How the guy next to me on the plane leapt into the future to copy me

So I finally flew back to London on Saturday, and anyone who has flown long distances eastwise knows that can be a disorienting experience. This is due, I would venture, to the fact that a person is travelling in all four dimensions during the trip. Not only are you going through all three physical dimensions, a person is also travelling through the fourth dimension of time because of the time zones. For instance, I left Utah at 3:30 pm and arrived in London at 11 am the next day. Fair enough, seems pretty straightforward, right? Well, read on...

Flying long distances is something I've grown used to, but something about this trip was amiss from the beginning. On my first flight, from Salt Lake City to Atlanta, I think there was actually a Twilight Zone effect in play. Not only did the time of day jump forward, but I think the guy next to me was actually a time traveller. I mean, while the rest of us were only skirting the fringes of the fourth dimension by going through time zones, he was quite literally jumping around in time and using his foreknowledge to his advantage. Eek.

It went something like this. I was in the outside seat in the middle section of the plane, while he was sitting just across the aisle from me and occupied the outer seat of the section near the bulkhead of the plane. This meant that when the refreshment services came by, he was asked what he wanted right before I was. No problem there, yeah? Well, the first time they came by and asked about beverages, I had decided on apple juice. Apparently, too, had this guy, because he ordered that same juice right before me. Later in the flight, they came by with an assortment of snacks, such as pretzels, cheese and crackers, and cookies. I had internally committed to the crackers and cheese, but was given a slight moment of pause when this guy asked for the cheese and crackers right before me.

Still, I figured this was just chance. Surely he wouldn't read my mind and order the same thing when the final beverage service came around. As I unwrapped by cheese and crackers, I began to look forward to the ginger ale that I was about to order, when I heard this guy ask for the ginger ale! Confound him! Faced with the prospect of asking for the same thing as him one more time, I decided to zig where he had zagged and ask for another apple juice instead of the ginger ale that I so very much craved.

This whole operation has given me considerable discomfort over the past day, and has actually given me something of an existential crisis. Who could have predicted the correct order of Apple Juice, Cheese Crackers, and then Ginger Ale.? Maybe that was the secret code, and he was some operative recruited to make contact with me and I blew it by not ordering that ginger ale?

More troubling is the prospect that this guy actually did travel just a few seconds into the future each time and saw what I ordered, and decided to pre-empt me with the exact same order each time. If this is true, then it brings up some troubling questions about free will versus determinism. If he knew I was going to order what I did, did I really have a choice in the matter? Did his perfect foreknowledge of what I was going to order mean that there was no way I could have ordered anything else? Yes, I seemingly foiled him by ordering apple juice instead of ginger ale, but did he know I was going to do that? The other day Gregg and I had a conversation about God's omniscience extending to foreknowledge, and the implications that would have for free will. At the time I thought it was a bit of an abstract conversation, but here I was faced with a real world example of it. Shudder...
Ultimately, I put my mind to ease by trying to make the best out of this situation. I like to think that I actually sat next to Kang the Conqueror, the time travelling supervillian. Perhaps in between, well, you know, conquering, he decided to toy with me a bit. Damn you Kang!!