"We live in loops as tight and as closed as the hosts do, seldom questioning our choices, content, for the most part, to be told what to do next." ~ Dr. Robert Ford, Westworld
I remember having one of those deep, philosophical discussions with a friend several years ago and the subject of reincarnation came up. He posited that reincarnation was indeed real, but that instead of moving on to new adventures in new timelines, we simply go back and do everything again and again, until—as he put it—we get it right. At the time that thought horrified me; it was like we were trapped in a never-ending Groundhog Day, but blessedly unaware that we'd passed this way before.
I've been thinking about this a lot now that the first season of Westworld has come and gone, and that one quote above stands out. I mean, it makes as much sense as anything else to explain our "reality."
But how would this work? How could you reincarnate again and again into the exact same timeline, only to unchangingly experience the same things again and again—and what about everyone else who you've interacted with?
I guess the only way I was able to wrap my had around it was to envision it as an infinitely complex series of interlocking gears. Your lifetime is one gear. Connected to that gear are the gears of everyone else in your life; everyone you've known or are yet to meet; and through those gears, the gears of everyone who has ever lived—or will ever live. You're all meshed together, but only certain segments of those gears actively interact with each other (i.e., your time in each other's lives).
Philosophically speaking, the only issue I have with this idea is that it doesn't allow for any change or growth beyond one's original storyline, something that is the antithesis of what we've come to accept as being a fundamental part of life and of being human.
But it does explain those occasional instances of Déjà vu, does it not?