Parallel Universes
According to a team of researchers at Oxford, led by Dr. David Deutsch, parallel universes are a mathematical possibility. Their findings show that the universe is actually a multiverse made up of expanding parallel universes. The existence of parallel universes leads to many questions like, what if we could travel to parallel universes and observe the differences? Have people from other parallel universes already visited us? Can we exploit parallel universes for our benefit?
One theory in quantum mechanics holds that particles on the subatomic scale do not settle into a state until they are observed or measured. Before the observation or measurement occurs, all possibilities of the outcome exist simultaneously. An analogy would be a perspective student receiving a letter from a university he applied to. Before the envelope is opened, and the letter is read by the student, there may exist three possibilities; one in which the student will be attending the university in the fall, another where he is working at Burger World, and another where he decides to backpack across Europe for a year. If he is accepted to the university and decides to attend, then the burger flipping and backpacking universes end.
The theory that Dr. Deutsch and his team proved mathematically is that when an event happens, the universe branches off into parallel versions of itself. His work is based on a theory put forward fifty years ago by a graduate student at Princeton named Hugh Everett. According to the branching theory, our perspective student reads the acceptance letter and the universe splits into many parallel universes, one in which the student decides to attend the university in the fall, another where he takes a year off and goes on his European adventure, and maybe another where he joins a hippy commune. These parallel universes continue on and keep expanding into more parallel universes as more events happen in his life.
Dr. Deutsch’s work raises many possibilities and, if we are able to someday find a way to reach these parallel worlds, we can better understand the consequences of world events. But would we really be able to learn from them, or would our presence in a parallel universe influence the outcome of events we are trying to observe? Science fiction fans are familiar with time travel in which the hero of a story travels back in time to observe, and possibly correct, something that went wrong in the past. During time travel, our hero may do something that seems innocent but sets off a catastrophic chain of events, like a butterfly flapping its wings in California causing a tornado in Kansas.
So what if, in the course of traveling in time, we could also travel to a parallel universe and stand over Lee Harvey Oswald’s shoulder as he pulled the trigger on that fateful day in November 1963? A time traveler from a parallel universe could push him right as he was taking his shot, causing him to miss, and then find out if a second gunman on the grassy knoll really was the one who made the kill shot. What if Oswald was the lone gunman and our traveler allowed Kennedy to get away that day? The world would be very different, at least in that version of the universe.
How do we know that there doesn’t already exist a secretive group of people who travel through space, time, and parallel universes gently influencing the course of human events? What if our version of reality is actually an experiment by this group to see how incredibly absurd humans can become? Extraterrestrial beings could actually be parallel travelers in disguise. The possible reason why the UFO crash that happened in Roswell, New Mexico many years ago has been kept so secret is that the beings, and their vehicle, are actually from a parallel version of earth where human evolution and technology took a different course. There are theories that the ancient Egyptians had help from extra terrestrials building the pyramids. Could the helpers actually have been a more advanced version of Egyptians from a parallel universe? Finding a portal to parallel universes could answer these mysteries.
There exists a physical law that states that no two objects can exist in the same place at the same time. Research into parallel universes could render that law completely false because if we would be able to have parallel universes within the same space, then we would be able to solve many problems in society like overpopulation. Imagine if we find a parallel version of Earth where the population of humans is significantly smaller. We could send people from our universe to colonize that universe and start large farms to feed our version of the universe. We could also set up a parallel version of Chicago and be able to have several apartment buildings on the same piece of real estate. One could theoretically reside in one universe and commute to work in another.
The proof of parallel universes by Oxford researchers opens up many possibilities. If we are able to expand upon their work, and someday find a way to other parallel universes and observe them, we can possibly find ways to improve ourselves and creatively solve many problems.