Seeing People Only Once

[alxndr]

Sometimes, mostly while driving past or sat on a train. I wonder where they're going to or coming from, why, and how strange it is for patches to cross for a brief moment and then diverge, probably without the other party registering it.

Does my head in a bit, so try not to think about it too much if I can help it.

 

[Butts]

Sometimes, mostly while driving past or sat on a train. I wonder where they're going to or coming from, why, and how strange it is for patches to cross for a brief moment and then diverge, probably without the other party registering it.

Does my head in a bit, so try not to think about it too much if I can help it.

I wonder how many different people an individual actually sees in a lifetime ?

 

[alxndr]

I wonder how many different people an individual actually sees in a lifetime ?

Don't make me think about that now! I already can't sleep.

 

[DarloRich]

wow this is a very deep thread!

 

[Butts]

wow this is a very deep thread!

Intellectuals only.....

How do we know that anyone but ourselves exists ? Could everything else just be a figment of our imagination

 

[richw]

In our lifetime would we see everyone else who resides in our town or city? My town is approx 10000 people, so maybe more likely than if it has 100000 people

 

[DarloRich]

Intellectuals only.....

How do we know that anyone but ourselves exists ? Could everything else just be a figment of our imagination

how do we know we even exist. It could all be a figment of anothers imagination!

 

[AlterEgo]

In our lifetime would we see everyone else who resides in our town or city?

Probably not, as there are quite a few people in nursing homes or who are housebound. Unless you want to make the trip specially to see them!

 

[me123]

Probably not, as there are quite a few people in nursing homes or who are housebound. Unless you want to make the trip specially to see them!

I'm sure they appreciate it!
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Intellectuals only.....

How do we know that anyone but ourselves exists ? Could everything else just be a figment of our imagination

Or are we an advanced computer simulation of artificial intelligence? Maybe we're a homework project for some hyper intelligent mega being? Is this our true creator, our "God"?

This is well into the realm of intellectual babble though. We can't prove any of this to be true or false, but it's all so extraordinary that it requires extraordinary evidence to bring it into the table, which we don't have. The best way to ascertain the nature of reality is continued research into the nature of the universe.
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In our lifetime would we see everyone else who resides in our town or city? My town is approx 10000 people, so maybe more likely than if it has 100000 people

So many variables. For people who live in a small village, population 26 and a sheepdog, I'd be surprised if you didn't know everyone. On the other end of the scale, clearly Londoners do not know every other Londoner.

In addition to the obvious magnitude variable, there's movement of people in and out of communities, variations in individual behaviour etc. With this you will probably expect the number at which point you're likely to have seen everyone in your community to be relatively low, yet in relatively large towns you'll probably have seen (but not remembered or be able to recognise) the majority of people.

And of course it's impossible to measure. I don't keep a record of every person I've ever seen because it's impossible to do.

 

[northwichcat]

Does anyone ever think that every day when you go out that you see people wherever you go that you will never see again ?

I think slightly differently. When you meet someone new most of the time you really have no idea if it's the first time you've seen them or not. How do you know they aren't that stranger you sat next to on a train 10 years ago? There are exceptions though. For instance, if you go to America for the first time and meet an American who says they've never been out of America.
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So many variables. For people who live in a small village, population 26 and a sheepdog, I'd be surprised if you didn't know everyone. On the other end of the scale, clearly Londoners do not know every other Londoner.

I think that's why to Northerners Londoners appear to be less sociable. If you live in the North and the train service to where you work is every 30 minutes then you'll probably catch the same service every day and see some of the same people every day. If the train is every 5 minutes then something as simple as when the lights change on a pedestrian crossing could put you on an earlier or later service. And that's without considering the length of the train.
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a couple of days later hundreds of miles away in a pub (he did give me quite a strange look!) and then about a week later I was reading his obituary. .

If you hadn't been going to a fancy dress party dressed as the grim reaper he probably wouldn't have given you a strange look!
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In our lifetime would we see everyone else who resides in our town or city? My town is approx 10000 people, so maybe more likely than if it has 100000 people

Depends what you do with your life. If you go out at the same times every day and always go to the same places you'll probably see less people than if you go out at different times and go to different places.

I met a couple on Saturday who I hadn't met before despite walking past their house a few times a week for the past couple of years.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I wonder how many different people an individual actually sees in a lifetime ?

I suppose it depends on so many variables, work, sociability, whatever.

And now my brain is itching.

I'm a legal adviser, have been for many years, CAB and Shelter and now a slightly different sector. Most people who come to see me have one session and go on their way. The joy of the job is the ones who win their battles never come back, it's the ones who don't who do. So it was nice to hear of one client, a client with a lot of issues which I (mostly) sorted...they're now my wife's boss.

Small world, innit.

 

[Busaholic]

Are you a
1. Jinx ?
2. Witch ?
3. A harbinger of doom ?
4. Just a bringer of bad luck to people you know ?

Probably none of those, but some people might think the opposite.

Maybe all of the above, although I hope I'm none of those. I did know a witch (or is the male version a warlock?) and he was one of the most paranoid people I have ever met. He used to move every few months from one part of the country to another, and when I say country that includes Cornwall (where I first came across him), Wales, Scotland and various parts of England. My dealings with him were commercial, in that I bought booklets from him for resale. What he was running from I can only surmise, but I think the answer was basically himself.

Now, I must go and sharpen that scythe

 

[TheNewNo2]

The best way to ensure you only see people once is to kill everyone you see.

 

[Busaholic]

I suppose it depends on so many variables, work, sociability, whatever.

And now my brain is itching.

I'm a legal adviser, have been for many years, CAB and Shelter and now a slightly different sector. Most people who come to see me have one session and go on their way. The joy of the job is the ones who win their battles never come back, it's the ones who don't who do. So it was nice to hear of one client, a client with a lot of issues which I (mostly) sorted...they're now my wife's boss.

Small world, innit.

I did work for Shelter back in the day: helped set up a Housing Aid Centre and conducted its first interview there, where the guy I was interviewing locked the door and threatened to commit suicide. It was a baptism of fire, but I'm happy to say he didn't carry out his threat and I was able to help him in his housing problem, though it was obviously by far from being his sole problem, as in so many of these cases.

 

[fowler9]

Alright, beat this. I was on a round the world plane ticket. We flew from Auckland to Santiago in Chile on Christmas Eve 2011. Before we flew I asked for advice on a forum for places in Chile to spend New Year. Someone recommended a surf hostel by a tiny village north of Valparaiso. We spent Christmas in Santiago, had a few days in Santiago then got a minibus up to a place called Playa Ritoque to the surf hostel. We met loads of amazing people from all over the world.

On New Years Eve there was a BBQ down on the beach with loads of booze. As we walked down to the beach a lovely Italian couple we had met asked us if we had met the other English girl. We then met Gemma who wasn't just English but Scouse and was teaching English in Chile with her little boy. We remained friends on Facebook and I travelled back to the UK.

A year later A didtant Uncle sent me a friend request. I accepted and noticed he had a friend in common and it was Gemma. I messaged him and asked how he knew her since I had met her in Chile. She was my second cousin. I messaged her and told her a year later to the day. We are still in touch.

 

[Busaholic]

Alright, beat this. I was on a round the world plane ticket. We flew from Auckland to Santiago in Chile on Christmas Eve 2011. Before we flew I asked for advice on a forum for places in Chile to spend New Year. Someone recommended a surf hostel by a tiny village north of Valparaiso. We spent Christmas in Santiago, had a few days in Santiago then got a minibus up to a place called Playa Ritoque to the surf hostel. We met loads of amazing people from all over the world.

On New Years Eve there was a BBQ down on the beach with loads of booze. As we walked down to the beach a lovely Italian couple we had met asked us if we had met the other English girl. We then met Gemma who wasn't just English but Scouse and was teaching English in Chile with her little boy. We remained friends on Facebook and I travelled back to the UK.

A year later A didtant Uncle sent me a friend request. I accepted and noticed he had a friend in common and it was Gemma. I messaged him and asked how he knew her since I had met her in Chile. She was my second cousin. I messaged her and told her a year later to the day. We are still in touch.

It really is a small world.

 

[fowler9]

I have another one. I went to an LFC European match one Thursday night a good few years ago. Afterwards me and a few mates went to a bar called The Jacaranda in the centre of Liverpool. We shared a table with a Norwegian couple. I said I didn't know Norway very well but I knew a town called Ski. They asked how I knew of it since it was such a small place. I said my brother had gone to his friends wedding there a few years before. It turned out that the girl in the Norwegian couple we met was one of the bridesmaids at the wedding my brother had been to. It is a very small world.

 

[J-2739]

They should archive this thread as part of the dark side of the Internet...

 

[me123]

I just remembered this video which has a small segment relevant to this thread.

[youtube]sf5OrthVRPA?t=33m49s[/youtube]

 

[route101]

I was in Australia a few years ago and within he space of two days i bumped into someone who stayed in my street and someone who was in my school year.

 

[fowler9]

I just remembered this video which has a small segment relevant to this thread.

[youtube]sf5OrthVRPA?t=33m49s[/youtube]

Right now I am not going to watch all 1 hour, three minutes and six seconds of that but I do want to add that, and I am not saying this is what you were getting at, I don't think there was anything mystical about what happened to me. There is a chance of almost anything happening. What happened to me was pretty cool. Meeting a relative I didn't know I had in a village in South America, meeting a girl who was at a wedding my brother was at in Norway, my family met a family we knew walking down a street in Bayeaux, I ended up being taught by a History teacher who went to teacher training college with an American guy who lives in Charlotte, Carolina, that my family know. Hell tonight I bumped in to 3 lads I used to with in a pub in Liverpool and I haven't seen them for over 15 years.

What I mean is I hope no one thinks I am saying this is too weird to just be a random chance. I think all of these things were just very good random chances. It is all just probability. Nothing that happened to me was impossible, it was unusual or improbable, but not impossible. I put it down to a bit of good fortune and the fact I travel around a lot and I like talking to people.