I mean, like, every time something happens, like election results, coups in other countries, dictator gets overthrown by rebels, some corporate ceo getting shot, etc…, I say “hmm, what an interesting timeline I’m on” like half joking as a reference to time travel Movies/TV, but its also kinda half serious.
I mean like, I think about the Cold War and the two famous nuclear close-calls (Cuban Missile Crisis with Vasily Arkhipov, and the Radar False Alarm incident with Stannislav Petrov) amongst many other less-known nuclear close-calls, and I just think, there’s no way we should’ve survived those, like if each incident was a 50%/50% of ending in a nuclear war, then amonst that many close-calls, like 9 out of 10 timelines would’ve been the end of the world. Like it doesn’t really make sense for the world be a non-many worlds type with many different possibilities, cuz we’d be dead from nuking ourselves.
So we just got lucky with ending up on the 1 in every 10 timelines where the world didn’t end. And it seems like out luck has ran out since… I mean look at how the world is dealing with climate change, no country seem to care much, USA just elected a climate change denial party.
So I mean, don’t y’all think this “different timelines” thing make sense?
(Basically what I’m asking is, Many-Worlds Theory? Do you believe that, Yes or No?)
(Sorry if this makes no sense, IDK how to express thoughts properly 😅)
Sometimes. It’s an intriguing idea, but do I believe it?
No. To me it seems more reasonable that the universe is infinite and our planet is one of the rare successes where all of the variables came together precisely to create life. I’m certain there are others out there, but also so rare and remote that we’ll almost certainly never become aware of one another.
I think you might be confusing the many worlds hypothesis with something else. Many worlds doesn’t explain why the fundamental variables of the universe are the way they are, it describes the wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics. It’s one of the most logical conclusions of the double slit experiment (Many worlds is the hypothesis that says that the particle passes through both slits)
Could be. I’m not a scientist, just a layman who likes wacky ideas.
I wonder how the “Alive Harambe” timeline is doing right now?
I hear they have flying cars (greenhouse gas negative) and they’ve just cured cancer.
If you’re referring to the “many-worlds” interpretation of quantum mechanics, I think DeWitt just made a mess of Everett’s original, much stronger “relative-state” formulation. But in either case, the apparent branching is caused by quantum events, while the alternate timelines we imagine as possible outcomes of prior decisions are more often due to our inability to perceive all the (non-quantum) conditions that led to those alternatives not happening.
If you’re referring to the “many-worlds” interpretation of quantum mechanics, I think DeWitt . . .
It just hit me like a truck, why the main character in Bioshock Infinite was Booker DeWitt. Beautiful writing, that game…
Does it make sense? Yes Do I believe it? Yesn’t
It’s not testable so it just doesn’t matter to me and I don’t really care to make a choice about it being physical or not, I still experience the universe the same way regardless of how you interpret QM.
I like to think of the multiverse as an infinite field of colored static, and our universe is just a tiny segment that managed to represent a comprehensible world.
No. I think the idea that every event that could have multiple outcomes, no matter how minor generates a dedicated full universe from each choice is silly. I do not think there are timelines in that sense, only time. I do think there probably is something in the idea that the observed linear nature of time from past to future is just an idiosyncrasy of our type of life. So it is possible to be informed by other times because they are only separate from a particular point of view.
Imagine if we discovered a creature that evolved fourth-dimensional sensory organs (aka time eyes) that it used to predict its prey. From the outside, it would just appear to have absurd reaction speed. Such a creature might have a strange relationship with time, perhaps appearing to sleep most of the day because they already know what’s going to happen. I’m here today to tell you that cats are this creature.
So are Dragonflies! They are absolutely mind-blowing predictive hunters.
No, because even the human centric idea of ‘important events’ having separate timelines is too many. Humans aren’t that important, so there would also need to be different realities every time a shark ate or didn’t catch a fish, each time any lifeform reproduces, etc.
It is still an interesting thought experiment in the context of how things could have turned out differently, but it is just unworkable as something that could ever be proven or understood by science.
In a way, it makes sense to me.
If the big bang was not unique - and why would it be - it makes sense that it would rather be infinite. It exists outside of time and reason, if it is not singular it doesn’t make sense to think that it only happened a finite number of times.
If it happened an infinite number of times, everything that could happen will happen in one of the instances. That’s just math.
So I guess I think it’s a reasonable idea.
However, I don’t know if it makes sense to me to think in terms of these worlds actually existing. After all, they are by definition not a part of our world, which I think would be a reasonable definition of existing.
I heard Stephen Hawkins was playing around with the possibility of connecting to other words. If that is possible, it would make them real by my definition of reality. I don’t personally believe such a thing would be possible. But I know far less about the topic than Stephen Hawkins.
Albert Einstein once said “insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting different results”.
The “many universes” idea in this context depends on the idea that one cause can branch out into multiple effects. This is impossible.
