What are your "Turn Left" moments?

[23skidoo]

The Doctor Who episode "Turn Left" is built on the premise that in an alternate timeline the Doctor's companion Donna Noble chose to turn right instead of left at an intersection, the result of which created a butterfly effect causing the Doctor to be killed and civilization on Earth to crumble.

Although hopefully none of us have made decisions that will result in Armageddon and alien invasion, I'm sure we all have made "turn left"-style decisions that, in retrospect, could have changed our lives in ways good or bad.

As I look back, I can think of a few:

When I was a kid, I was climbing on the fence behind my grandfather's garage. I lost my balance and began to fall towards the neighbour's yard which was loaded with scrap wood and metal and nails sticking up. I reached blindly out and managed to grab a shingle on the garage roof by my finger tips and pulled myself back. Had I not managed this, I probably would have been FUBAR.

Another, less dangerous one, happened in Grade 9, my first year of high school (which go from 9-12 in my part of the world). A girl sent me a note asking me out. Problem was I couldn't decipher the girl's name. In retrospect it was the only time in high school a member of the opposite sex showed any interest in me. And as she never followed up she probably assumed I wasn't interested. Would my life have turned out different had I been able to read her handwriting?

One more: a few years back I was hired to work for a major organization (I won't get more specific). It was in some ways a bad hire due to the job not being well-defined. But above that I was also victim of a poor manager who conducted his "job performance reviews" based upon rumor and single newbie errors, often months after any issue arose. During one of these reviews he actually told me the results of another employee's review. I found out soon after that this was a MAJOR -- as in job-terminating, big-time fine, drummed out of the business -- privacy violation. When I was, inevitably, pink-slipped (with the same manager stating I was not fit for doing my chosen line of work), I had the phone in my hand, ready to blow the whistle on the guy. I didn't. My turn left quandary is - would I have been able to keep my job, or get a settlement, or at least get the satisfaction of seeing the putz fired. By not "turning left", within a couple months I was making double what my ex-employer had been paying me, in the same line of work he said I was unsuited for, and nearly a decade later I'm thriving while many of my colleagues at the nameless organization have since been laid off.

At the end of the day the only one of these three that I regret is the one with the girl (and if she'd been serious she'd have tried to contact me again anyway). But it's still an interesting bit of mental exercise to imagine what might have changed had you zigged instead of zagging. And of course those who study quantum physics believe that somewhere in the multiverse versions of me did break his neck, get a girlfriend in Grade 9, and sue his ex boss into oblivion.

What are your examples?

Alex

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I once had a big argument with an acquaintance (I'd never call us friends, though we got along okay usually). We both apologized and put it behind us. A few weeks later, in a conversation between a whole group of us, he grinned at me and parroted a line I had used in that big argument (a rather melodramatic one). He meant it in good faith, as a friendly joke, but I was still ashamed and turned away briefly. Silence rather than a grin or joking response. We never became friends (though we certainly weren't enemies) and we lost contact when the group (this was in school) broke up when school finished. I've always regretted it, because I've always had the strong feeling that I blew the chance to bring our relationship from casual acquaintance into actual friend. He reached out to me to make that connection, and I turned away. That was the moment that either took our relationship to that next step or let it stagnate and never achieve anything. And because to me all strong emotion is retained- my emotional memories never really leave me in the first place, but remain "present"- I'm always quite accutely aware of the missed opportunity. I regret that instinctive shamed response.

 

[captcalhoun]

i work in a newsagents. a good few years back, i was interviewed for a job in the local small-time supermarche and was subsequently offered the job. i ended up staying put as a friend who had formerly worked where i work also worked there and reckoned it was crap. said supermarche is now a Tesco Express...

the other 'turn left' moments in my life are related to asking out girls and being rejected. how things may have differed had they not done so, who knows...

 

[gturner]

I haven't had many, but Colonel Carter has. She blew up a star once.

 

[OmahaStar]

I know the outcome of at least one TL moment. Around 12-13 years ago, the company I was working for decided to expand. They were going to open up a new facility in another state, somewhere on the East coast. I was asked to be part of the team who would open the facility and run it. A few problems, though ... 1) I would actually be making less money there, 2) they would pay no moving expenses 3) I would get no time off to move - leave work on Friday here, start work Monday there - 4) and no guarantee they would even keep the facility running.

Well, they had a number of people jump at the chance. One year later, the place was shuttered, all employees laid off, and none of the people who had moved were given the opportunity to return and keep their positions. The one who did return started over as a new hire.

For months, I regretted the decision to stay. After I learned how bad it was down there, I'm thankful I passed it up.

 

[Jadzia]

I chose to pick up a penny one morning, which delayed me by 5 seconds. Had I not done that, by the time I had arrived at the roadside, the car which slowed down to let me cross would have already passed by.

That car then entered into the flows of traffic in a different position than it would have. The driver had a more patient style of driving, so would have held a different set of people up on the road that morning, and they all would have gotten to work at a slightly different time.

So some of those would obviously have been caused to find a different parking space when they arrived at their destinations. Some may even have been turned away if the car parks were full. A shopper may then have ended up at a different shop, so adding to one queue instead of another. Delaying some shoppers instead of others.

And as this cascades to affect thousands persons, consider all of the chance encounters and accidents that may have been set up or prevented. People would be seeing different people as they are out and about, sharing different company in the elevators as the go into their offices, all forming different thoughts and memories. All having different fantasies and daydreams about who and what they've seen.


We are all connected.

 

[Holdfast]

^ "We are all connected."

I sometimes wonder about the limits to the Butterfly Effect. I mean, everyone always focuses on the butterfly flapping and the subsequent typhoon happening in Japan, but what about the times the butterfly flaps and the outwards causality ripple is curtailed after almost no wider repercussions?

What governs the limits? Is it chance or are there a set of natural laws governing just how much chaos is allowed in the universe? Maybe we're only probabilistically all connected some of the time? I know virtually no advanced maths, so won't even hazard a guess to any of these answers, but I vaguely sense there must be some sort of stochastic calculus governing these sorts of issues.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I chose to pick up a penny one morning, which delayed me by 5 seconds. Had I not done that, by the time I had arrived at the roadside, the car which slowed down to let me cross would have already passed by.

That car then entered into the flows of traffic in a different position than it would have. The driver had a more patient style of driving, so would have held a different set of people up on the road that morning, and they all would have gotten to work at a slightly different time.

So some of those would obviously have been caused to find a different parking space when they arrived at their destinations. Some may even have been turned away if the car parks were full. A shopper may then have ended up at a different shop, so adding to one queue instead of another. Delaying some shoppers instead of others.

And as this cascades to affect thousands persons, consider all of the chance encounters and accidents that may have been set up or prevented. People would be seeing different people as they are out and about, sharing different company in the elevators as the go into their offices, all forming different thoughts and memories. All having different fantasies and daydreams about who and what they've seen.


We are all connected.

^^ You've been watching "Lola Rennt" again, haven't you?



Me, I feel that hindsight is a powerful thing, enabling us to feel that a certain fixed point in time has got some significance, yet given that, in hindsight I can't think of a single moment when my destiny might have changed on the turn of a heel.

OK, maybe one moment, but that was based on a bold (i.e. extremely foolish) decision I made one early September evening after work, which had short-term repercussions but also led to some significant changes in my life very recently. Yet to be completely honest, had I not made that decision, I think my life would have ended up exactly the same.

 

[LitmusDragon]

Too many. I'm not even sure I should be posting on this message board right now.

 

[Jadzia]

The basic way to think of chaos is that a small change in conditions becomes amplified over time. It isn't the disturbance in itself that is amplified, but the difference between it and a similar system that diverge in similarity over time.

Here is an example of a chaotic function. It can very crudely be thought of as modelling the density of water vapour in the clouds.

sun --> evaporation --> cloud --> rain --> loss of cloud --> sun


The numbers at the top left start off very similar but diverge over time. If a butterfly flapped its wings, causing a draught on a wet ground, it causes a tiny amount more water vapour to enter the atmosphere than if it wasn't there.

As you can see, it doesn't cause hurricanes, just the two possible climates diverge.

But yes, there is going to be some dampening effect such that very small changes may be absorbed rather than become amplified. The air has viscosity, which is the aerodynamic equivalent of friction. Masses of air moving past each other at different speeds will feel friction against one another and may counteract these amplifications we see in chaotic processes.

 

[Holdfast]

The basic way to think of chaos is that a small change in conditions becomes amplified over time. It isn't the disturbance in itself that is amplified, but the difference between it and a similar system that diverge in similarity over time.

Here is an example of a chaotic function... The numbers at the top left start off very similar but diverge over time. If a butterfly flapped its wings, causing a draught on a wet ground, it causes a tiny amount more water vapour to enter the atmosphere than if it wasn't there.

As you can see, it doesn't cause hurricanes, just the two possible climates diverge.

But yes, there is going to be some dampening effect such that very small changes may be absorbed rather than become amplified. The air has viscosity, which is the aerodynamic equivalent of friction. Masses of air moving past each other at different speeds will feel friction against one another and may counteract these amplifications we see in chaotic processes.

Interesting. Thank you.

Would the chances of dampening happening also be chaotic in nature, or is that more predictable?

 

[propita]

I had received my AA in Laser Technology. in 1984. Students were asked to volunteer at the Measurement Science Conference, checking ids and such. I had been working afternoon day care at a small private school. My Mom said "miss your last day of work (the last day of school) and do this."

So I did, taking a couple of copies of my resume. Met a guy from the Hughes Aircraft Primary Standards Lab. I was asked to come in and interview for a real job. That "miss the last day of work" got me a job at that lasted 16 years. I met Hubby on the job almost a year later. We've been together since 1987.

Our being together allowed Hubby to go back to school and become a pharmacist (which he's said he would not have done if on his own); which got us to move to Fresno, where Hubby's being a pharmacist has had a direct impact on the lives of many patients, to a life-saving degree in a few cases; and which got me to finish my BA and go to law school, during both of which I helped a number of classmates pass various classes towards their own futures.

Definitely a Turn Left moment.

 

[T'Girl]

everyone always focuses on the butterfly flapping and the subsequent typhoon happening in Japan, but what about the times the butterfly flaps and ...

...and the series of weather events result in a stronger than average breeze in your home town, just as you drop down to one knee to ask your beloved to marry you the strong breeze blows all the blossoms off the cheery trees surrounding the two of you in the park, the swirling wind envelopes you in a romantic bubble. Ecstatically she says yes, where originally she said no. Good butterfly.

A couple of years ago I was in a cantina waiting to meet some friends. This guy introduced himself and offered to buy me a drink, the cantina wasn't exactly a singles bar, but I had let myself hook up with guys there before. However my friend were due soon so I politely turned him down. Hours later I leave a little drunk and this guy grabs me and beats me up with a brick. If I had accepted a drink or two, excused myself after the arrival of my friends maybe things would have been different, truth be told he was hansom (that's what I told the police) and I had almost said yes.

My nose looks much prettier now.

 

[Jadzia]

Would the chances of dampening happening also be chaotic in nature?

I'll make an educated guess and say yes. I'm thinking along these lines...

One figure we understand in aerodynamics is the Reynolds number.

This number is equal to the magnitude of the inertial forces (pushing) divided by frictional forces (sheering). The smaller the Reynolds number, the more significant the friction is, so the more likely a disturbance is going to be absorbed rather than amplified.

When considering the air, there are two main factors which make a reynolds number small: when the fluid structure we're considering involves small distances, and small speeds.

So notice that a storm will have a higher reynolds number than still air. So a storm will dampen a disturbance less effectively than still air.

So to answer your question: Since the occurrence of a storm is governed by chaos, so is the effectiveness of any dampening.


As an aside: The opposite situation (large distances, large speeds) is where air friction has negligible effect, and any tiny disturbances to the flow field are amplified greatly. The fluid structure in these situations behaves very chaotically, which we know as turbulence.

 

[clint g]

I have a shit ton of these. I guess the biggest one though was when I checked "National Guard" rather then "Regular Army". I'm going to pay for that one for years to come. Bleh.

 

[Bloodwhiner]

My turn left moment was disobeying my parents and going outside as a young child. If I had stayed inside (or at least thought about it for another 15 seconds), I would not have been run over by a lawn tractor and lost my right arm.

Another one was taking an internship in Jacksonville, FL. A few weeks after accepting it my new GF's family had to move there and we got to continue dating. We had only known each other for a few weeks at that point and likely would have lost touch if living in different cities. Our 25th anniversary is next August.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

I once had a big argument with an acquaintance (I'd never call us friends, though we got along okay usually). We both apologized and put it behind us. A few weeks later, in a conversation between a whole group of us, he grinned at me and parroted a line I had used in that big argument (a rather melodramatic one). He meant it in good faith, as a friendly joke, but I was still ashamed and turned away briefly. Silence rather than a grin or joking response. We never became friends (though we certainly weren't enemies) and we lost contact when the group (this was in school) broke up when school finished. I've always regretted it, because I've always had the strong feeling that I blew the chance to bring our relationship from casual acquaintance into actual friend. He reached out to me to make that connection, and I turned away. That was the moment that either took our relationship to that next step or let it stagnate and never achieve anything. And because to me all strong emotion is retained- my emotional memories never really leave me in the first place, but remain "present"- I'm always quite accutely aware of the missed opportunity. I regret that instinctive shamed response.

{{{{hug}}}} That's some incredible insight. And how to this day you remember that and think about it deserves another {{{hug}}}

Too many. I'm not even sure I should be posting on this message board right now.

Morning coffee spew!!!!!

A couple of years ago I was in a cantina waiting to meet some friends. This guy introduced himself and offered to buy me a drink, the cantina wasn't exactly a singles bar, but I had let myself hook up with guys there before. However my friend were due soon so I politely turned him down. Hours later I leave a little drunk and this guy grabs me and beats me up with a brick. If I had accepted a drink or two, excused myself after the arrival of my friends maybe things would have been different, truth be told he was hansom (that's what I told the police) and I had almost said yes.

My nose looks much prettier now.

{{{{{massive hugs}}}}


This is such an amazing thread.

 

[Nardpuncher]

There's a Taiwanese romantic movie called Turn Left, Turn Right about a couple that almost meet quite a few times over the years before they finally meet. Well done from what I remember.
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367174/

 

[V'ger]

mine big one would be if i decided to stick with my origional choice of university.
i choose manchester but decided to go to Leeds.
that would of been a big changer as i would of stayed at home for mancheter and moved away for leeds

 

[MetalPants]

There are many of these moments in my life...

For instance, when I was 13, my parents asked me if I was interested in going out one evening and learning about a youth organization. If I had turned them down, I wouldn't have joined, and wouldn't have met the truest friends in my life. One of these friends eventually married my sister, and they are now raising two wonderful children.