Posted on 09/24/2007 4:10:41 PM PDT by anymouse
Parallel universes really do exist, according to a mathematical discovery by Oxford scientists described by one expert as "one of the most important developments in the history of science".
The parallel universe theory, first proposed in 1950 by the US physicist Hugh Everett, helps explain mysteries of quantum mechanics that have baffled scientists for decades, it is claimed.
In Everett's "many worlds" universe, every time a new physical possibility is explored, the universe splits. Given a number of possible alternative outcomes, each one is played out - in its own universe.
A motorist who has a near miss, for instance, might feel relieved at his lucky escape. But in a parallel universe, another version of the same driver will have been killed. Yet another universe will see the motorist recover after treatment in hospital. The number of alternative scenarios is endless.
It is a bizarre idea which has been dismissed as fanciful by many experts. But the new research from Oxford shows that it offers a mathematical answer to quantum conundrums that cannot be dismissed lightly - and suggests that Dr Everett, who was a Phd student at Princeton University when he came up with the theory, was on the right track.
Commenting in New Scientist magazine, Dr Andy Albrecht, a physicist at the University of California at Davis, said: "This work will go down as one of the most important developments in the history of science."
According to quantum mechanics, nothing at the subatomic scale can really be said to exist until it is observed. Until then, particles occupy nebulous "superposition" states, in which they can have simultaneous "up" and "down" spins, or appear to be in different places at the same time.
Observation appears to "nail down" a particular state of reality, in the same way as a spinning coin can only be said to be in a "heads" or "tails" state once it is caught.
According to quantum mechanics, unobserved particles are described by "wave functions" representing a set of multiple "probable" states. When an observer makes a measurement, the particle then settles down into one of these multiple options.
The Oxford team, led by Dr David Deutsch, showed mathematically that the bush-like branching structure created by the universe splitting into parallel versions of itself can explain the probabilistic nature of quantum outcomes.
LOL- and in that parallel universe my failure to imagine such things are logical will be....logical, by the rules of parallel universes!
So how much does believing- or not- really matter in such things?
Somewhere there are alien intelligences who are absolutely sure that we do not exist- yet, here we are!
And in one universe he gets lucky with the nurse and in another, the hospital food is great, and...
What a load of horsecrap. I hope they don't spend government money to come up with crackpot theories like this.
Where's the universe where I'm taggin' Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock and that blonde 19 year old on Dancing With The Stars at the same time? That's the universe I want. But noooooooooo, my parallel self is doing that. He always gets the fun sh!t.
Too bad some scientists have lost contact with reality and are now living inside of mathematical equations.
Sorry, but your doctorate degrees did not prevent you from seeing the obvious: there is ONE universe, and you are not in it.
PHD’s don’t cure stupidity.
We have to introduce these english wizards to P.T.Barnum : “My boy, there’s a SUCKER born every minute”. These types of hucksters are quickly dealt with at the high stakes poker tables in Vegas. They are usually called FOUR FLUSHERS, always trying some new kind of con. I believe they even have classes for dealers, operators on all the different scams that have been tried before, the criminal mind becomes very ingenious when a bundle of CASH is the objective. This PARALLEL UNIVERSES nonsense is but another scam.
This scam was started by Einstein, Rosen, Podalski(p?)many moons ago, known as the EPR paradox. Same old nonsense, deliberately confusing probabilities with actualities. It’s that old story of the Emperor’s New Clothes : a whole bunch of suckers and country bumpkins believe it : the Emperor’s cloths are so FINE as to be invisible...until someone in the crowd sees some IDIOT riding his horse in a parade, BUCK NAKED...and starts LAUGHING...
Clothed in your PARALLEL UNIVERSE apparel, struting down the street, do you want to be laughed at too?
Not really...the Many Worlds alternative to Copenhagen doesnt allow for universes where EVERYTHING happens...only universes where everything POSSIBLE happens; i.e. there are no universes where someone is standing one mile north of the North Pole or where cubes have round corners or other LOGICAL impossibilities.
I submit for your consideration that Helen Thomas being considered a hottie while linguistically expressible is a logical impossibility in any possible universe...
...or ought to be, and is in any I’d want to visit ;-).
Good point which even the writer should have thought of since he described a branching structure; parallel lines dont branch [relative to one another anyway] and if they do branch they arent parallel...why I would prefer the terms alternate or divergent universes.
It could “explain” many ‘paranormal’ things...but that isn’t the same as proving them...still it makes for interesting questions eh?...
So how do we explain this feckless UnAmerican congress and its make believe lap dog GOP ers? You mean we got stuck with the wrong ones, and the right ones are in a parallel universe? People! we are in the bizzaro world, sign me up for the next ticket out!
Wow. An infinite sex life.
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