The Last Mimzy part 2:  the lost Mimzys

We noted last time that there were "many" Mimzys sent to the past in the movie which tells the story of the last, but that only two others are identified in the film.  That leads to the question of how many others there might have been.

The 2007 movie is loosely based on a 1943 short story; but the original contains few of the elements of the film, and specifies two boxes, so it is not relevant here.

One Mimzy arrived in about 2007, another by or before 1860 (the image of Alice Liddel is dated), and another around the twelfth century.  However, three does not constitute "many"; where are the others?

The time between the last two boxes is about one hundred fifty years.  Assuming boxes were sent back to points one and a half centuries apart, we get arrivals in 1707, 1557, 1307, and 1157--the twelfth century.  This increases our Mimzys to six, which might be "many" if we stretch, and only three unaccounted; we could increase the number by assuming earlier ones, in 1007 and 857.  Alternatively we can suggest that there are missing boxes between these, seventy-five years apart, one unaccounted around 1932.  The problem remains the same.

That problem is, what happened to the other boxes?  Presumably they were sent to locations where they had some chance of discovery, unless they were entirely random, an extremely haphazard approach to a desperate mission.  Each box entered the past at a specific time and place; each impacted history.

That we cannot find that impact is complicating.  It is possible that these were never found, or recognized as significant or brought in contact with anyone who would activate them.  Or perhaps we, living in the altered history, simply are unaware of the changes.  However, given the rather dramatic impact they had when they were activated, it seems best to conclude that other boxes were never opened.

What happens if one of them still in the past is found and opened?  That is, suppose a box arrived in 1307 but was not found for many years, and that after the events of the movie it is opened by someone in the past?  Our box was opened within hours of arrival; what if that box took years to find?  Could it still be opened later?

If by later, we mean, say, forty years after it arrived, the answer should then be obvious:  that history is already in the past.  If it was going to be found in 1350, it has been found before 2007.  However, could it be found and opened in 2020, perhaps in an archaelogical dig?  Oddly, the same answer applies:  if the box would have been opened in 2020, that has already happened.

The logic for this is simple.  Our scientist sends a Mimzy back from, say, nine a.m. on June 1, 3000, to 1157, which inspires the mandala of the twelfth century.  He plans to send another an hour later, at ten o'clock.  Before he can, all of history is rewritten from 1157 through 3000.  Since the box arrived, it changed the past--all of the past from the moment of its arrival to the moment of its departure.  Thus the box that arrives in 1307 cannot be sent until after all the effects of the 1157 box are incorporated into history.  When at ten o'clock the next box is sent, to 1307, it, too, arrives and changes all history between 1307 and 3000.  Before the next box can be sent, everything relevant to the impact of that box will be part of that history, even if that box is opened in 2999.  It has in that sense already happened.

The only way that this can change is if somehow the arrival of a later Mimzy changes events surrounding an earlier one--such as, because Alice Liddell is pictured holding her Mimzy, someone realizes that the rabbit that has been handed down through his family must be connected to that one.  However, Alice Liddell's box has already had every effect it will have apart from its interaction with Emma's and Noah's box, and there are no boxes still to come.  It would only be if information about this last Mimzy reached someone who has a previous one stored somewhere that it would change what happens to the lost boxes.  Yet there is almost no information about this Mimzy, and what exists is held by a few members of a clandestine branch of the United States government who do not wish anyone to know that they had a major alert because of some children's toys they cannot explain.

Thus although those other boxes are significant, it seems they are also irrelevant.  They have no important impact on history, whatever became of them.