when i was a young lad, i looked up at the infinite heavens and could not help but stand in awe. the size of the universe, the sheer number of stars and infinitesimally small feeling i got from it was incredible. soon after the thought arose that with so many stars, so many other solar systems and so many galaxies, there must be another one of me looking back at me on some other planet earth, in another maryland, in another hyattsville, in another exact replica of my backyard. the possibilities, with so much supposedly infinite space in the universe, are endless, therefore allowing, at least by my own logic (and apparently the logic of astrophysicists as i have recently learned) there to be another planet earth. This would then mean that everything could be happening simultaneously here and there. As i think to write this sentence, my counterpart is doing the exact same thing, at the exact same time. that begs the question though, that if the chances that things are happening at the same time are not as high as if that same "universe" or "existence" was rolling along ahead or behind my own, is my destiny already predetermined? if not trillions of light years away? that would also open up time travel in that i could visit "myself" on planet earth #1/2 and see my world in the same particular set up, just not as far along as my own, or even earth #56 (future). i have free will, in the sense that i may never know those other existences because of the great infinity, but the chances are so convincing, that i cannot really believe it. at least right now. but it makes life easier to ignore that fact and choose as if you had the choice. i've got to go to work.