"Let's Discuss Universal Theory!" or "So How About That There Bioshock, Fellas!"

[Seil]

So... as someone who is naturally solipsistic, borderline an optimistic nihilistic, I have to say that I don't subscribe to the many-worlds theory. Which I've heard about but have seen no definitive works on the subject. Which I'm assuming (from what I've heard) is that when a choice is made, separate universes are created in order to act out every outcome based on the decision.

So essentially, in one universe, you're at a barbeque and pick a hamburger, but there's a new universe where you picked a hotdog, and a different universe where you ordered a pizza and still a different universe where you decided not to go to the barbeque at all.

And that's for anything anyone does anytime ever, apparently. They talk about it on the Big Bang Theory, it had it's own show, some Jumper Quantum thing, and there's been passing mention on CBC. Now, Bioshock Infinite. So... as someone who doesn't understand Quantum Physical Entaglement Physics, are there other universal theories like this? Does this have any evidence, or basis, or fever dreams to support it?

[mauve]

I personally like to think that somewhere out there in the multiverse there is a Mauve who turned evil and fights superheroes for a living, a Mauve who married Hugh Jackman, and a Mauve who gained superpowers and chases Evil Mauve through parallel Earths to put an end to her villainy once and for all.


But no, I don't believe in multiple parallel worlds. The theory makes for good scifi and fantasy stories, though.

[Amake]

For practical purposes no parallel worlds exist, just like a thousand years ago nothing existed west of Ireland. Since we can't see them or knowingly interact with them, and they can't affect us either, we don't need to account for many-worlds. They don't benefit us in any way; it doesn't even benefit us to speculate if they exist or not. Not in any way we understand.

But to someone who's been forced to speculate about unknowable depths all around me in order to recognize that other people are more than you appear on the surface, this is a dangerous line of thinking. I think we have to consider, at all times, the possibility that there are things happening that we can't see even though we need to, the possibility that there are things we don't know we're supposed to figure out; the possibility of everything.

Autistic people are said to live in an invisible glass bubble that prevents them touching the same world as neurotypicals live in. But it would be very arrogant to think that even the most perceptive, most adjusted, most enlightened human possible is not living in a bubble of their own, limited to the extent of what is imaginable within her frame of reference, what her people can allow, what her senses can suspect, what her logic can infer.

There's nothing to gain by declaring things impossible, in my experience. And you don't know what you may lose.

[TheSpacePope]

The whole multiverse theory is based upon a remainder in equations that cannot account for personal choices. Ostensibly, you have a yes/no choice on all given outcomes of situations. Do you wake up? Do you eat? etc. Given outcomes of these choices modify your momentum on the fourth dimensional track that we are on. It is thought that "universes" bifurcate off of the "known" or "conscious" universe. If this was in fact happening for everything, than there would be billions of universes, however it is also thought that these universes are immediately discarded/destroyed. This is based in part on the fourth dimensional track that we follow as a planet/solar system/galactic cluster. This ties neatly into the law of conservation of energy. I think that the multidimensional nature of the universe is described best as an amalgam of your stimuli, so on the surface, we all perceive different universes with certain touchstones that we can share. (like the sun, and planets, and other heavenly bodies) So in effect, multidimensional thinking is a great way to say that you never know how you look through other people's eyes.
Hopefully my extra-dimensional self that knows this answer will edit this post for me.

Edit: (not really)

Just don't panic and always know where your towel is.

[RobinStarwing]

Also, if we are talking Type 2 Universes...it helps to account for some of the Dark Matter as in some interpretations of M-theory/String Theory; Gravitons are not bound to just one Universe.

Though if we are talking Type 3 universes...well they help to alleviate Time Travel paradoxes.

EDIT: As well as other quirks of Quantum Mechanics except the EPR Paradox.

[PyrosNine]

There are multiple universes, we just live in the one that endures under the scrutiny of perception.