An interesting calculation re. soul mates

http://what-if.xkcd.com/9/

Of course Clark does have some advantages in finding his, but even so...

Incidentally, the Tim Minchin song the article links to is brilliant - I won't quote because it spoils it, but it's great fun.

So Clark and Lois beat the odds based upon that. It did sound like soulmates (mostly in the platonic sense) are born in sets so if your soulmate (in the romantic sense) is one of them, it would stand to reason that you'd find them a little bit easier than the odds imply.

Soul mates is the ideal, what we all want and strive for, but realistically what we usually end up with is settling for the equally nice compromise, because waiting for one single soul mate across the universe sounds like a lonely existence. Since none of us want to fall within the creepiness factor.

Isn't there another song where the writer conjectures what happens if you meet your soul mate when both of you are with someone else?

Maybe there is a universe (uh... alt-universe) where with the absence of Lois, alt-Clark and alt-Lana are actually happy. (Mrs. M jumps for joy at this suggestion.) John, weren't you writing a story at one point where alt-Clark was happily married to Sheriff Rachel Harris, and living and working as Superman from Smallville, when canon Lois is dropped from the sky by Tempus?

In KenJ's story "First Love", one of the Kent children's soul mate isn't local and much more difficult to find to the point that his family had almost given up on him finding her.

The whole soul-mate idea presents too many logistical and ideological problems for me. In the alt-world, where Lois is dead, why can't Clark be happy with Lana? (Given that she's not a monster of some sort and doesn't treat him like garbage.)

Of course, all the calculations in the XKCD what-if are based on earthlings being the sole soul pool. If Clark and Lois actually are soul mates, then don't we have to include all Kryptonians as possible soul-mates for earthlings? And what about the Martians, and the Thanagarians, and the New Gods, and the Daxomites, and the Coluans, etc.

Clark and Lana as a happily married couple?

Nyaaahh!

The idea that we meet our one true soul mate is fun romantic fantasy, but as the math so clearly demonstrates, unless there are other factors involved, you aren’t going to meet your soul mate.

It’s just like the idea that the best basketball player may never pick up a basketball. Or the best golfer. Or the best cook. For any activity, there is someone in the world who has the inherent capabilities to be the very best at that one thing. But if that individual never happens to try doing that thing, or if they don’t choose to do it seriously, then, even though they would have been the best, they never achieve that potential.

For soul mates, I chose to believe Lois and Clark are “special” and the rules don’t apply to them. They are “guiding forces” that appear together to affect change where needed. I hinted at this in the ‘K’ and ‘L’ segment that appears at the start of chapter 13 in my story And the Truth Will Set You... The reason that they keep appearing together – and the reason that their friends – and enemies – appear in those locations as well, is because the world needs them to be there and it is NOT by chance.

Bob

There's also a theory in reincarnation circles that there are 'soul groups' - groups that tend to reincarnate in close relationship/proximity to one another and I suspect they know on a subconscious level where every one else in the group ended up on Earth. In that light, the two previous incarnations Wells showed them were simply the ones that most closely matched the 'current' iteration.

And to throw another thought into this - what if Lex was actually part of this group only they saw him as Tempus in the previous incarnations.

And another - Jonathan and Martha are also Jor-El and Lara reincarnated to Earth.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Dandello:
<strong> And another - Jonathan and Martha are also Jor-El and Lara reincarnated to Earth. /missing contractions which negate what I'm trying to say./ All fixed now.

Re: Unfortunately, the presence of the New Kryptonians blows up these ideas. Since Zara is approximately the same age as Clark, there is no room for time-shifting him during his trip to Earth.

Bob

In theory, souls are outside of time, so Lara and Jor-El could have been the ones to time shift...

Also, if New Krypton was the same distance from Krypton as Earth is, being in stasis wouldn't matter as both trips would be using the same amount of time.