Possible Worlds, History, and IVF. . .
So, I watched the Man in the High Tower like a month ago now. And for those who have not watched the series, it is basically premised on what if the allies had lost World War II. But there is a science fiction theme in it too, involving other worlds. Worlds that are similar to ours but distinctly differently, like the world found in the series. It looks kinds of like America in the 60s, yet it clearly is not.
In a sense those are two drastically different worlds. One where the allies win, the world we live in, and one where the Nazis and the Japanese win, the High Tower world. Two different worlds hinging on one consideration. In this case, the winning of the second world war.
Let me share two other worlds. We had until two years ago the world of Roe V Wade. That world came to an abrupt end when the Supreme Court struck that ruling down in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization. And with that things have changed in various ways.
This Thursday, February 22nd, however, we saw how these worlds differ in one unanticipated way. They are no doubt different, but this difference was not considered. Not until it happened. It turns out that in the Dobbs world the destruction of an embryo in an in vitro fertilization lab can be considered a wrongful death, and with that, we witness IVF labs basically closing down, at least for the time, fearful now of liability issues.
Such an event never happened in the world of Rowe. It was inconceivable there. We will see now how this plays out in the world of Dobbs. Will we now initiate some type of legal carve-out regarding IVR facilities and embryos? Will we arrive at the conclusion that to have an abortion is to murder but to drop or somehow destroy an embryo in an IVR lab is but an accident and little else-certainly not wrongful death.
Do what you like with this. I am not sure whether Philip Dick, the author of the Man in the High Tower, was familiar with the philosophical world of “possible worlds”, but Dick’s story has brought me back that world, the world of Philosopher Michael Lewis. It is just intriguing that an action, thoughtful or not, can lead one into a blind alley or into a whole new world-full of possibilities.
Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone was conceived at about the same time, though it just gave a sampling of typically closely related worlds, unlike the worlds in the High Tower. Our Hobbs world example would make a good Twilight Zone episode. These are no doubt products of imagination. Provocative, sometimes challenging, sometimes informative.
Questions of causation can also appeal to possible worlds. Why did my house burn down? Is it possible I left the stove on? No it is not. I never cook. . . Yet I did bang into the stove earlier today. is it possible that when I banged into the stove, I turned on the gas and lit a burner, etc. etc. etc.? Each of these is a possible world, each very close to our actual world. And perhaps in the end, one of these is in fact our world. It is through such a series of speculations, that we, myself or perhaps the fire marshal, arrive at what actually caused my house to burn down.
Jump to history for a moment. One of the most provocative sentences ever written is Jefferson’s “All men are created equal.” We have in the past two-hundred plus years been exploring numerous possible worlds regarding what exactly that sentence means, what its implications in fact are upon us. We continue on in that project. Tie to this Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Lincoln’s supposed comment regarding that author. Imagine a world without either Jefferson or Stowe, or more importantly the two specific works I point to.
Anyway, not sure what I can do with all of this. . . Give it a little time. We will see where it goes.
