Of all the questions that boggle me, this one must be by far the most puzzling and time consuming.
There are two theories in Physics that make “What if”s so confusing. One is the Quantum Theory, which says that there is always a small probability of something happening.
Let me give you an example. Suppose you don’t have enough time to study for the examinations so you skipped everything and only read one chapter. You then go to the exam hall to take the test. There is a probability that you will ace the test, a very minute fraction, but it’s still there. Let’s say that it wasn’t your luckiest of days so you ended up failing. Then, suppose, you’re offered a re-test and you’re allowed to take as many re-tests as you want. Provided that you take the test again with different questions each time, there will come a day when you score an A in that test. Or maybe you might even get lucky and get the best question set on the first try. This is the theory of quantum probability.
The next one is the Chaos Theory, which says that minor changes in initial conditions result in completely different end products.
The most popular example I can give is the Big Bang. The universe as we know it today is actually like this because there was a slight difference between the number of particles and the number of anti-particles during its first stages. We might have ended up completely different even if the ratio had been changed by a minute fraction.
I combined these two and got the What If theory.
What if I was born a day earlier? There is a probability that I would have. Would it have made any difference? Most of my major life decisions came out of the blue. I studied in BNKS just because my father overheard one of his colleagues talking about sending his son for the student extension program. What if he had to drink some water at that time? There was the probability that he wouldn’t have heard them. What if he hadn’t paid attention to the conversation? There is a probability for that as well. My life would have been completely different from what it is now.
I ask myself this a lot. I’m sure my life would’ve turned upside down if my first computer had contained Windows 95 instead of XP. No “Like Humans Do” for me then. No endless searching for answers. I wouldn’t be into philosophy. Maybe I’d be a shallow person. Maybe not. What if I had made a slightly different set of friends in junior school? What if my health had worsened? What if I had allergies to corn?
The thing is that I’m who I am simply because the conditions turned out this way. There was always the probability that I would’ve been born dead, like my older brother. I would have had no life, no friends. I wouldn’t even be writing this.
What if?
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