It’s been noted there is a digital revolution trying to take over and sweep away reality, knowledge and history as we knew it. Things being changed and updated, revised and remade quicker than people can keep up.

The Mandela effect was a sign, and probably an early test, to see how quickly they could create a conflicting story or event which people were sure they knew had happened, just as sure as the people who had known it didn’t happen. A firmly affixed memory you can’t quite place, but it is there to convince you of what you think you know, with your own brain playing along to create the ‘memory’. And it helps to keep things up in the air and being questioned, if people can’t agree on what occurred, how can they identify how it occurred? Or avoid it happening again. I have even seen online what is claimed to be newspaper evidence of it being reported that no-one died on the Titanic. Now, you could say that was fabricated, changed, or simply was misreported at the time. Handy how the term can be used to discredit the real information accidently getting through isn’t it? Label it as misinformation, or unverified and then once it has been deemed public worthy, it gets allowed. Factcheckers have that covered now apparently, as with an array of laws, censorship and various agencies set up to create, steer and stem the flow of information as they would like it.

We know that all people do not see or think the same things, even when presented with the same information or view before them. And they say a witness is actually the weakest form of evidence. I think of an event now and again, from 1917 in Portugal. The Miracle of the Sun known as the Fatima Event. It’s a very interesting and strange tale in its entirety, but the brief for this, is that thousands of people witnessed an event, yet did not report witnessing the same thing –

“Newspapers published testimony from witnesses who said that they had seen extraordinary solar activity, such as the Sun appearing to “dance” or zig-zag in the sky, careen towards the Earth, or emit multicolored light and radiant colors. According to these reports, the event lasted approximately ten minutes.”

“There has been much analysis of the event from critical sociological and scientific perspectives. According to critics, the eyewitness testimony was actually a collection of inconsistent and contradictory accounts. Proposed alternative explanations include witnesses being deceived by their senses due to prolonged staring at the Sun and then seeing something unusual as expected“.

But books, games, videos and all the other real things you can hold, have and watch at your leisure, are slowly being replaced by their digital counterparts. To be downloaded or viewed from a central database, where it can not only be monitored and withheld, but it can be altered and revised without scrutiny. Only those with a sharp eye, or good memory will be able to know the difference, others will just accept the new version as no different, possibly already in a semi-hypnotic state so not aware on a real functioning level to notice anything.

The Time Machine – the books that turned to dust when he touched them, and the strange rings with warnings and words of information about what transpired. Making it seem as if the printed word was useless against time, but a sort of digital recording was still there to tell the tale as it were. But of those digital rings, how do we know that at some point in the past of that fictional story, someone didn’t erase and rewrite those rings? We just took it on face value that they were telling the truth, or assumed that it was the truth because it was the future, and most of humanity as we know it was done. And like the Eloi, didn’t really question further the whole set-up, or who might be controlling the morlocks, who were then controlling the Eloi.

I saw a piece today in the Guardian, which fits well in the subject as it’s an article about Digital Wills and how they want to destroy lots of historical documents once they have been digitised. To save on space. The argument is that they important documents of people’s lives, and should all be kept, and to a point I do agree. Especially as they are also legal documents for estates, because to me that will be the real reason to want to destroy the hard copies, rather than find alternate storage options. At a time when ownership and property are of great concern, and of nefarious interests being so heavily involved in rolling out all the technology needed to tie it up. I would worry they want it all digital, so they can change it, and without an original hard copy to verify that, things can easily be rewritten or changed. However, we all know how many records have mysteriously disappeared over the years, or gone up in smoke, or have simply been shredded to get rid of whatever is in the way. And again, you can fake documents too, so how do we even know that what is being preserved is real anyway? We don’t is the short answer to that. Which is why maybe personal truths are so important, the things you can verify, know and understand from your own life and thoughts. Because with everything else, you just can’t be sure…

(c) MKW Publishing

Does it go on forever? In a continuous loop of recycling and playing over and over. An endless stream of lives, or only a few? Many cultures talk of reincarnation, but could it be that we do have to do it again? Completing another level towards where you are actually going? There is another idea on that, but will be another article. This one is along the lines of games, films and I guess the simulation theory. Games you play of a simulated world, films you can watch repeatedly, creating the over and again experience yourself. And it is in those games and films, the ideas of the end not quite being the end is put forward time and time again. I thought the way they keep resurrecting ‘dead’ characters was ridicuolous and served no purpose other than to milk it for all they could, or lacked imagination for new characters or ideas. But now I am not so sure.

Jumanji (welcome to the jungle) – the new film, upgraded and computerised, with the twist of having three lives before you die in the game and supposedly ‘expire’ in real life. Bit less intense I guess compared to the first film, where in the manual version, one was it and he was in fear of it the whole time.

Edge of tomorrow/Live, die, repeat. The title is a bit of a giveaway there, but it’s an interesting film. Of being stuck in a repeating loop but with memory each time it starts again and being able to change it.

The Cube (1997) – an odd film, and one very much of levels, puzzles, and a grim outcome if you fail to solve it and move on. Dwindling the ‘players’ one by one.

If you don’t solve the puzzle, learn the lesson, or gain the experience you are here for, you are doomed to repeat it they say. Or it may be there are multiple times or ‘lives’, for different experiences, getting to play ‘different characters’ each time you ‘reset’ to gain said experience. Possibly accounting for apparent past life ‘memories’, or even deja-vu. What some might come call ‘a glitch in the matrix’ these days. Or are we a simulated version already of something that once was, copied and repeated until it recycles down to nothing? They say it’s possible we are in a simulated existence, or we are part of the simulation too and not just a separate entity within in, which is quite outrageous stuff when you think about it. But these are outrageous times, so all avenues of thought are being explored.

(c) K Wicks

Seven pops up a lot, and I have already covered it a bit with articles Seven and Seven Again. But a few more thoughts have gathered since, and how numerology and symbolism appear to play an interesting, if not pivotal role in what we see around us.

7 of 9 – A borg character from Star Trek, and a popular one. She fit well into her uniform I remember, but just as with the android ‘Data’, there was something so very cold about her, and it was always about trying to make her ‘more human’.

7 Horcrux – in the Harry Potter series, there were seven items that had been imprinted with a piece of the lead villain’s soul. Which made me wonder about why there would be 7 pieces to the ‘soul’.

9 (Tim Burton film – following on from the above idea, there were nine creations in this film, all parts of the scientist’s personality, or soul. Separated and each of them to embody a different ‘quality’ of what it is to be human. But because each of them were only part, none of them were anywhere near whole, but still actioned the human like responses of its encoded or transferred behaviour.

9 Realms – Norse mythology – there is another article underway with this in mind, but there are nine very specified realms, inhabitants, locations and history.

9 Circles of Hell, Dante’s inferno – “Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth”.

9 planets, or at least there used to be. And although it’s now 8, it’s part of the reason I realised that even if you believe something, and they say it is so, that can also be subject to change.

9 Muses – the daughters of Zeus, and the inspiration for all areas of the creative arts they say.

9 lives of a cat – turns out this is to do with Atem/Atum, that Egyptian God I mention now and again. It is said he represents nine lives, of him and his 8 descendants who were also gods, and when he visited the underworld did so as a feline. “The Egyptians regarded Atum-Ra, the cat god, as the embodiment of nine lives in one form.”

(c) K Wicks