variation universe, with only one end result, you could not change anything. But, in a multiverse of many possibilities, once you change your actions to avoid a future consequence, for instance getting hit by a bus, you are now simply observing a different branch of the multiverse. You don't actually change anything. The universe you were observing, the one where you did get hit by a bus, it still exists, but you are observing a different branch now.
So what happened to the me that decided to still cross the road and was hit by a bus?
That you still exists in another branch of the multiverse. After all you saw an actual future not an imaginary one. Thus, that you doesn’t cease to exist because you now made a different choice. That you is the you who didn't receive the information about the incoming bus, or the you who unfortunately chose to ignore the information, since it was just a spooky feeling.
But what you are saying is that at every mo ment, there are near identical me's branching out into many universes. I have a hard time imagining that there are an infinite number of almost identical me's scattered about in the universe.
It 's a natural progression. Through the passage of time, humans have discovered, unceasingly, that they are a part of an ever larger and more complex world. In fact, that is a way of gauging a species' advancement. More primitive humans believed their world was not much large than their hunting ground. Later not only did humans realize they lived on a round planet much larger than what they could see or explore at the time, it was tiny compared to other celestial objects like the Sun. Then the Sun was just one of a vast ocean of suns in their galaxy. Now they know that galaxy is just a spec in an ever-expanding universe of galaxies.
I understand our universe is huge, but what you are talking about is unimaginable. That at every instant there are billions and billions of more universes; billions of variations of myself. It seems impossible.
I think that this was one of the reasons that the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics only gained popularity in the scientific community after the other interpretations were found to be unsatisfying. In the early part of the 1900's your scientists were still struggling with the disappointment that their single universe was not just one big clock. Both Einstein and Schrödinger were working hard to find out the hidden variables that would return the universe back to its more simple predictable form. The additional idea that this unpredictable universe was also just one of a potentially infinite number of universes was not seriously considered.
W as it just beyond the imagination of the scientists of that time?
Maybe beyond the imagination of some, but humans have wrestled with these con cepts for thousands of years. More so, I think it went against what scientists were hoping for: a simple, easily provable answer. Nevertheless, these true scientific geniuses understood their own limitations. As Max Planck said, "A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." And in a sense that is what has happened; the old generation is gone, the new generation, now familiar with many worlds, in both fiction and science, takes it much more seriously. These days, the Copenhagen interpretation is basically dead or heavily reinterpreted. And while the masses only think of parallel worlds as science fiction, your scientists now think seriously about many worlds and it is considered a viable theory. Many of the scientists currently working towards the development of quantum computers believe in some form of the many worlds interpretation.
I still cannot comprehend a universe where every possibility that could ever exist, actually does.
W hy? Is it less appealing than a universe where just one possibility
So what happened to the me that decided to still cross the road and was hit by a bus?
That you still exists in another branch of the multiverse. After all you saw an actual future not an imaginary one. Thus, that you doesn’t cease to exist because you now made a different choice. That you is the you who didn't receive the information about the incoming bus, or the you who unfortunately chose to ignore the information, since it was just a spooky feeling.
But what you are saying is that at every mo ment, there are near identical me's branching out into many universes. I have a hard time imagining that there are an infinite number of almost identical me's scattered about in the universe.
It 's a natural progression. Through the passage of time, humans have discovered, unceasingly, that they are a part of an ever larger and more complex world. In fact, that is a way of gauging a species' advancement. More primitive humans believed their world was not much large than their hunting ground. Later not only did humans realize they lived on a round planet much larger than what they could see or explore at the time, it was tiny compared to other celestial objects like the Sun. Then the Sun was just one of a vast ocean of suns in their galaxy. Now they know that galaxy is just a spec in an ever-expanding universe of galaxies.
I understand our universe is huge, but what you are talking about is unimaginable. That at every instant there are billions and billions of more universes; billions of variations of myself. It seems impossible.
I think that this was one of the reasons that the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics only gained popularity in the scientific community after the other interpretations were found to be unsatisfying. In the early part of the 1900's your scientists were still struggling with the disappointment that their single universe was not just one big clock. Both Einstein and Schrödinger were working hard to find out the hidden variables that would return the universe back to its more simple predictable form. The additional idea that this unpredictable universe was also just one of a potentially infinite number of universes was not seriously considered.
W as it just beyond the imagination of the scientists of that time?
Maybe beyond the imagination of some, but humans have wrestled with these con cepts for thousands of years. More so, I think it went against what scientists were hoping for: a simple, easily provable answer. Nevertheless, these true scientific geniuses understood their own limitations. As Max Planck said, "A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." And in a sense that is what has happened; the old generation is gone, the new generation, now familiar with many worlds, in both fiction and science, takes it much more seriously. These days, the Copenhagen interpretation is basically dead or heavily reinterpreted. And while the masses only think of parallel worlds as science fiction, your scientists now think seriously about many worlds and it is considered a viable theory. Many of the scientists currently working towards the development of quantum computers believe in some form of the many worlds interpretation.
I still cannot comprehend a universe where every possibility that could ever exist, actually does.
W hy? Is it less appealing than a universe where just one possibility
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