Excellent, that clears it up nicely. Thanks for the quote!

they are the memories of all the soldiers that ever visited the finns.

O ok. Do you have a link to where this was revealed?

My simple question, and I have searched to no avail, is this: Are Mat's memories random soldiers and generals, or are they his own past lives? I don't recall if this is ever clarified, or if maybe memories from two separate people living concurrently rule this out.

I don't think Hawkwings defeat would have been the catalyst for advanced technology. I think humans naturally would have progressed to that point in the 3,000 years since the breaking in "our" universe if Ishamael hadn't been free to bring humanity to its knees every time it started to mature (Trolloc Wars, Hawkwings death and civil war, et cetera).

I believe it was a contrail. It's been 3,000 years since the breaking. Even if advanced technology didn't survive, that is plenty of time for a human population on another continent to achieve modern flight. In Randland Ishamael has been thwarting human advances for those 3,000 years, but in this alternate world, there is nothing to say that was the case. Even if the trollocs destroyed humanity on this continent, there is no reason to assume all continents are dead. In "our" world, we know that Seanchan has no trollocs because the Seanchan have stated as much. I think it is safe to assume there are continents that don't touch the blight and have escaped the trolloc wars entirely. Given 3,000 years, they could easily be in an era with technology rivaling or greater than ours. Look where WE were 3,000 years ago...

She is arrogant, self-righteous, hypocritical, and a bully. She has seen what "modern" Aes Sedai really are (self-righteous, schoolgirl style bullies who believe in their natural born superiority over lesser beings) and has decided that, since she fits in and is in a place of power now, she will work to further their cause. Now that she recognizes just how incompetent, childish, cowardly, and useless Aes Sedai really are, she had a chance to really turn it around, but isn't. She brow-beats those who don't agree with her, she belittles those who have proven more capable and more useful than herself for anything they mess up. She is pushing the mentality that these women who are born with this ability are superior beings to all others even though they prove time and again that they aren't. This is similar to the KKK believing that whites are superior to all others, regardless of true merit, because they were born white. She has first hand experience showing the superiority of the Aiel wise ones in every way except some weaves, but she still works to push HER sect into the supreme position of power in the world, manipulating her former teachers and friends into a position of servitude to the tower under the guise of mutual respect and fellowship. For all her strength in the power(which she was born with and didn't have to earn) and her title(which was thrust upon her and then really secured by Siuan) and her apparent ability to scheme and manipulate people, she is still just a teenaged girl with a lot of power, and she regularly shows how inexperienced and childish she really is.

And then, to make matters worse, she fights Rand and refuses to listen to opposing opinions or to see reason, based solely on the fact that she feels the need to further the Tower's influence on the world and to dominate the Dragon because she knows best(naturally, all teenaged girls know what's best). She refuses to truly acknowledge that the taint is healed, still insisting that male channelers must be controlled like pets. She is a dictator. A schoolyard bully given the reigns of one of the most powerful and influential societies in the world. While all the other Emond's Fielders (possibly with the comical exception of Matrim) have been humbled and bettered by their newfound positions of power and responsibility, Egwene has turned from the beautiful girl next door to a power hungry tyrant. For the greater good...

The saddest part of this is that I think she may be the most realistic character.

EDIT TO ADD: Even though she had posibly the greatest of modern Aes Sedai as her mentor, she turned into all the worst they have to offer, and everything the rest of the world distrusts and despises about the organization.