Jay Walker
Temporal Navigator
Let me preface by saying that anything I say is just speculation, and is not meant to dismiss your ideas. I just want to discuss the possibility of alternative speculation. With that being said, I think there are a couple of things that I believe are also possible from your previous post.
Firstly, I made a mistake. The year John traveled back to was 1975.
He actually didn't say that he couldn't go back to his original worldline. He said that he couldn't return to his worldline with ZD (zero divergence), but he could return to a worldline that had as little divergence as a worldline that didn't have him in it. Or, in other words, a second or two after he left, so that from an observer's POV it would seem like he was only gone for a second or two.
However, this statement should resonate with everyone. It is not just a spontaneous statement with no context. According to his mother that wrote the book A Time Traveler's Tale, she remembers with detail exactly why he posted this.
This came directly from the aforementioned book quoting his mother talking about a specific post of Johns, it reads:
John's post:
Besides the occasional school or office shooting and violent video footage, I can’t help but think about that experiment (John B. Calhoun's behavioral sink experiments) * every time I see someone stranded on the highway. Or walking on the side of the road carrying an empty gas can. I ask my parents why we don’t stop and help, and they tell me the possible consequences of helping someone they don’t know. I would respond by pointing out that it’s our duty to help, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because we can never know that person’s true worth and the risk of losing them is too great.
John's mother:
“This event actually happened as we drove down the highway with John one day. We passed a man and woman with a child who had a flat tire and John was insistent we stop. We explained they could easily walk to a phone for help, and we put ourselves in danger by stopping, but John was not deterred. When we arrived home, John and his father went back and helped them.”
A Time Traveler's Tale
The reasoning for John saying this is actually quite profound and not commonly thought of in this way. For instance, before I knew about John, I was reading about the disparity within our judicial system that has a massive over-representation of Black Americans locked up in prison. I thought to myself, what if Jimi Hendrix was one of those statistics and spent his life in prison? What would music be like now? There are a million examples of that, so I related to why John felt that way about helping people. It isn't about feeling good about yourself, it is about knowing what kind of world you want to live in. The world where no one takes risks to help someone in need, or a world that does not keep driving, and would rather not take the risk of losing someone of great value to the world as a whole.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
- Jay
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* John B. Calhoun's behavioral sink experiments. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Calhoun conducted studies on Norway rats in enclosed environments where they had unlimited access to food and water. His goal was to observe the effects of overpopulation on social behavior.
Despite having plenty of food, the rats exhibited aggressive and destructive behaviors once their population density exceeded a certain threshold. Some engaged in cannibalism, sexual deviation, and withdrawal from social interaction. Others crowded into specific areas, forming extreme population densities, while leaving other spaces empty. Calhoun coined the term “behavioral sink” to describe this collapse in normal behavior due to overcrowding.
Later, he conducted similar experiments on mice, which led to the infamous “Mouse Utopia” study. These findings have been used as an animal model for societal collapse, influencing urban sociology and psychology.
Firstly, I made a mistake. The year John traveled back to was 1975.
He actually didn't say that he couldn't go back to his original worldline. He said that he couldn't return to his worldline with ZD (zero divergence), but he could return to a worldline that had as little divergence as a worldline that didn't have him in it. Or, in other words, a second or two after he left, so that from an observer's POV it would seem like he was only gone for a second or two.
For all I know, you could be right.
However, this statement should resonate with everyone. It is not just a spontaneous statement with no context. According to his mother that wrote the book A Time Traveler's Tale, she remembers with detail exactly why he posted this.This came directly from the aforementioned book quoting his mother talking about a specific post of Johns, it reads:
John's post: Besides the occasional school or office shooting and violent video footage, I can’t help but think about that experiment (John B. Calhoun's behavioral sink experiments) * every time I see someone stranded on the highway. Or walking on the side of the road carrying an empty gas can. I ask my parents why we don’t stop and help, and they tell me the possible consequences of helping someone they don’t know. I would respond by pointing out that it’s our duty to help, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because we can never know that person’s true worth and the risk of losing them is too great.
John's mother: “This event actually happened as we drove down the highway with John one day. We passed a man and woman with a child who had a flat tire and John was insistent we stop. We explained they could easily walk to a phone for help, and we put ourselves in danger by stopping, but John was not deterred. When we arrived home, John and his father went back and helped them.”
A Time Traveler's TaleThe reasoning for John saying this is actually quite profound and not commonly thought of in this way. For instance, before I knew about John, I was reading about the disparity within our judicial system that has a massive over-representation of Black Americans locked up in prison. I thought to myself, what if Jimi Hendrix was one of those statistics and spent his life in prison? What would music be like now? There are a million examples of that, so I related to why John felt that way about helping people. It isn't about feeling good about yourself, it is about knowing what kind of world you want to live in. The world where no one takes risks to help someone in need, or a world that does not keep driving, and would rather not take the risk of losing someone of great value to the world as a whole.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
- Jay
--------------------------------------
* John B. Calhoun's behavioral sink experiments. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Calhoun conducted studies on Norway rats in enclosed environments where they had unlimited access to food and water. His goal was to observe the effects of overpopulation on social behavior.Despite having plenty of food, the rats exhibited aggressive and destructive behaviors once their population density exceeded a certain threshold. Some engaged in cannibalism, sexual deviation, and withdrawal from social interaction. Others crowded into specific areas, forming extreme population densities, while leaving other spaces empty. Calhoun coined the term “behavioral sink” to describe this collapse in normal behavior due to overcrowding.
Later, he conducted similar experiments on mice, which led to the infamous “Mouse Utopia” study. These findings have been used as an animal model for societal collapse, influencing urban sociology and psychology.
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Fascinating, my mind likes to ponder y’all’s conversations here
