Well...I was thinking....what if you could see every instance of you in a certain place, past and present, such as every time you walk into the Supermarket, you see every instance of you ever walking into that supermarket?
How would that work? My first take on what you said, would be an infinite number of iterations of yourself, in every position you occupied for every infinitesimally small period of time.
But on a second reading, I realized that you must be talking about having a
single copy for every time you visited the store. That makes much more sense. But would it be an exact replay of all the other times, where your copy does
exactly what you did during that visit to the store? The paths the copies take would certainly overlap... Think of the clipping issues that would arise! And the items on the shelves would not be in exactly the same positions as when you previously went there. The copies would be grabbing air and attempt to put it in the cart, or else knocking stuff off the shelves.
Another scenario: Let's assume that it wouldn't be an exact replay of what you did, rather, a more dynamic playthrough. Your copies walk around each other, and the other shoppers, and take items off the shelves correctly. But still, if it's a store you've been to a
lot, there might not be enough room to enable all the copies to be inside at the same time.
So we would need some sort of limit on the number of iterations allowed in the store at any given point, based on the maximum occupancy for the store, that still allows free movement within. Also, assuming the dynamic playthrough, would the copies be allowed to interact with each other? What would happen if so? "Hi me!" "Hey, how's it going?" "You should know, you're an iteration from the future of me. You've already experienced it all."
And what of the cashiers? There could not possibly be the same cashiers for every copy as you had the first time. If you had a conversation with a cashier, what would happen if your copy had the same conversation with a different cashier? Some very awkward situations could arise... But would your copies be able to feel awkward? Would different emotions be included with the dynamic nature of this? And could that conversations change as well, then?
And after the copies leave the store, what happens? They certainly can't all pile into the same car as you had originally. Do they simply disappear? And if so, what happens to the merchandise they purchased? Does it disappear with them? Does it reappear on the shelves?
Speaking of which, is there enough shelf space to include all the items that you purchase regularly? Would that be included in the calculations for the maximum number of iterations allowed in? And what would be the criteria for
which iterations to allow in? Just draw numbers from a hat, totally randomly? Or is there some formula, like every other one is let in?
Also included in the calculation, could be the number of other shoppers that were within the store with you. If you went there when it was crowded, there would not be a lot of room left for your other iterations, or
their other shoppers. So also included in the criteria for which to allow in, would be that the ones with the least amount of other shoppers should be allowed in, to maximize the number. Or the other shoppers could simply be not included at all, that's certainly a possibility.
All in all, it's a very interesting puzzle, to be sure.
*Reality check* ...I just spent 40 minutes writing a 500 word essay on the mechanics of you encountering many iterations of yourself in a grocery store.
...WOW.
It's kind of funny, actually. This also happens to be my 1000
th post.
