clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org
clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org
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72 <strong>surfing</strong> <strong>through</strong> hyperspace<br />
universes that are identical until you travel from one universe to another. You<br />
leave Universe 1, travel to Universe 2, and live for a year in Universe 2 with your<br />
replica in Universe 2. Assume there is a Universe 3 virtually identical to Universe<br />
2 that has two copies of you. You leave Universe 2 and travel to Universe<br />
3, and so on. (One of my favorite tales of replication is David Gerrold's The<br />
Man Who Folded Himself.) By repeating such loops, you can create as many<br />
replicas as you like. The universe gets complicated, but there are no logical contradictions.<br />
Although this multiple-universe concept may seem far-fetched, serious<br />
physicists have considered such a possibility. In fact, Hugh Everett Ill's<br />
doctoral thesis "Relative State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics" (reprinted<br />
in Reviews of Modern Physics) outlines a controversial theory in which the universe<br />
at every instant branches into countless parallel worlds. However, human<br />
consciousness works in such a way that it is only aware of one universe at a time.<br />
This is called the "many-worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics. One<br />
version of the theory holds that whenever the universe ("world") is confronted<br />
by a choice of paths at the quantum level, it actually follows both possibilities,<br />
splitting into two universes. These universes are often described as "parallel<br />
worlds," although, mathematically speaking, they are orthogonal or at right<br />
angles to each other. In the many-worlds theory, there may be an infinite number<br />
of universes and, if true, then all kinds of strange worlds exist. In fact, some<br />
believe the controversial notion that somewhere virtually everything must be<br />
true. Could there be a universe where fairy tales are true, a real Dorothy lives in<br />
Kansas dreaming about the Wizard of Oz, a real Adam and Eve reside in a Garden<br />
of Eden, and alien abduction really does occur all the time? The theory could<br />
imply the existences of infinite universes so strange we could not describe them.<br />
My favorite tales of parallel worlds are those of Robert Heinlein. For example, in<br />
his science-fiction novel The Number of the Beast there is a parallel world almost<br />
identical to ours in every respect except that the letter "J" does not appear in the<br />
English language. Luckily, the protagonists in the book have built a device that<br />
lets them perform controlled explorations of parallel worlds from the safety of<br />
their high-tech car. In contrast, the protagonist in Heinlein's novel Job shifts<br />
<strong>through</strong> parallel worlds without control. Unfortunately, just as he makes some<br />
money in one America, he shifts to a slightly different America where his money<br />
is no longer valid currency, which tends to make his life miserable.<br />
The many-worlds theory suggests that a being existing outside of spacetime<br />
might see all conceivable forks, all possible spacetimes and universes, as always<br />
having existed. How could a being deal with such knowledge and not become<br />
insane? A God would see all Earths: those where no inhabitants believe in God,