Causality

To answer the question: what you do - whether or not you watch the game, where you watch it and with whom has no bearing on the result. Our natural solipsism leads us to believe that we can influence external events but often we cannot.

comment by Clockwork Red (U4892)
posted 5 minutes ago
To answer the question: what you do - whether or not you watch the game, where you watch it and with whom has no bearing on the result. Our natural solipsism leads us to believe that we can influence external events but often we cannot.
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I don’t think it’s a selfish thought, to me it’s more like by changing one thing, you’ve almost created an alternative timeline and therefore the outcome may be different.

I guess the very fact of going back in time and doing something different means reality is being re-set for everyone back to that starting point. So England and Italy would line up with the same teams and strategies, but we would be rolling the dice again and it's vanishingly unlikely that the precise series of events leading to Shaw's goal would be replicated. Really you should go back and do something differently ten times so we can finally test out the old "Italy would have won that match 7 times out of 10" claim.

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 7 minutes ago
I guess the very fact of going back in time and doing something different means reality is being re-set for everyone back to that starting point. So England and Italy would line up with the same teams and strategies, but we would be rolling the dice again and it's vanishingly unlikely that the precise series of events leading to Shaw's goal would be replicated. Really you should go back and do something differently ten times so we can finally test out the old "Italy would have won that match 7 times out of 10" claim.
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This is exactly it! Explained far better than I managed.

Many theoretical physicists will tell you that England won last night’s game in a near infinite number of universes.

Which is obviously something we can all cling on to

comment by rosso - time to #takefootballback (U17054)
posted 5 minutes ago
Many theoretical physicists will tell you that England won last night’s game in a near infinite number of universes.

Which is obviously something we can all cling on to
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Also, they never even got to the final, so no need to worry about winning/losing.

There's an alternate reality somewhere where England are the masters at pens, loved by all countries and Mike's match threads don't end in complete failure every time.

comment by TheSpecialWUM (U9028)
posted 1 hour, 12 minutes ago
comment by rosso - time to #takefootballback (U17054)
posted 5 minutes ago
Many theoretical physicists will tell you that England won last night’s game in a near infinite number of universes.

Which is obviously something we can all cling on to
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Also, they never even got to the final, so no need to worry about winning/losing.
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Both good points, well made

comment by Pun (U21588)
posted 19 minutes ago
There's an alternate reality somewhere where England are the masters at pens, loved by all countries and Mike's match threads don't end in complete failure every time.
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I was with you nearly all the way there.

comment by rosso - time to #takefootballback (U17054)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Pun (U21588)
posted 19 minutes ago
There's an alternate reality somewhere where England are the masters at pens, loved by all countries and Mike's match threads don't end in complete failure every time.
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I was with you nearly all the way there.
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