Parallel universes?
According to a team of Oxford scientists (I’m sorry that I don’t have their original publication), the parallel universe theory “helps explain mysteries of quantum mechanics that have baffled scientists for decades.” In particular, “the Oxford team, led by Dr David Deutsch, showed mathematically that the bush-like branching structure created by the universe splitting into parallel versions of itself can explain the probabilistic nature of quantum outcomes.” One expert even described this mathematical discovery as “one of the most important developments in the history of science.” Unfortunately, I have the feeling that unless there is a practical benefit to this discovery, I’ll think that new and future advancements in genetics and proteomics will be much greater developments in the history of science. (But maybe these discoveries in genetics have already happened. What I don’t understand is if each universe gets created “on the fly” for a given decision branch or if there are an infinite number of universes in existence and we just pop between them to reflect each action.)
Basically what the scientists describe is a situation where each action results in multiple parallel universes branching off at each possible decision. For example, in one universe I might get hit by a car while biking, while in another universe the car might just barely miss me, and in another I might swerve and hit something else. The theory states that each of these things and, in fact, everything that could possibly have happened, does but we are only aware of the universe that we are experiencing and that we are a part of.
I guess I could see how mathematically something like this would be possible. However, what I can’t understand is that there are an infinite possibilities for anything that happens. For example, my very thoughts during writing this post alone created countless parallel universes. The neurotransmitter actions in my brain created countless more. Subconscious extraneous movements of my body created even more. And, each second of every day the cells that choose to multiple, die and get replaced, grow, etc, etc each create more and more universes. And that is not even considering the fact that I’m part of other people’s universes too. This just seems too incredible…
