Since I define the Universe as the total of everything that exists, there can’t be other Universes.
Nah, the Earth is an electron in the big universe. Our Sun is the atom. Humans are simply neutrons or maybe, at best, protons.
Well, given the world today, I would say there are at least 2 although not parallel but at some stupid perpendicular angle and somehow they have merged.
It is the only way to explain the behavior of at least half the population.
while I am ok with the “multiverse” infinite possibility concept, I am not so sure on them existing all at once.
I would tend to believe once an action/choise/observation is made then THAT reality is the one that is selected.
For this reason I think time travel to go back in time to change events is impossible because they already happened.
If you went back in time to kill Hitler some how you failed because he was not killed in the past. You might be able to go back and OBSERVE things, but if you did anything in the past we already know you did.
If you went back and said “Hi, I am from the future” it made no impact that we are currently aware of.
I also have my own pet theory that time RATE changes with expansion of the universe and at the end of the expansion everything goes back in reverse- hell is knowing all the bad things you did and they were all coming back for you to do again. When time is running backwards, you see the past as your future
How do I get to the universe where Obama was not elected?
Schrodingers Cat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCOE__N6v4o
This is exactly what happens in Virginia Woolf's Orlando.
The problem is, when there is more than one possible action, and we choose only one, then that is the end of the story. There is no other “copy” of us that would choose the other option and create another timeline. It’s an interesting device in sci-fi/time travel stories, but in the real world, it’s ridiculous.
12 string.
Another suggested multiverse theory has some appeal. This is the difference between universes, alternatives, probabilities and possibilities.
Begin with a discreet event, say the flipping of a coin. It has two primary possibilities, heads and tails. Since the outcome of a coin flip can only be one of these, the “official” outcome becomes “real”. However, the other one briefly becomes a possibility that is just as real, so for a moment they both exist as possibilities simultaneously, then they re-converge.
In effect, this is a quantum state but at our level.
A probability takes this one step further, that of more than just three states of being: zero, heads or tails. So the Standard Distribution (bell-shaped) curve comes into play. In which the most probable result is in the middle of the curve, and the least probable, at its extremes.
This means that a mean result is “more real” than an extreme result. Yet eventually there is again a re-convergence, so a possibility is brief, and a probability is deeper and longer lasting.
An alternative is a fairly permanent situation, resulting in two, long lasting realities. Say a young man decides to become a ballet dancer instead of a US Marine. In effect, when he decides one way or another, he clones himself in reality, so that one side becomes a Marine and the other side a ballet dancer.
Importantly, there is some bleed-over in the case of an alternative reality. One of him becomes a Marine who truly loves to watch ballet; and the other a ballet dancer who fantasizes about being a Marine.
As far as entire universes go, there are likely a finite number of them, and some may not be physical so much as organizational, creating a framework for the “real” universes.
Utterly ridiculous! The universe is not going to violate the laws of conservation of energy and mass just because we change our minds.
If there’s really an infinite number of universes and possibilities, is there a universe where the Trix Rabbit is President?
So we have an infinite number of potentialities, one of which is realized every moment by means of quantum “choices”. These scientists seem to be slouching toward deism against their will. All they’re missing now is a willful Creator to go along with this infinite potential and make these choices. Ironic, since the multiverse seems to have been conceived to avoid this very notion.
I think it’s much more likely that there is something wrong with the quantum wave interpretation, than there is likely to be an infinite number of universes.
Let me see if I understand this; it is acceptable to posit - without proof - the existence of a multiverse. However, it is somehow unscientific and therefore unacceptable to believe in a creator.
Somebody help me out - have I got this straight?
Very weird stuff.