Slashdot Mirror
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 101.42 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.
What? 2 x 10^118 probablity of the protons matching up in a hubble space. The problem with this type of math in cosmology is no one knows where to set the baseline numbers. The fact that the COBE discovered 1/100,000 K difference in temperatures seperated across the survey accounts for theory of distribution accross our observable region only.
You might as well say that heaven exists X meters from here because of the probability that there is an equivalent 100 ly radius of space where I exist but my puppy dog is still alive and their is no war and I eat ice-cream everyday.
Man, I am going to have to sleep on this one...
If there are infinitely many universes and in each one I do something different and play out every possibility. Then one of the other me's will build a means to cross this space and enter mine. I could assume that I am in one of the universes where my double did not go. But why hasn't any other doubles been visiting us and telling us this? Is anyone else getting a headache?
Karma: Smeghead
The article asserts: In infinite space, even the most unlikely events must take place somewhere.
So there is a place where everyone on Slashdot is getting laid! Quick, let's fire up the old improbability drive and head out there and join them!
Seriously though, this is no major jump in thinking, and is rather flawed when you stick to the basics. Just because something may be infinite in size does not necessarily mean there are an infinite number of events taking place within that space. There is no such thing as a probability of exactly 1 or exactly 0. That's why we have probability theory in the first place.
mogorific carpentry experiments
How come theories such as parallel universes, multiple dimesions, strings, etc in Physics are considered acceptable yet when someone suggests the possibility of extraterrestrials visiting the earth they are considered lunatics? We are willing to handwave aways so many instances of groups of people observing UFOs as weather balloons, swamp gas, ball lightnings or mass hallucinations. To me those physics theories seem more bizzare and unlikely than the possibility that with a zillion starsystems that there be many other beings far more advanced than us.
Without falsifiability, what you're talking about not a scientific theory, it's metaphysical speculation. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but it ain't science.
Althoug I fully agree with you you are confussing hindu and vedic myths (Monkey God) and mixing it with Budhist stuff.
In countries like Thailand all these influences mixed and thus the Budhism practiced there is different to Budhism in other places with less hindu influence.
Reincarnation and Nirvana are of course all as faux as any religion dogmas.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Buck up there, RealMike. There might be a lot of people scoffing at your post, but I've found that a gaggle of engineers isn't always the best place to find people willing to ask deeper questions. "Proof proof proof, now now now, diagram diagram diagram" they mutter.
... but it isn't YOU. That goes deeper than brain.
Now, there is a LOT of BS "science" out there... a lot... and I certainly don't want to cast my lot with those faking liars. BUT: The original point that we don't know what happens in the brain, we don't really understand consciousness -- that is certainly isn't getting a fair shake around here. We ARE self-aware. At a different level than the other animals we know of in THIS universe. We do MATH. We observe QUANTUM LEVEL EFFECTS. (I'm guessing we are the first animal on this planet to do that.) We spend 6-8 hours a night DREAMING. We can get measurably better taking PLACEBOS. There are certainly a lot of things about mind/brain/consciousness that we don't know. I don't think spoon benders or psychic hotlines or the like have anything to them at all. But the fact is that YOU exist, you have a brain which shapes your moods, shapes your perception, shapes your store of information
(waits for the flames)
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.