Parallel Universes Are Real

It's in Scientific American, it must be true. This month's cover story: Parallel Universes. "The simplest and most popular cosmological model today predicts that you have a twin in a galaxy about 10 to the 10²⁸ meters from here." That number's a lot bigger than 10 to the 10^1.42 meters, which are the farthest observable objects in what we call our universe. And anyway, twin or not, anyone outside my light-cone is dead to me. That's just a rule I have. If you're skeptical of the multiverse, go read our discussion of a similar article from two days ago.

Comments

I don't know about your eyes

[dunedan]

but I can see a lot farther than 10^1.42 meters

Re:I don't know about your eyes

[UWC]

It's 10^(10^1.42)

Ace

[rnicey]

So Captain Ace Rimmer should be turning up any moment now?

Re:Ace

[Anonvmous Coward]

"So Captain Ace Rimmer should be turning up any moment now?"

You bastard, I wanted to be the one to make the obscure Red Dwarf reference. You better hope I catch it at the dupe!

Girls in the Perallel Universe

[00RUSS]

What are the odds of me getting a date in this parallel univers? cause i dont want another place where hamburgers eat people and ./ love microsoft if i still cant get a date.

Another me

[Mr Thundercleze]

Could the universe handle 2 of me? This world can barely handle me. Just ask any Best Buy employee within 200 miles of my house.

Thundercleze: I want to buy a computer, but I have no idea about these computer things

BB Employee: Well, you're going to need lots of RAM. I can recomend this model to you

Thundercleze: Does that have SD or DDR ram?

BB Employee: What? but I thought...

Thundercleze: Answer the question

BB Employee: I don't know

Thundercleze: McDonalds fired you and your brothers the manager here isn't he?

BB employee: I feel so ashamed

If my twin is reading this...

[jeblucas]

If my twin is reading this, but reading it when he's younger (could happen, article says "There are infinitely many other inhabited planets, including not just one but infinitely many that have people with the same appearance, name and memories as you, who play out every possible permutation of your life choices;" then for crying out loud, make sure you get more than some over-the-sweater action from Amy L. back in what-was-my-1991. She'll go for it.

Re:If my twin is reading this...

[Anonymous Coward]

You're really not doing yourself a favor. According to the theory, an infinite amount of you's would've gotten that action anyways and an infinite amount of you's wouldn't have gotten any action (sorry that you were one of those).

But the important thing is that the theory also predicts that an infinite amount of you guys would've also already written this telling your twin what to do. I applaud your cause, but you're drowning in a sea of infinity!

Re:If my twin is reading this...

[jeblucas2]

Thanks for the tip.

Re:If my twin is reading this...

[breon.halling]

Hey... This is your younger self writing from another universe. I followed your advice and everything was going great. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a snag. Hmm... How can I put this? In your universe, is there a movie called "The Crying Game"?

=)

We will know that we have found it

[cyber_rigger]

when we find a humongous ball of mismatched socks that have traveled through the 4th dimension.

Re:And, in one of these universes,

[mz001b]

...there's a SLASHDOT where everyone LOVES Microsoft and hates Linux!

yeah, but that site is called ccolonbackslash.com

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:10^10^1.42?

[Peter Cooper]

Just do it yourself using a calculator.

10 ^ 1.42 = 26.302679918953819172897987967726
10 ^ 26.302679918953819172897987967726 = 200761262891390934801701916.81189 metres, or to make it a lot easier to read, 200,761,262,891,390,934,801,701.91681189 Canadian kilometres, or in American dollars, about $2.

Re:Probabilities and reality

[mark-t]

There is no such thing as a probability of exactly 1 or exactly 0.

This is a self-contradicting assertion, for if there were no such thing, then that means that the probability of that assertion being false is 0, which would make the statement false.

Logically, probabilities of 1 and 0 exist, somewhere, only they may exist outside our current ability to perceive them.

If I were to take a guess at something having a probability of zero, I'd say it would be something like a statement that was both 100% true and 100% false.

My brain hurts. I'm going to bed.

Re:Scientific Omnirican

[Anonymous Coward]

That was a fairly omni-ish article, but you gotta love the thumbnail pic of the "Multiverse", with the link below it: "Click here for a full-size illustration"

Re:This doesn't make sense

[L0k11]

no, because when your double does come to this universe he is going to kill you in order to make himself more powerful....

hey, someone should make a movie about that... they could call it "the guy who travels into parallel universes to kill himself and get ultimate power"

Obligatory Reference

[TheWanderingHermit]

Let me get this right: So this counts only on probability. Because space is big enough, whatever can possibly happen will happen?

Does that mean if I'm sweeping up a lab after a particularly unsuccessful party and I hook up a improbability generator to a strong brownian motion producer, like, say, a really hot cup of tea, then will I get a really neat spaceship that's shaped like a tennis shoe and piloted by a man with two heads and three arms and has a paranoid android abord with a shooting pain in all the diodes down his left side?

Here's to improbability!

Smoke me a Kipper

[NanoGator]

Maybe there's a really really weird dimension where you're better looking than me!

Re:Acceptable theories

[wayne606]

It's because these theories are so far out that you could only prove or disprove them on paper. The idea of advanced extraterrestrials may be easy to prove (although hard to disprove), which is why millions of dollars a year are being spent on SETI. Nobody calls UFO believers lunatics because they believe in UFO's, but when they make broad claims based on nonexistent evidence they are (rightly) called lacking in scientific rigour.

Re:Girls in the P[a]rallel Universe

[Dr. Photo]

Sorry, they're all busy washing their hair or getting eaten by hamburgers...

Don't scare me like that, damn it!

[ubernostrum]

I'm sitting here, finishing up my thesis which is due next week, happily talking about the argument from design and generally relying on the fact that the multiple-universes model is unverifiable and thus irrelevant to my argument. Then I take a break to glance at Slashdot and what do I see?

Re:Don't scare me like that, damn it!

[MalleusEBHC]

Then I take a break to glance at Slashdot and what do I see?

You see a Slashdot article about multiple universes existing, thus substantiating your academic claim that they are unverifiable.

Congrats, it's your lucky day! (Wednesday should repeat your lucky day if all goes as normal.)

Re:David Deutsch's theory

[LiamQ]

Is there a parallel universe in which you used multiple paragraphs so that people would read your comment completely?

Discworld

[spot35]

In infinite space, even the most unlikely events must take place somewhere.

So the discworld must exist then! Fantastic!

So you mean...

[IroygbivU]

There really is a universe where Homer is real, obscenely wealthy, AND it rains donuts!?!

Re:Scientific Omnirican

[ubernostrum]

Happily, Nature has slid to where Scientific American was, and is now readable by meer mortals.

I'm waiting for the day when it's readable by meerkats.

Pertinent Futurama Quote

[ari_j]

standing at edge of universe, waving at twins in the next universe over

Fry: So there are an infinite number of parallel universes?
Farnsworth: No, just the two.
Bender: Can we go? I'm sick of parallel universe Bender lording his sombrero over me.

Well if the multiverse is real...

[Little Brother]

Where is Sailor Moon? (And can I get her phone number?)

Re:Buddhism and science tie together reasonably we

[Joe the Lesser]

Please refer to those terms as 'freedomgebra' and 'freedomgorithm', as we must boycott the enemy's culture.

Thank you
~The House of Representatives.

Re:This doesn't make sense

[286]

The trouble is that the doubles visiting this universe all happen to be Saddam Hussein's....

Sliders

[boy_afraid]

Can't we take a lesson from television and build a cellphon slider control that creates some sort of wormhole. We can Slide to parallel dimensions.

Re:David Deutsch's theory

[naoursla]

In our universe a meteorite caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. A parallel universe exists in which the meteorite missed Earth, and possibly several others in which the meteorite struck another planet or was not formed at all. In a parallel universe Hitler did not invade Russia and consequently won the Second World War. In yet another, Elvis is still alive.

Weren't those all episodes of "Sliders"?

Re:Multiverse to Nadaverse to Omniverse

[JimFromJersey]

LDS !?!?

Isn't that what Spock did in the 60's?

Re:Multiverse to Nadaverse to Omniverse

[operagost]

+ 1 Virtual mod points for bringing up the DMCA in a theological discussion :-)

Re:Multiverse to Nadaverse to Omniverse

[fucksl4shd0t]

I think you've watched "The Devil's Advocate" one too many times... :)

Funny you should say that, I've never seen The Devil's Advocate. But if you're interested in overanalysis of a popular Christian country song, read on.... :)

In the song "The Devil Down in Georgia", Charlie Daniels depicts a story that goes something like this:

First, the devil shows up behind on soul-stealing for the quarter (or whatever). So he goes to Georgia and sees a kid playing a fiddle. He challenges the kid to a contest. If the kid wins, he gets a golden fiddle. If he loses, the devil gets his soul. Simple enough. Johnny's the kid's name, of course, and he says "It might be a sin, but I'll take your bet" etc. So, the devil plays, then johnny plays. Johnny, of course, wins, because no matter how powerful, dangerous, and evil the Devil is, he always loses. Upon winning, the Devil gives Johnny the fiddle, and Johnny says "Devil just come on back if you ever wanna try again, I done tol' you once you son of a bitch I'm the best that's ever been."

The Devil makes a deal with the boy. So he makes a promise. It's not gambling, it's a contest of skills, with the most skilled player winning. We hear the Devil play his solo, and it sounds pretty good. We never hear Johnny's solo (although in a live performance, they might play another solo for Johnny), instead we just hear the theme of the song replayed. True to his word, the Devil graciously bows, and hands over the fiddle. In a not-surprising display of poor sportsmanship, Johnny calls him a "son of a bitch" and using some other violently-charged words against the Devil. With humility, however, the Devil does his worst, loses, and leaves. While pride is one of the seven deadliest sins, we don't know if Johnny actually subscribes to them. But we do know that the Devil played fair and stayed true to his word, and was thoroughly mistreated by his opponent.

I like that song. :)