Most-quoted character in Touch: in 30 of its 40 quotes
Lines by Jake Bohm 30
Jake
[voiceover] The ratio is always the same. 1 to 1.618 over and over and over again. Patterns are hidden in plain sight, you just have to know where to look. Things most people see as chaos actually follow subtle laws of behavior; galaxies, plants, seashells. The patterns never lie, but only some of us can see how the pieces fit together. 7,089,360,000 of us live on this tiny planet, this is the story of some of those people. There's an ancient Chinese myth about the red thread of fate, it says that the gods have a red thread around everyone of our ankles and attached to all the people whose lives are destined to touch. This thread may stretch or tangle, but it'll never break. It's all predetermined by mathematical probability, and it's my job is to keep track of those numbers to make the connections of those who needs to find each other, the ones whose lives need to touch. I was born 4,161 days ago, on October 26, 2000, I've been alive for 11 years 4 months 21 days and 14 hours, and of all that time, [whispers] I've never said a single word.
[voiceover] The ratio is always the same: 1 to 1.618 over and over and over again. The patterns, mathematical in design, are hidden in plain sight. You just have to know where to look. Seven billion, eighty-million, three hundred sixty-thousand people, and only a few of us can see the connections. Today, we'll send over 300 billion emails, 19 billion text messages, yet we'll still feel alone. The average person will say 2,250 words to 7.4 other individuals. Will these words be used to hurt or to heal? There's an ancient Chinese myth about the red thread of fate. It says that the gods have tied a red thread around every one of our ankles and attached it to all the people whose lives we are destined to touch. This thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.
[voiceover] My name is Jake, I was born 4168 days ago, October 26, 2000, live on this small planet with other people 7.080.360.000, this is the story of some of them. On average, a person will say 2250 words per day to 7.4 other people. We send over 300 billion emails, 19 billion text messages in addition to this giant mosaic of patterns and proportions. The diagrams, mathematical models, are hidden in plain sight, you just need to know where to look, but only some of us see how the pieces fit together. It is all predetermined by mathematical probabilities, my job is to connect those numbers to those destined to meet, those whose destinies are touching. I was born October 26, 2000, I am alive for 11 years, 4 months, 28 days and 15 hours and all this time, I never said a word. But no matter, now I have someone who can hear me.
[voiceover] 7 billion people on a small planet, suspended in the vastness of space and we are alone. The meaning of all this is the great mystery of our fragile existence. Perhaps the fact of being alone in the universe unites us, makes us depend on each other for small things, creating a quantum correlation between you and me, between us. And if this is true, then we live in a world where anything is possible.
[voiceover]There are 3 million species of animals living in tropical rainforest, and one of them, the redfire ant, lives underground, under constant threat of annihilation from flash floods. Nature doesn't care, if a species wants to survive, it has to prove it deserves to. When the floods come, fireants hold on to each other, creating a living raft that could float untill the water recedes, months if necessary. So how does the species figure something like that out? Instinct? Trial and error? Was there one fireant that was being swept away by the rushing water, and grabbed on to another ant, only to find that together, they could float? What if you were that one who knew what needed to be done, but you had no words? How do you make the others understand? How do you call for help?
[voiceover] Human beings are not the strongest species on the planet. We're not the fastest, or maybe even the smartest. The one advantage we have is our ability to cooperate... to help each other out. We recognize ourselves in each other, and are programmed for compassion, for heroism, for love. And those things make us stronger, faster...and smarter. It's why we've survived. It's why we even want to.
[voiceover] Human beings are hardwired with the impulse to share our ideas, and the desire to know we've been heard. It's all a part of our need for community. That's why we're constantly sending out signals and signs, and why we look for them from other people. We're always waiting for messages- hoping for connection. And if we haven't received a message, that doesn't always mean it hasn't been sent to us. Sometimes it means we haven't listened hard enough.
[voiceover] In spite of all our communication technology no invention is as effective as the sound of the human voice. When we hear the human voice we instinctively want to listen in the hopes of understanding it. Even when the speaker is searching for the right words to say, even when all we hear is yelling, or crying or singing. That's because the human voice resonates differently from anything else in the world. That's why we can hear a singers voice over a full Orchestra. We will always hear the singer, no matter what else surrounds it.
[voiceover] Four hundred ninety-thousand babies will be born today. Each of them unique, and each one of them a link in the greater human chain. And the moment their umbilical cord is severed, they'll become an individual with their own hopes, dreams and desires. But, in fact, each one of us is actually made up of a dozen systems which, in turn, comprise sixty-trillion cells, and those cells house countless proteins, DNA organelles. What appears to be an individual is actually a network. Each one of us is, in fact, a living, breathing community, but it doesn't stop there. Why would it? Every individual hope you harbor, every dream you attain, every desire you fulfill has an impact far greater than you can imagine. At least that's how it looks from where I'm sitting.
[voiceover] The threads that connect us are not bound by space and time. What seems to the individual like a twist of fate, from another perspective is simply one of those threads pulled tight. How things should have been all along. And even when those threads seem irreparably frayed, they never break – not completely. But sometimes the most important connection is here and now.
[voiceover] 89 degrees, 15 minutes and 50.8 seconds. That's the current position of Polaris, the northern star. Viewed from another planet, it's just one among many. But on earth, it's uniquely important. Fixed in place, an anchor, no matter where you are in the northern hemisphere, if you face Polaris, you face north. You know where you are. But there are other ways to get lost. And the choices we make and the events that overwhelm us, even in our own minds, what can be our anchor then? What beacon can we turn to, to guide us from darkness into light? What if it's other people; the lives that touch our own, in ways big and small? Because unlike Polaris, the light they bring will never fade.
[voiceover] Numbers are constant. Until they're not. Our inability to influence outcome is the great equalizer. Makes the world fair. Computers generate random numbers in an attempt to glean meaning out of probability. Endless numerical sequences, lacking any pattern. During cataclysmic global events... tsunami, earthquake, the attacks on 9/11... these random numbers suddenly stop being random. As our collective consciousness synchronizes, so do the numbers. Science can't explain the phenomenon, but religion does. It's called prayer. A collective request, sent up in unison. A shared hope. Numbers are constant, until they're not.
[voiceover] During cataclysmic global events, our collective consciousness synchronizes. So do the numeric sequences created by random number generators. Science can't explain the phenomenon, but religion does. It's called prayer. A collective request sent up in unison, a shared hope, fear relieved, a life spared. Numbers are constant... until they're not. In times of tragedy... times of collective joy, in these brief moments, it is only the shared emotional experience that makes the world seem less random. Maybe it's coincidence. And maybe it's the answer to our prayers.
[voiceover] They say that the shortest path between two points is a straight line. But what happens if that path gets blocked? When sediment impedes the flow of a river, it redirects, zigging and zagging instead of following a straight course. What looks to the crow like meandering, is to the water the most efficient route from source to outlet. Nature finds a detour. When two points are destined to touch, but a direct connection is impossible, the universe will always find another way.
[voiceover] If two points are destined to touch, the universe will always find a way to make the connection. Even when all hope seems lost, certain ties cannot be broken. They define who we are and who we can become. Across space, across time, along paths we cannot predict- nature always finds a way.
Touch · 40 quotes
Jake