

[newcastle]

And look whats hapoened to them!

OK....I'll bite. What happened to them?

[Brian Yare]

Life of Brian. 1979 'nighty night....

Life of Brian 2017 is now running, for another 67 days or so. I'm gripped by it!

[Horus]

Lets hope it gets a repeat run for 2018 Brian

[newcastle]

Life of Brian. 1979 'nighty night....

Life of Brian 2017 is now running, for another 67 days or so. I'm gripped by it!

We all have our crosses to bear

I love Easter in Egypt

[Major Thom]

Went to Paphos today to try my wife's Honda Civic. Could not believe the Christmas things in the shops, I appreciate its early, in fact too early for me, but it really does get you into the Christmas Spirit, ie Whiskey, Vodka, Gin and Ouzo. Last Easter was the same shops full of goods and the spirit of Easter was everywhere. I did not think it was allowed to celebrate Easter and Christmas in Luxor anymore. The past three Easters and Christmas's were dreadful, you would really believe the not allowed to live and let live people would get back in their holes.
The last New Years Eve we spent there, the Police called at midnight to ask what the noise was and to turn it down. So wonder if they would call in at Wedding Parties and Homda Parties in the middle of the night to ask them to turn the noise down. They need to realise there is more than one religion in Egypt and how to live and let live, instead of trying to quell every Religious Feast or Celebrations by Christians. The whole Country is fast becoming completely State Ruled with no bending.

[HEPZIBAH]

It would seem that MajorThom is becoming increasingly alcohol dependant. It is a sorry state of affairs when you can only equate the spirit of any religious or public festival with that of the spirit content of a bottle.

As for his comments about celebrating Christmas in Egypt ... just more of his usual rubbish.