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Before responding to the prompt below make sure you watch episodes "Dimension of Tears", "Previous Person" and "Out of Sync". Read the Lecture Notes. Don't forget to cite your information if it is coming from another source. Even if you are paraphrasing (putting information into your own words), you still need to acknowledge where you found that information originally.

Prompt:

What do you think is the cause of the suicide epidemic and why do you think it is happening (explain your answer and be specific)? What do you think happens to Gene Trimble at the end of the story and why do you think Larry Niven chose to end the story in that fashion?

Soap

          I've seen this sort of thing before. It all has to do with the two most dangerous words in the known universes. "Why not?" This is the one phrase that throws all arguments to the contrary of anything out the window. I need some money, look my friend, a bank vault, shall we partake? Why not? That's half of what this all boils down to, the freeing of all concerns with the smallest of phrases. the reality bend letters formed into words that can convince you to release inhibitions. But what really gave these words the power, effectively stealing it from He Man and Ooo Wangawa, is the frivolity that the multiverse gives to life. Because there are more of you, no matter what you do, even if you end you continue. In fact, while looking at it by killing themselves, they are saving themselves in another universe. For instance, there are two me's, parallel, standing on top of Otis, stressed from finals, if I choose not to jump, the other likely would, but if I do jump, he won't. And vice versa. My final say on the subject is this: in a world in which the multiverse is proven true, you need to underthink everything. The reason Trimble decided to end, is he overthought it all. If he decided to underthink and make light of the situation, he would have said, "I'm me in the here and now" and been done with it. Anyone would see it as obvious that it does matter what decision you make, even if another you makes a counter decision, because if you die, you can't move to another you, see through their eyes. you die, so you don't live on. In this writer's world, you could easily replace the multiverse with cloning, and end in the same respect, with the person on the other end of the intercom dropping Gene's sandwhich immediately after finding him with no top to his head. But honestly, this story wouldn't have nearly as much impact as it does if he just got up and went home.

Joe

I believe that the cause of the suicides is the realization that the peoples’ existence is almost pointless. They realize that in some other dimension/time they do or don’t do whatever they are thinking. Their actions have no consequence in the greater whole. Trimble thinks about Ambrose Harmon looking over the balcony then jumping. Somewhere else, he turns back inside, somewhere else he never had the chance to look at the balcony, etc. etc. etc. Trimble thinks that people are killing themselves and committing crime because they realize that their existence is too small to have any consequence in the larger universes/times. If they decide not to do something, then there is another version of themselves who did and vice versa again and again or not at all. Whatever happens to gene Trimble at the end of the story didn’t happen in another dimension, or it happened differently, or nothing happened. I feel that Niven decided to end the story this way to show how his actions are inconsequential to the other Trimbles and that Trimble was right in his conclusion that people have lost it thinking about the other versions of themselves. Whatever Trimble did at the end doesn’t affect the other Trimbles, and whatever they do, doesn’t affect him. Its an infinite thing where he kills himself, the bullet doesn’t fire, he hurts himself, the gun just goes off, he left his gun in the drawer, someone brought him coffee and he doesn’t shoot himself, someone brought him coffee and so he’s tweaked out on caffeine and decides to shoot himself, etc. If it happened to Trimble, then somewhere else, it didn’t. My brain hurts.

Arielle 

     To fully comprehend why everyone was killing himself or herself or why there was a suicide epidemic seems complicated. But based on the reading I believe the cause was because they considered another branch of themselves or another dimension of them existing in a better universe, therefore their existence didn’t really matter. “Cause and effect are an illusion.” (All the Myraid Ways) An action that takes place doesn’t affect life because there is always another dimension doing something completely unusual. One little difference makes a world of change for the perception of time.  Throughout the story Gene Trimble is talking about all the different parodies he existed in outside of this one world he knew. He looked in the mirror and saw many different people all doing something different at the same time he was. This is why Larry Niven decided to end this story with Gene killing himself with the weapon he never intended on using. And he was also the man who was trying to figure out the mystery of why people were disappearing in the beginning, and why they felt the need to kill themselves. He found out the answer when he decided to do the same.

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Yat 

    One reason that caused the suicide epidemic is the timelines branching and branching in a mega universe into infinite worlds that we are not able to see.  Every actions and thoughts that we took are going to branch out into other dimension and they are illusion that wouldn’t have any affect.  As Trimble was envisioning himself going to get a coffee or he wouldn’t, or may be he sent somebody for it or somebody sent it without being asked.  “If alternate universes are a reality, then cause and effect are an illusion.”  (All the Myriad ways)  That explained what happened to Trimble when he envisioned the cause and effect of his actions or the Harmon’s suicide case were branching out into different illusions.  At the end of the story, Trimble chose to kill himself because he didn’t understand the theory of timelines.  He tried to find out why other people committed suicide, murder and crime and that they would be continued.  As he approached his answer that he thought the causes will never be stopped and he chose to go onto the same path, and he committed suicide.

Cristina

     In the story All the Myriad Ways, I interpreted the suicide epidemic to simply be a case of curiosity killing the cat. Those that somehow had a deeper insight into how they exist in time took a gamble to prove the theory of "every decision is made both ways" correct. They committed suicide quickly and spontaneously, without leaving notes for loved ones or applying make-up to appear presentable, knowing they are going to still exist somewhere else. They committed suicide simply to see what it was like to crossover into another version of self. Larry Niven ended his story with Gene Trimble firing his gun then going through the multiple outcomes of that one action to reinforce this idea of existence.

Julia Parmesano

The cause of the suicide epidemic is the direct result of the prevalence of interdimensional travel. Humans do not commit suicide for a multitude of reasons. They fear the unknown, and seem reasonably sure, regardless of most religions or lack thereof, that each life is just that. Each human gets only one life, and thus must not only life it to the fullest, but seek to make the most beneficial decisions over the course of it. 

The invention of interdimensional travel, and the spread of the resulting knowledge of such infinite alter-timespaces, renders most reasons to live moot. Essentially, if we follow the path of one character and they make their very first decision and regret it, they can simply choose to die, knowing that somewhere in another dimension, they are happily moving along having made the right decision. Removing a humans sense of relevance renders their life pointless. The decision to die holds little weight, as it provides a simple solution to undoing unwanted decisions. Choosing to live means that elsewhere you will die, and choosing to die means that elsewhere you will live. Every decision means nothing, as all of your paths will be taken by your alter-selves.

At the end of the story, I think Trimble lives and dies. Niven ended the story in the manner that he did as an intentionally vague and unknown path. His point, as evidenced in writing, is that ALL of Trimbles paths are taken, and we are simply viewing one or a few of them. Trimble lives, dies, gets coffee, has coffee brought to him, and so on. 

Mike

In All the Myriad Ways, I believe the reason for mass suicide is due to the fact that within the story there are infinite possibilities for each person. It is in the title that you find the source for the almost insane notion for suicide. The people within the story are killing themselves as well as committing horrendous crimes because of the fact that life will carry on without there existence through the existence of their other selves in other alternate realities. Niven seems to be playing up on the bad-side of human nature in order to make the narrative more interesting. So simply put, the society has become over taken by mass crime and suicide because the people are realizing their existence in relation to the universe of infinite realities. I think Gene Trimble is overtaken by the idea that his life is practically meaningless (much like the rest of the society) because there will always exist an alternate reality where he won't kill himself. So because of his realization, he decides to prove the point that one's reality is inevitably meaningless besides fulfilling and sustaining one's own ego, which apparently doesn't mean much to him. I think Niven chose to end it this way as a way to prove the point that life is practically meaningless within the narrative. He takes Gene Trimble and builds him up as a humanistic being in order to make his unveiling more dramatic and to solve the problem of Trimble's mystery suicides through this revelation of the idea of infinite realities.     

Wonwoong

In the reading, “All the Myriad ways”, I think that the reason of suicide epidemic is the existence of new world, “multiverse”. Gene Trimble may not fully enjoy his real life. At the end of this story, he thinks over and over what real world is. He thinks of his world as just one of his worlds. That is to say, he strongly believed that in other universe, other Trimles exist and live, and it is real. It cannot become serious matter to him that he may kill himself, because other alternative worlds exist and it cannot affect timeline. He ignores the grandfather paradox and the theory of the cause and effects because he sees time is just one piece of time from multiverse. He believed it, and chooses to shoot himself with his gun in order to prove the existence of all myriad worlds. I think that Larry Niven intentionally ends the story in that fashion because Niven wants  readers imagine next story. Imagining the infinite alternative world is so interesting, and reader may give full play to their imaginative power.   

kelvin k

The suicide epidemic is one of choosen paths for humanity. While reading "All the Myriad Ways", I think the death can describe several ways, which each human has one universe that can jump from space to space by having eternal death for once existence. Then other space has your existence, which it will be connected as new life structure. From the "All the Myriad ways" seems to be dealing this concept of the multiverse can be exist based on Niven's different universe ideas and multi-cultural theories.

Also there is a lot of idea which people commented as

"Niven satirically pontificates on the damage super spoof would to a human mortal woman, and the possibilities of super surrogacy", "Wonder if Superboy had Element Lad make him some special material condoms on his trips to the 30th century?", "Once upon a time a swordsman battled a sorcerer. As was fairly de rigeur, really.", "To paraphrase Guru Bob, 'a good big barbarian with weapon will always beat a good little sorcerer when the magic goes away.", and "A specially adapted ramscoop ship pilot gets in trouble in space, when he sees a large golden alien humanoid. He finds himself rescued and transported 12 light years instantaneously back to Earth." These are all theories that Nivon was saying in this reading, which I felt the variety of human imagination can be reality from different time space because it may connect somehow by one man and inform as knowledge in our world.

Niven demonstrates his scientific knowledge in the stories "The Theory and Practice of Teleportation" and "The Theory and Practice of Time Travel." As he so clearly demonstrates, the practical difficulties of doing either one are extremely formidable.