Space is big, really big
Discussion
Nom de ploom said:
i had the misfortune whilst off work yesterday to watch the Horizon programme about multi-verses...
jeez....
so many theories and yet none backed up by credible observation, might sound obvious but when someone says "there are an intinite number of univedrses out there and an infinite number of equivalent "yous".." I start to lose a bit of interest...
They aren't exactly theories, more different interpretations of the existing evidence.jeez....
so many theories and yet none backed up by credible observation, might sound obvious but when someone says "there are an intinite number of univedrses out there and an infinite number of equivalent "yous".." I start to lose a bit of interest...
In some way I find it more satisfying than the notion of collapsing probabilities.IE that the interference in the two slit experiment is caused by the possibility of a particle going through the other slot. As far as I'm concerned the interference isn't probably or possible or potential, it exists. So whatever causes it, whatever strange thing is in the other slot, must exist by any sensible definition of the word.
The problem I have is that if there are an infinite number of copies of me. Not only is there one that won the lottery last week, there are an infinite number who won the lottery last week, just as there are an infinite number who didn't. But one infinite number is millions of times the size of the other.
Joscott said:
Surely the problem (or not) with the above 'multiverse' scenario is that it extrapolates into not just being about us. So, the splits going on are not just due to merely 'each decision' made by humans. "Shall I go to the party or not" isn't where it ends. The Universe doesn't know of or care about humankind. Rather, it's every decision ever made by any creature anywhere in the Universe throughout the whole of time. What about instances of happenstance like when something could have gone either way ie a rock falls from a cliff and bounces right instead of left on hitting the ground etc.
The logic leads you to levels of splitting that are on the order of trillions of splits per billionth of a second as new universes are created and themselves subjected to the same logical splitting process.
It makes you doubt the whole theory although I admit that it's the best we currently have to get us out of some theoretical bottlenecks.
Multiple universes popping into existence is certainly a mind blowing concept, but then so is a single universe so I'm not sure it matters.The logic leads you to levels of splitting that are on the order of trillions of splits per billionth of a second as new universes are created and themselves subjected to the same logical splitting process.
It makes you doubt the whole theory although I admit that it's the best we currently have to get us out of some theoretical bottlenecks.
Also, I don't think it's decisions made by creatures that are supposed to split the universe. It's the fact that something could happen in either of two ways that does it. But so long as the particle in question doesn't affect anything else you can be in both universes quite happily. Once you interact with the particle then you split into the one that saw, for example, heads and the one that saw tails. That's why quantum computers are tricky, as soon as the outside world interferes you lose most of the possibilities.
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