37 replies to this topic

[ali smack]

does anyone believe in multiverses/alternative universes?
Some scientists such as Richard Dawkins believe they exist.
I think they exist but am not sure if it is likely they do.
I think it would be interesting if they are real.
I'd imagine there would be different versions of yourself etc

[Hasina]

I've always liked the genre of alternate history so the idea of parallel universes and the like are totally awesome. I read somewhere that the CMB cold spot, could be the sign of another universe, pressing against our own.

[Sean93]

I think other universe are quite likely but alternate versions of ourselves? Nah.

That being said, the 'Other Worlds Interpretation is interadesting' in it's own right.

[flbrnt]

The many world's interpretation of quantum mechanics seems to be a front runner just now, meaning that there are mega copies of you, me and everything, all supposedly totally separate. This is just speculation but, since the mind-body problem is no closer to a solution than it has ever been, I have an idea that our conscious is not so separate, that we all exist in all of these incarnations all the time but are not aware of the others usually. Maybe that is what the afterlife is. You die in one universe but become aware of another.

[ali smack]

I think they exist and like the idea of alternative versions of myself and history in general.
I'd imagine if they do exist there are other Me's.

[StarMountainKid]

From my understanding of alternate universes or the many worlds interpretation:

Does every quantum-level interaction create a new  universe? Does every probability of wave function collapse or decoherence manifest into a reality?

Think of all the quantum-level interactions going on constantly everywhere in the universe. Somewhere I ran across a web page that predicted how many alternate universes must be being created every second if this were true. I've lost track of that page, but it was a big number!

If a quantum interaction occurs somewhere in the Andromeda Galaxy, does that event create a new universe (or many universes) with an alternate me in it (in them)?

It seems to me this could only be so if all these alternate universes already exist or have some innate potential to exist in some virtual form.

Are all these alternate universes spawning new universes, and those new universes, and those new universes, ...?

It's easier for me to consider what happens in our universe stays in our universe. There may be a multi-verse, and if there are an infinite number of universes existing in this manner, there must be an infinite number of universes exactly like ours, and an infinite number of me's typing these words.

That's enough for me to try to get my head around.

[bmk1245]

StarMountainKid, on 20 February 2013 - 05:03 PM, said:

[...]
If a quantum interaction occurs somewhere in the Andromeda Galaxy, does that event create a new universe (or many universes) with an alternate me in it (in them)?
[...]

Its just distance (~2.5 million light years to Andromeda), just as distance between your eye and keyboard (~1 light nano second).

[TheLastLazyGun]

Sean93, on 19 February 2013 - 01:32 PM, said:

I think other universe are quite likely but alternate versions of ourselves? Nah.

That being said, the 'Other Worlds Interpretation is interadesting' in it's own right.

There may actually be alternate versions of ourselves in this universe.  If the universe is infinite with an infinite number of planets then the chances of there being another planet in the universe exactly like Earth in every way possible, even down to there being another you and another me who are exactly the same as us, is 100%.

Edited by TheLastLazyGun, 23 February 2013 - 01:57 PM.

[Frank Merton]

TheLastLazyGun, on 23 February 2013 - 01:57 PM, said:

There may actually be alternate versions of ourselves in this universe.  If the universe is infinite with an infinite number of planets then the chances of there being another planet in the universe exactly like Earth in every way possible, even down to there being another you and another me who are exactly the same as us, is 100%.

I suppose the math works out that way, but that other you and me are not you and me.

[Frank Merton]

There are many ways there could be a multiplicity if not an infinity of "universes."  Perhaps the most likely in my mind is that there exist separate "realms" of dimensions utterly unconnected to whatever set of dimensions we inhabit.  Mathematics knows no limit to the number of possible dimensions.

(This is one of my problems with the God idea -- how does He know for sure about these other realms -- there could be an infinity of them outside his ken, even if he knows about an infinity of them).

Then, again, the universe we are in might be a self-perpetuating machine eternally producing new universes, in any of many possible ways, including really smart kids making them in a basement somewhere.

And then, of course, every time the universe has to make a quantum decision, it generates however many universes needed to make the probabilities come out right -- and for some of these "decisions" that requires a damn lot of universes.

It may even be the the cosmos we inhabit is itself infinite -- something we can never know since the expansion has put all but a tiny bit of it forever outside our event horizon.  I like the idea that the "Big Bang" itself was infinite and that the universe hasn't been getting bigger at all -- just less dense and cooler.  In that case the inflationary epoch must have really been something.

All this is far more in line with the Hindu/Buddhist tradition than anything else I know, but I think even they would be flabbergasted.

[CrimsonKing]

I have no doubt that alternate universes exist,though i have no proof.This is one reason i do not give religious people a hard time unless they bother me first.Just because it cannot be proven does not mean its not real.In just our universe alone all we have 100% proof of is that earth supports life and we live on it.What we believe is real is what we are told until proven otherwise.We have a long way to go.

[third_eye]

there may be parallel universes but  there is no parallel 'you'

taking 'you' out of the context of where you are, you cease to exist, people may remember you but you no longer 'exists'
taking 'you' out from the context of where you are, they cease to exist, you may remember them but they no longer 'exists'

the question of 'maybe somewhere' doesn't show up or make the theoretical math, what it suggests is that they may be 'instances' of parallel universes.
which means these parallel universes 'collapses' to 'null' when one or another decision is returned as 'true'
meaning that if you still where you are then you are 'true' where as your parallel collapses to 'null' meaning also 'false'

its just the after flash of a mind bending realisation that there are other ways to express 'reality'

most of what you are as a 'reality' is based on the collective expectations and memories of the people in your immediate and effective environment.
Take that away or take you away, then you'll have to 'adapt' and 'adjust' so too would the affected individuals with greater recollections of interactions.
By all due considerations, you practically ceases to exist to them and they to you.

The parallel universes of you do not exist, because if they did, you would not, and by that conclusion, we too, the ones reading and myself writing this, would not exist too.



~edit : spellchecker blindspot

Edited by third_eye, 23 February 2013 - 04:00 PM.

[Seeker79]

ali smack, on 19 February 2013 - 01:11 PM, said:

does anyone believe in multiverses/alternative universes?
Some scientists such as Richard Dawkins believe they exist.
I think they exist but am not sure if it is likely they do.
I think it would be interesting if they are real.
I'd imagine there would be different versions of yourself etc

I certainly do. There is no reason to assume that  there are not more and simple common sense which can be wrong but usually isn't tells us that if there is one there probably is another. In all likely hoods we occupy a place close to an average.  Now weather these universes occupy a place beyond the expantion horizon, parallel dimensions, or both who knows. I think it's extremely likely that this big bang is not the only one that has or will ever occurr. Infact quantum tunneling provides a mechanism by wihtch at any moment in any space another bb has a very tiny and that's an understatement  chance of a bb happening again. Given enough and I mean a very very long enough time its number will come up again and a tremendously huge amount of virtual particles will tunnel to a single spot and boom it all starts again. What a show that would be.

Edited by Seeker79, 23 February 2013 - 05:08 PM.

[Seeker79]

Frank Merton, on 23 February 2013 - 02:05 PM, said:

I suppose the math works out that way, but that other you and me are not you and me.

That depends on weather you believe in a soul or not. If you do?, then no, if you don't, and this other person contained your exact set of information... Then, yes it is. Because you are only the information carried with you.

[Frank Merton]

It has nothing to do with belief in a soul; something identical to me is not me, but a copy of me.  You also have to believe pretty strongly in either predestination or determinism to think that it will do anything other than go off on its own and become something else very quickly, even though up to that point its life events have been the same as mine.