Multiple universes: The evidence is good

[UM-Bot]

Image credit: NASA/ESA/ESO

Ken Korczak: What if you had an identical twin? What if you had 10 identical twins? A million twins? what if all of these "others" were more than just twins in the sibling sense? What if these others were literally “you,” yet living independently in their own world or universe?Astonishing as it may seem, this may actually be the case. There may be millions, billions, and in fact, an infinite number of "alternate" universes stacked like so much Tupperware within our own universe. In each of these other universes lives another you leading a full and very real life, just like your own life.Some of these other universes are very close to our own, and are almost identical, except for minor differences. Others are further removed and the differences increase as the distance from our own increases.The concept is not a new one. In fact, the idea that other invisible worlds exist in proximity to our own are nearly as old as human beings. “Other worlds” is one of the oldest and most frequently used ideas in speculative literature and legend.

Examples might be “Fairyland” and the “astral plane.”While spiritualists, shamans and mystics have been happily dealing with the subject of alternate universes for centuries, modern science, notably the field of physics, has embraced the idea of alternate worlds in recent years.In the field of quantum mechanics, alternate universe theory is generally referred to as the “Many Worlds Interpretation,” and it holds up mathematically.The theory was first proposed 40 years ago in 1957 by the brilliant physicist Hugh Everett III. He came up with the Many Worlds scenario to deal with some of the more perplexing aspects of quantum mechanics.Everett suggested that whenever numerous viable possibilities exist, the world splits into many worlds or universes, one universe for each different possibility.For example, if you get up this morning and can’t decide if you want to have coffee or tea for breakfast, the Many Worlds Interpretation says that for each choice that is made, an entire universe is created to accommodate each choice.In one universe you choose coffee. In another universe you choose tea. In a third universe, you decide to have neither. In still another, you go with orange juice.

Each universe is as real and valid as the other. It’s just that each goes its separate way from the point of decision.According to the astounding Many Worlds Interpretation, every single choice that is made by every single human being at every instant of time creates an entire universe which goes on forever into infinity.Obviously, this means that millions and billions and trillions of universes are being created on an ongoing basis!In each universe created, everything is identical, except for that one different choice; from that point on, they develop independently, and no communication is possible between them, so the people living in those worlds have no idea that this is going on.According to the Many Worlds Interpretation, there are not only an infinite number of universes, but an infinite number of versions of each person—including you!Your alternate selves have all split off at some time in the past from the path you are now following. There may be versions of you that split off one or five years ago, or perhaps five minutes after you were born.

In some universes, you may have died at birth.But in a very real sense, those people are still "you." What if you could travel to one of these alternate universes and meet yourself and have a conversation with yourself? What would you say? What would it feel like? It’s intriguing to think about.Polls have been taken among theorists who study such things, and have revealed that most of them believe that the Many Worlds Interpretation represents an accurate description of reality. (Interestingly, the polls also show that many of them would rather not discuss the subject!)Political researcher L. David Raub conducted a poll of 72 of the "leading cosmologists and other quantum field theorists" about the Many Worlds Interpretation and found the following:

1) 58% think it is true.
2) 18% do not think it is true.
3) 13% think it could be true but are not convinced.
4) 11% had no opinion.

Among the the “Yes” thinkers is the famous Stephen Hawking, author of the best selling A Brief History of Time. Also in agreement are Nobel Laureates Murray Gell-Mann and the great and brilliant Richard Feynman.One of the most interesting fall-outs of the Many World's Interpretation is the possibility that it provides a platform for the the existence of free will, one of the issues that has tormented theologians and philosophers for centuries. In a universe in which you get to have all your choices and eat them too, so to speak, the totality an infinite potential of free will becomes obvious.From religion and folklore to the rigorous disciplines of science and mathematics, the case for a universe that is actually many universes is better than good, and, in fact, may prove to be reality.

[snuffypuffer]

This is also one of the theories that could make time travel possible, or so I understand. Only trouble is that you wouldn't necessarily be going to the past in your own universe. And in infinite universes, finding your way back to the same universe you left would be really difficult, depending on how far from home you got.

I want to meet me!

[jesspy]

This is also one of the theories that could make time travel possible, or so I understand. Only trouble is that you wouldn't necessarily be going to the past in your own universe. And in infinite universes, finding your way back to the same universe you left would be really difficult, depending on how far from home you got.

I want to meet me!

Like that show SLIDERS that was agood show or you could go through the universes and kill you and become stronger like the movie ONE

[smallpackage]

Are they inferring that there are other dimensions living within the same universe, or other universes?

For example, if you get up this morning and can’t decide if you want to have coffee or tea for breakfast, the Many Worlds Interpretation says that for each choice that is made, an entire universe is created to accommodate each choice.In one universe you choose coffee. In another universe you choose tea. In a third universe, you decide to have neither. In still another, you go with orange juice.

This is....I hardly use the word but, Stupid?

Edited May 16, 2006 by smallpackage

[Bearly]

It is very hard for me to fatham that this would be true as each person makes thousands of small decisions during their lifetime, not to mention the total billions of decisions that must be made each day on the planet, considering there are 6.5 billion people on this planet. Also think of the movie "The Butterfly Effect", where small decisions can lead to very drastic differences in the outcomes of someone's life.

For instance, I could have joined the Peace Core rather than going on to graduate school. So I am assuming that according to the theory, there is a me in another universe which did join the Peace Core. And what a different life that person must be leading if I/he went overseas to a different country. Each day that person faces choices also that I am not facing in this universe, would there also than be another universe for that person choices and alternative choices? And so on?

And what about the choices of animals. Are we so important that universes must only include choices that we make??

It all sounds way to complex for it too be true. Oscam's razor would say that it is probably not. There must be a simpler explanation for what is observed in quantum physics.

Besides, doesn't it tick you off that another you could be living far better off than the you are in this universe because you made the wrong choice about something? That some luckier version of you won the lottery for instance It should have been me, darn it

Edited May 16, 2006 by Bearly

[GreyWeather]

Are they inferring that there are other dimensions living within the same universe, or other universes?

This is....I hardly use the word but, Stupid?

yeah, for that to work everything would have had to have already happened. I dont think it would be solely based on simple decisions, how would that create a new universe? I dont think it would somehow.

although it seems like a nice idea, the major flaw I see in it, is that everything thats happening now, HAS to have already happened, for the universe's to have what they have.

its hard to explain, but yeah thats all i can get out of my head atm >.<

Edit

Bearly has said what I was kinda aiming at (I wrote the previous before he had posted), in half of the universe's, it would most likely be that you were never born because your mother or father never met, died before you could be conceived or they to, were never born.

but I dont think, for say, moving your hairbrush from the left of a desk, to the right would create a new universe.

hah! in one universe there may still be dinosaurs, yet they have evolved into something more than what we know of them. or perhaps the land is barren and everything is based in the waters.

deep stuff.

Edited May 16, 2006 by Leliel

[STIX]

Possibly, the size of the universe is irrelevant to the universe itself... and the universe could be seen as a lightning bolt streaking through some sort of hyper-hyper-space and the universe is constantly branching off smaller and smaller, yet to us inside the unvierse nothing changes.

Maybe instead of the universe splitting or new universes being created for different possibilities it is that those universes containing those possibilities already exist and the reason particles go there is because they are being observed in those universes by our "twins" as the article calls them.

I like the latter possibility myself.

In quantum mechanics it is said that particles choose where to go, but could it be that we are the ones choosing when those particles will appear, without even knowing it?

[STIX]

And what about the choices of animals. Are we so important that universes must only include choices that we make??

It all sounds way to complex for it too be true. Oscam's razor would say that it is probably not. There must be a simpler explanation for what is observed in quantum physics.

Besides, doesn't it tick you off that another you could be living far better off than the you are in this universe because you made the wrong choice about something? That some luckier version of you won the lottery for instance It should have been me, darn it

Some people would say animals are not important... shame on them.

HAHA I guess we could blame all our misfortunes on our alternate-universe-twins for thinking harder then us and creating better universes... damn them. LOL

[Shuriken]

And what about the choices of animals. Are we so important that universes must only include choices that we make??

Thats the problem, you look at this issue through human eyes. It wouln't mean that the choises, that are made, reflect in a new universe. We are the same organic heap as everything else [fight club]. So it would reflect every atom and every subatomic particle. Think about how much universes then would come into beeing...

Imo it is the only reasonable possibility of this paralel universe sh**.

[GrayTone]

This is completely absurd

[Avius]

My guess is that, in your dreams you make or your mind makes a greater influence on yourself so monitoring or being awake, you can fight in your dreams and it all depends after that.

[Avius]

My guess is that, in your dreams you make or your mind makes a greater influence on yourself so monitoring or being awake, you can fight in your dreams and it all depends after that.

[Avius]

My guess is that, in your dreams you make or your mind makes a greater influence on yourself so monitoring or being awake, you can fight in your dreams and it all depends after that.

[Avius]

My guess is that, in your dreams you make or your mind makes a greater influence on yourself so monitoring or being awake, you can fight in your dreams and it all depends after that.

[Shuriken]

So, is your guess, that in your dreams you make or your mind makes a greater influence on yourself so monitoring or being awake, you can fight in your dreams and it all depends after that ?

[GreyWeather]

And what about the choices of animals. Are we so important that universes must only include choices that we make??

lol, we are animals. but yeah, the same would obvisually include everything on earth, from the ant to the fish, from the fly to the tiger.

[SureFire]

Ok it's a interesting thought, but how does it stand up to logical thought? I don't see how just like it was said, moving your brush from one side of the desk to the other would create a alternate universe.

[Harks]

Now don't criticize me on this as I am making this up as I go along, just to throw in the random factor.

OK we are a 3rd dimensional being, we agree on that, but we believe in the possibility of 5th dimensional movement as well, well some of us do. Would it be possible that in our time, space and reality we also move 5th dimensionally as well, without knowing it, this would explain near alternate realities. For example the choices we make cause a ripple effect to the reality around us, but if for one split nana second the choice is slightly altered due to environmental or other factors which are more or less random. Now the effect would be minimal in our reality, but as the ripple expands over the alternate dimensions and realities the change increase dramatically. Wouldn't this probably explain why it is possible, I am not a Quantum physicist, or a highly qualified Scientist, so my understanding is limited compared to Steven Hawkins, but he believes in the posiibility of Mulitiple universes and he is the smartest person around. So I will have to take his word for it.

[x o i s k]

Really cool ideology, it’s pretty stunning to think about it.

[SureFire]

OK we are a 3rd dimensional being, we agree on that, but we believe in the possibility of 5th dimensional movement as well, well some of us do. Would it be possible that in our time, space and reality we also move 5th dimensionally as well, without knowing it, this would explain near alternate realities. For example the choices we make cause a ripple effect to the reality around us, but if for one split nana second the choice is slightly altered due to environmental or other factors which are more or less random. Now the effect would be minimal in our reality, but as the ripple expands over the alternate dimensions and realities the change increase dramatically. Wouldn't this probably explain why it is possible.

Thats a very interesting way to think about it, quite perplexing indeed.

Edited May 17, 2006 by SureFire

[ChanceSundance]

Possibly, the size of the universe is irrelevant to the universe itself... and the universe could be seen as a lightning bolt streaking through some sort of hyper-hyper-space and the universe is constantly branching off smaller and smaller, yet to us inside the unvierse nothing changes.

Maybe instead of the universe splitting or new universes being created for different possibilities it is that those universes containing those possibilities already exist and the reason particles go there is because they are being observed in those universes by our "twins" as the article calls them.

I like the latter possibility myself.

In quantum mechanics it is said that particles choose where to go, but could it be that we are the ones choosing when those particles will appear, without even knowing it?

First we need to understand that "particles" are only a way of talking about some very strange goings-on in the realm we call subatomic physics. Today we are even looking at strings appearing out of nowhere instead of particles. But that is another thing.

The experimental situation appears as such. Before any observation of "particles" these things seem to be behaving as waves moving about in space and time. Then when an observation occurs they seem to pop into existence for a brief instance and than begin to spread out again into waves until the next observation. By "pop" I mean they suddenly appear to have a fleeting well-defined position in space at a fleeting instant of time. But when we look for them again they don't appear where they should appear if they remained particles, but only appear to follow wavelike patterns of possibility into the future. Such is the picture painted by the standard or Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics.

Some physicists believe that instead of turning into a wave of possibility, a single particle actually appears in parallel universes as parallel ghosts of a particle and these move about like particles should move but they do so without being observed. When an observation occurs, the observer also enters (briefly) into the parallel universes wherein each parallel observer "sees" his or her own particle. This is the picture painted by the parallel universes interpretation of quantum physics. And there are even more interpretations. Furthermore i strongly believe that time is static, to us(mortal observers) it appears that time is a line from point A to point B.But to the SUPEROBSERVER/GOD time is static.Everything will happen at the same time in all its infinite variations because GOD is NOT limited like us to 3 dimensions and therefore i also believe that separateness is an illusion. God manipulates the universes using nonlocality. This means that God is able to move things about from a hidden dimension beyond space and time. The results of God's push or pull appears to us in space and time as miraculous. Hence separateness from God's point of view is illusionary. From our point of view its very real. Oh yeah , I have one more theorie about reality.I believe that we (me,you,everything on all planes of existence) are part of a "game" The Superobserver/God "plays" with itself. That God occasionally divides (Big Bang?) itself up in to discreet parts(so in essence are we all fragments of God) with no memories of the beforehand that stride the universe(in all its variations) in order to achieve GREATER SELFKNOWLEDGE.....btw. sorry for bad English, English is not my motherlanguage you see...

[SureFire]

First we need to understand that "particles" are only a way of talking about some very strange goings-on in the realm we call subatomic physics. Today we are even looking at strings appearing out of nowhere instead of particles. But that is another thing.

The experimental situation appears as such. Before any observation of "particles" these things seem to be behaving as waves moving about in space and time. Then when an observation occurs they seem to pop into existence for a brief instance and than begin to spread out again into waves until the next observation. By "pop" I mean they suddenly appear to have a fleeting well-defined position in space at a fleeting instant of time. But when we look for them again they don't appear where they should appear if they remained particles, but only appear to follow wavelike patterns of possibility into the future. Such is the picture painted by the standard or Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics.

Some physicists believe that instead of turning into a wave of possibility, a single particle actually appears in parallel universes as parallel ghosts of a particle and these move about like particles should move but they do so without being observed. When an observation occurs, the observer also enters (briefly) into the parallel universes wherein each parallel observer "sees" his or her own particle. This is the picture painted by the parallel universes interpretation of quantum physics. And there are even more interpretations. Furthermore i strongly believe that time is static, to us(mortal observers) it appears that time is a line from point A to point B.But to the SUPEROBSERVER/GOD time is static.Everything will happen at the same time in all its infinite variations because GOD is NOT limited like us to 3 dimensions and therefore i also believe that separateness is an illusion. God manipulates the universes using nonlocality. This means that God is able to move things about from a hidden dimension beyond space and time. The results of God's push or pull appears to us in space and time as miraculous. Hence separateness from God's point of view is illusionary. From our point of view its very real. Oh yeah , I have one more theorie about reality.I believe that we (me,you,everything on all planes of existence) are part of a "game" The Superobserver/God "plays" with itself. That God occasionally divides (Big Bang?) itself up in to discreet parts(so in essence are we all fragments of God) with no memories of the beforehand that stride the universe(in all its variations) in order to achieve GREATER SELFKNOWLEDGE.....btw. sorry for bad English, English is not my motherlanguage you see...

I find this to be much harder to believe than the chance of their being a 5th, 6th or even a 100th dimension. I find it much easier to explain than a SUPEROBSERVER/GOD or anything of the sort. One "thing" controlling anything and everything whenever "it" wants? Hardly... Now I don't intend to make this a anti-religious post but, how much pull does god have in the results and theories of scientists?

[Bearly]

First we need to understand that "particles" are only a way of talking about some very strange goings-on in the realm we call subatomic physics. Today we are even looking at strings appearing out of nowhere instead of particles. But that is another thing.

The experimental situation appears as such. Before any observation of "particles" these things seem to be behaving as waves moving about in space and time. Then when an observation occurs they seem to pop into existence for a brief instance and than begin to spread out again into waves until the next observation. By "pop" I mean they suddenly appear to have a fleeting well-defined position in space at a fleeting instant of time. But when we look for them again they don't appear where they should appear if they remained particles, but only appear to follow wavelike patterns of possibility into the future. Such is the picture painted by the standard or Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics.

Some physicists believe that instead of turning into a wave of possibility, a single particle actually appears in parallel universes as parallel ghosts of a particle and these move about like particles should move but they do so without being observed. When an observation occurs, the observer also enters (briefly) into the parallel universes wherein each parallel observer "sees" his or her own particle. This is the picture painted by the parallel universes interpretation of quantum physics. And there are even more interpretations. Furthermore i strongly believe that time is static, to us(mortal observers) it appears that time is a line from point A to point B.But to the SUPEROBSERVER/GOD time is static.Everything will happen at the same time in all its infinite variations because GOD is NOT limited like us to 3 dimensions and therefore i also believe that separateness is an illusion. God manipulates the universes using nonlocality. This means that God is able to move things about from a hidden dimension beyond space and time. The results of God's push or pull appears to us in space and time as miraculous. Hence separateness from God's point of view is illusionary. From our point of view its very real. Oh yeah , I have one more theorie about reality.I believe that we (me,you,everything on all planes of existence) are part of a "game" The Superobserver/God "plays" with itself. That God occasionally divides (Big Bang?) itself up in to discreet parts(so in essence are we all fragments of God) with no memories of the beforehand that stride the universe(in all its variations) in order to achieve GREATER SELFKNOWLEDGE.....btw. sorry for bad English, English is not my motherlanguage you see...

I would like to try and understand what you are saying a little better, as I've heard similar explanations, but have never understood it. My guess is you are a physicist, so I hope you don't mind if I ask you some questions.

1. How do you know the particle was behaving like a wave before any observation occured?

2. Are we talking about visual observation (light reflecting from the particle to the human eye), or some other way of determining the particles position?

3. How are they behaving like a wave? Do you mean that the motion of the particle is wave like? Or do you mean that it appears spead out like a long wave at the beach, but then "condenses" to a point the size of a particle when observed? Could you use a water wave as an analogy to help explain?

4. What types of particles are we talking about?

5. Could it be a wave of particles that is causing these results, as in water particles making up the waves at the beach?

Sorry if these questions seem basic, but I was never very good with physics. I look forward to your replies.

[RamboIII]

convinient for them how they have NO EVIDENCE, anyone can make up a theory about anything and spread it around but until you have hard proof it means nothing

[ChanceSundance]

I find this to be much harder to believe than the chance of their being a 5th, 6th or even a 100th dimension. I find it much easier to explain than a SUPEROBSERVER/GOD or anything of the sort. One "thing" controlling anything and everything whenever "it" wants? Hardly... Now I don't intend to make this a anti-religious post but, how much pull does god have in the results and theories of scientists?

It"s because we are limited by our 3dimensionel point of view.Let"s say we have the abillity to observe the second dimension ( flatland, because there"s no depth) .I f we can somehow interact with this second dimension, to the lifeforms there every interaction with their "realm" will appear to them as miracles because they are limited to 2d interaction. And this so called SUPEROBSERVER/GOD/THEONEABOVEALL/SINGULARITY is in my opinion many more dimensions above us.We can"t even comprehend what a fifth dimension would look like, let alone dimensions that are even higher....btw . simple objects can be drawn in 4 dimensions, for example kubes(3rd)-hyperkubes(fourth).