Dark Matter Choices

Daniela and Jason both had to make big decisions before starting their family. Jason had to end his then-burgeoning research career; Daniela had to abandon her dream of becoming a first-rate artist. Both are content with these choices—for the most part, at least. But they both also sometimes regret the sacrifices they had to make.

This is Jason2 talking to our hero Jason, by the way. Here, Jason2 points out how Jason had to make some big sacrifices to start his family; the implication is that he should regret those choices. But does he?

In Jason2's universe, Jason meets a version of Daniela who made a radically different choice in her life: to dive headfirst into her art career instead of marrying Jason. This decision creates a massive domino effect, and Jason can see its impact in Daniela's disposition itself. She's practically a different person.

Here, Daniela2 is talking about a conversation she had with Jason2 that inspired her art exhibit. As we can see, Jason2 is obsessed with the concept of choice—likely because he has always regretted his decision to put his career before his relationship with Daniela2. It's no wonder he creates the box, right?

If Jason had never gone to that college party, he would never have met Daniela. Or, if he had been in a particularly bad mood, he might not have gone over to talk to her. Or, if he had got too drunk and had tripped and fallen as he was introducing himself, she might never have got with him. In any situation, there are a million tiny choices that have wide-ranging, unforeseen consequences.

Dark Matter's conception of the multiverse is based entirely on the concept of choice. According to this book's understanding of quantum theory, no one actually makes one single choice—we actually make every available choice, and those different choices each split off into different realities. That makes our brains spin.

With an infinite amount of doors to choose from, Jason has a next-to-zero chance of finding his home universe by chance. It's all but impossible. Of course, we later learn that Jason's emotional state is what defines the world he enters, which gives him a lot more agency over the situation than he thinks.

He's so obsessed with this concept, in fact, that he creates a hyper-advanced vehicle capable of turning back the clock on his decisions. Talk about an extreme case of FOMO: this one's darn near terminal.

This is a great way of illustrating the way that choices create parallel universes in Dark Matter. While our Jason chooses to stay true to his wife and continue his search, this moment creates another Jason who makes out with Amanda and takes a different path. And then that Jason creates other Jasons when making decisions about their relationship. Holy smokes.

In other words, all of these Jasons have made ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the same choices in their lives. So why do they act so differently? Are they different people at their cores? Or are they more or less the same guy? What do you think?