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Woke up this morning thinking, as I do from time to time, about parallel universes. I didn't come to any conclusions, but figured I'd share my musings.
As anyone who has read, watched, or listened to anything in the Sci-Fi genre produced in, say, the last 30 years will know, there is a theory that there are an infinite number of parallel universes.
The hows and the whys vary, but one version has to do with quantum uncertainty. On the quantum level, there are certain things which cannot be absolutely determined. You can't know, for example, both the position and velocity of an electron at any given time. Where an electron is and what it's doing comes down to probabilities. (There's a further theory that, for all intents and purposes, if there's a 35% chance an electron is at Point A, 35% of the electron is at Point A. But that's another matter.) Things happen at the quantum level that we can't entirely know or predict.
Turns out, that leaves room in the universe for both chance and free will. If not for that uncertainty, the laws of the universe would dictate exactly what would happen for the entire life of the universe given a set of initial conditions. The forces acting on a given particle would ensure that it would go from Point A to Point B, which would then influence the particles around it in a certain way, and so on. Any model complex enough to track all the forces acting on every particle in the universe would be able to show exactly what would happen in sequence from the beginning of time to the end. (Such a model would end up having to be the same size as the entire universe, but that's beside the point.)
Uncertainty, however, means exactly what it says on the tin: we can't be certain. And thus there's room for things to happen that cannot be predicted. It also means that there's room for you to make your own decisions. It's the same as I described above: a model of your brain, given the same input your real brain receives, should produce the same output. If we could model your brain exactly, we'd know exactly what you'd think and what you'd do given the signals created by a given set of circumstances. Except that quantum uncertainty means we can't do that. We can't know exactly which way things will jump. And it's at that level that this thing we call a "mind" (without any real scientific understanding of what it is) can perhaps influence the processes of the brain (which, in turn, provably influence the mind).
One theory of parallel universes states that there are an infinite number of realities in which every possible outcome occurs. When you make a choice, that choice could have gone either way. So there's a reality in which you choose to go left and one in which you choose to go right.
What I started thinking about (the above all being conceptual background that was already in place in the back of my mind - this is why it takes me forever to post about anything) is something I've actually thought about before. If there's a reality for every possible choice, then what choice you make doesn't really matter. You're going to do both. The only question is which timeline you're in.
But think about what that would really mean. What it would mean to have an infinite number of universes in which every possible choice happens. The universe neither knows nor cares how "important" any given decision is. And it's not just about conscious decisions. It's about quantum uncertainty. Which path each quantum particle takes. And even if we are just talking about conscious decisions, even you don't necessarily know the potential consequences of a seemingly small decision. (Countless sci-fi stories cover that exact premise. The movie Sliding Doors comes to mind as an excellent and interesting example.)
(Note: As I was writing this part, I had someone tweet me the message: "Fine. Suffer the untyped consequences of your actions." The universe is a strange place.)
Which means that, even if we're just limiting things to conscious decisions made on Earth by humans, we're looking at an unthinkable number of seemingly identical worlds. Someone halfway around the world from you decides to have toast instead of oatmeal for breakfast. That's a whole other universe. At the same time, someone else on an entirely different continent decides to hold her breath for another half second. Now we've got four universes - toast and holding breath, oatmeal and holding breath, toast and exhaling, oatmeal and exhaling. Now multiply that by the number of decisions made at any given instant by all the humans on the planet. I just paused to flex my fingers. Then chose to correct a typo. ANd chose how to correct it. And chose not to correct the next typo, but to correct the next three. (I'm pretty tired; typing is getting sloppy.) Look! I just chose to put that parenthetical in, and to use a semicolon in it! So many choices. (And, of course, let's not forget that there will be worlds in which your parents made different choices, so that you'd be born differently or have different siblings or not be born at all. So we have to include not just every human on this Earth, but every human who might exist on any Earth.) In an infinite number of universes, there's room for everything.
Anything you can imagine that is physically possible would happen in some world. And not just one world. Because it would also happen in which that weird thing you just thought of stayed the same but that one guy on the other side of the world chose a different breakfast.
Probability then becomes not the likelihood of an event happening, but the percentage of total universes in which it does happen.
Somewhere out there, if the theory is true, there is a world in which your celebrity crushes all independently decided, on a madcap whim, to go to a random address (which, it so happens, is yours) and be slave for the day to whomever answered the door.
(That Twitter message I mentioned above? Same person tweeted earlier today about having had a dream about a celeb randomly coming off the stage to give that person a big hug.)
There's a world in which that happens, and you decide to go bowling with them. And a world in which your sister is the one who answered the door. Don't have a sister? There's a world in which you do and she does. There's a world in which that happens and you're not home. There's a world in which that happens and... you get the idea. (And let's not forget the world in which it happens and you go bowling and you win at bowling and the guy halfway around the world has oatmeal.) Given an infinite number of universes, it all happens. That's (part of) what infinite means.
When I think about it in those terms, that theory of quantum universes starts to sound less likely to be true. But there's no threshold that makes sense. No decision that affects less than a certain number of people to a certain degree? No decision whose probability is less than a certain percentage? Where would the cutoff be? How and why should the infinite multiverse make that call? (Besides, if you think you aren't important enough, consider that there is a whole spectrum of universes in which you ran for president, and everyone chose to vote for you.) As Isaac Asimov put it in his book about parallel universes, the number two makes no sense. That is, there can be one universe or there can be infinite universes, but nothing in between makes any logical sense. (You can also have zero universes, of course, but I'm pretty sure that's not the case.) But if there are infinite universes, then there has to be room for everything, no matter how seemingly trivial or improbable.
And with all that, I still don't know what it really means when I make a choice.
As anyone who has read, watched, or listened to anything in the Sci-Fi genre produced in, say, the last 30 years will know, there is a theory that there are an infinite number of parallel universes.
The hows and the whys vary, but one version has to do with quantum uncertainty. On the quantum level, there are certain things which cannot be absolutely determined. You can't know, for example, both the position and velocity of an electron at any given time. Where an electron is and what it's doing comes down to probabilities. (There's a further theory that, for all intents and purposes, if there's a 35% chance an electron is at Point A, 35% of the electron is at Point A. But that's another matter.) Things happen at the quantum level that we can't entirely know or predict.
Turns out, that leaves room in the universe for both chance and free will. If not for that uncertainty, the laws of the universe would dictate exactly what would happen for the entire life of the universe given a set of initial conditions. The forces acting on a given particle would ensure that it would go from Point A to Point B, which would then influence the particles around it in a certain way, and so on. Any model complex enough to track all the forces acting on every particle in the universe would be able to show exactly what would happen in sequence from the beginning of time to the end. (Such a model would end up having to be the same size as the entire universe, but that's beside the point.)
Uncertainty, however, means exactly what it says on the tin: we can't be certain. And thus there's room for things to happen that cannot be predicted. It also means that there's room for you to make your own decisions. It's the same as I described above: a model of your brain, given the same input your real brain receives, should produce the same output. If we could model your brain exactly, we'd know exactly what you'd think and what you'd do given the signals created by a given set of circumstances. Except that quantum uncertainty means we can't do that. We can't know exactly which way things will jump. And it's at that level that this thing we call a "mind" (without any real scientific understanding of what it is) can perhaps influence the processes of the brain (which, in turn, provably influence the mind).
One theory of parallel universes states that there are an infinite number of realities in which every possible outcome occurs. When you make a choice, that choice could have gone either way. So there's a reality in which you choose to go left and one in which you choose to go right.
What I started thinking about (the above all being conceptual background that was already in place in the back of my mind - this is why it takes me forever to post about anything) is something I've actually thought about before. If there's a reality for every possible choice, then what choice you make doesn't really matter. You're going to do both. The only question is which timeline you're in.
But think about what that would really mean. What it would mean to have an infinite number of universes in which every possible choice happens. The universe neither knows nor cares how "important" any given decision is. And it's not just about conscious decisions. It's about quantum uncertainty. Which path each quantum particle takes. And even if we are just talking about conscious decisions, even you don't necessarily know the potential consequences of a seemingly small decision. (Countless sci-fi stories cover that exact premise. The movie Sliding Doors comes to mind as an excellent and interesting example.)
(Note: As I was writing this part, I had someone tweet me the message: "Fine. Suffer the untyped consequences of your actions." The universe is a strange place.)
Which means that, even if we're just limiting things to conscious decisions made on Earth by humans, we're looking at an unthinkable number of seemingly identical worlds. Someone halfway around the world from you decides to have toast instead of oatmeal for breakfast. That's a whole other universe. At the same time, someone else on an entirely different continent decides to hold her breath for another half second. Now we've got four universes - toast and holding breath, oatmeal and holding breath, toast and exhaling, oatmeal and exhaling. Now multiply that by the number of decisions made at any given instant by all the humans on the planet. I just paused to flex my fingers. Then chose to correct a typo. ANd chose how to correct it. And chose not to correct the next typo, but to correct the next three. (I'm pretty tired; typing is getting sloppy.) Look! I just chose to put that parenthetical in, and to use a semicolon in it! So many choices. (And, of course, let's not forget that there will be worlds in which your parents made different choices, so that you'd be born differently or have different siblings or not be born at all. So we have to include not just every human on this Earth, but every human who might exist on any Earth.) In an infinite number of universes, there's room for everything.
Anything you can imagine that is physically possible would happen in some world. And not just one world. Because it would also happen in which that weird thing you just thought of stayed the same but that one guy on the other side of the world chose a different breakfast.
Probability then becomes not the likelihood of an event happening, but the percentage of total universes in which it does happen.
Somewhere out there, if the theory is true, there is a world in which your celebrity crushes all independently decided, on a madcap whim, to go to a random address (which, it so happens, is yours) and be slave for the day to whomever answered the door.
(That Twitter message I mentioned above? Same person tweeted earlier today about having had a dream about a celeb randomly coming off the stage to give that person a big hug.)
There's a world in which that happens, and you decide to go bowling with them. And a world in which your sister is the one who answered the door. Don't have a sister? There's a world in which you do and she does. There's a world in which that happens and you're not home. There's a world in which that happens and... you get the idea. (And let's not forget the world in which it happens and you go bowling and you win at bowling and the guy halfway around the world has oatmeal.) Given an infinite number of universes, it all happens. That's (part of) what infinite means.
When I think about it in those terms, that theory of quantum universes starts to sound less likely to be true. But there's no threshold that makes sense. No decision that affects less than a certain number of people to a certain degree? No decision whose probability is less than a certain percentage? Where would the cutoff be? How and why should the infinite multiverse make that call? (Besides, if you think you aren't important enough, consider that there is a whole spectrum of universes in which you ran for president, and everyone chose to vote for you.) As Isaac Asimov put it in his book about parallel universes, the number two makes no sense. That is, there can be one universe or there can be infinite universes, but nothing in between makes any logical sense. (You can also have zero universes, of course, but I'm pretty sure that's not the case.) But if there are infinite universes, then there has to be room for everything, no matter how seemingly trivial or improbable.
And with all that, I still don't know what it really means when I make a choice.
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