The Garden of Forking Paths is an incomplete, but not false, image of the universe as Ts'ui Pen conceived it. In contrast to Newton and Schopenhauer, your ancestor did not believe in a uniform, absolute time. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent and parallel times. This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time. We do not exist in the majority of these times; in some you exist, and not I; in others I, and not you; in others, both of us.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The universe consists of infinite branching timelines where every possibility exists simultaneously.
- In plain terms
- Time is a web where every choice creates a new parallel world.
- What can you take from it?
- Accept that multiple versions of reality exist alongside this one.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How many versions of you exist?
- Do all choices matter?
Another view
Scientific evidence for parallel timelines remains theoretical.
More from Jorge Luis Borges
In a riddle whose answer is chess, what is the only prohibited word?
Permalink to quote #77 Time forks perpetually toward innumerable futures. In one of them I am your enemy.
Permalink to quote #79 Thus fought the heroes, tranquil their admirable hearts, violent their swords, resigned to kill and to die.
Permalink to quote #76
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