h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i find that very interesting. iv always believed that in this universe we live in, if sum1 died of say a heart n wasnt saved, in another they wud be. likewise in a parallel universe i could hav died of sumthing years ago n say my grandad is still alive. iv tired to explain that to ppl b4 but they just dont understand wot im trying to say. ur belief is the nearest 2 it!

who here thinks that maybe our universe is only a few seconds old, and as you are reading this you brach off into a new universe, people havnt said anything about the original universe yet

Could you explain what you mean by 'the original universe'?

I call them 'possible worlds' not universes.

i would call the original universe the universe that was there first, then the rest brached off from that.

So what was there besides the mice before the original universe?

thats still a question hovering around with our normal theory of the beggining of the universe (big bang theory) what was there before, so its basicaly the same thing

How do we create parallel universes by not doing something?
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How do we create parallel universes by nothing?


There is a theory about "The Big Void", as some say you could think of as being the nothing just before the Big Bang. The absolute absence of anything creates the opportunity for a particle and its accompanying antiparticle to emerge. This just needs the energy that filling the void would gain by them. As they wander in opposite directions, they would remain.

My problem in the understanding of this is, for particles to be anti they need a spin in opposite direction which is time. As time is a property for the total amount of matter in existance it still feels paradoxal.

well if it makes time go backwards, then maybe they were from the future, the very end of time, and hurled back to before time, to create time

Nephew Who walks away and rises from his chair

"Ok lets loop the universe into the beginning, one of the options MetaPhysisists keep open.
-It had to do with enough mass: collapse end restart again cycle.
-Just enough: grow into a static size.
-Too little: ever expanding.
Science is still uncertain wich one it is ( will be/ has been)..
Whoo I miss the tables this would fit great. Can you formulate this into a rule for our new universe ( A1079822 )?" He puts out his cigarette and blows the smoke into the air (away from you, that is).

Nephew Who enters this conversation forum waving his hand.

"You asked the other day something about Google, I had to track it down see ( A1068914 ) and / or ( A1068996 ). By the way do you really get a post for every server activity?" Traveller in Time nips from his coffee.

i told you a while ago that maybe our universe was only created a second ago, but maybe we havnt been created yet? is that possible? i thought this last night but didnt want to stay awake thinking about it, so what do you think?

<> lurking his pipe
"Good Question! Do you really want to know the answer? Well here it is: 42."

Nephew Who comes in carrying a bird cage.
"But was that not the start of this quest, you asked about universes as product of our decisions. You are the center, so what is the question anyway." He opens the cage and a little bird comes out.

Traveller in Time holds out his hand and the bird lands on it.
"Personally I beleive in maximum probability as in ever expanding diverting at any decision. Something like 'your' dream world anything is to be possible you just have to understand the rules of nature. Had a thought about new rules jet?"
The bird picking on his moustache.
"And to finally come to something of an answer. This universe exists, at least it did a few milliseconds ago, at least we think so, at least here on h2g2. Do you exist Nephew Who?" He places the bird on his head, as some sort of sign post.

"Well I did a lot of work last Quiks, and most of it is still there, unchanged as far as I know. I think Who does exist."
"I am not so sure about that." <> mumbling "Anything you remember has the same chance of being an illusion of the mind, to fill a possible gap."

Traveller in Time talking to "how about you, do you exist?"

Here's my theory.

There is no such thing as Parallel universes. There might well be other universes out there with very similar things happening but they are in no way linked with ours.

There is no evidence to support any such theory. I can get my head round all the theory's but they just seem like science fiction.

Life exists and luckily we are in a position to be able to question its existence. However, I spent years doing this and I've come to the conclusion that 42 is a good an answer as any and were much better off just getting on with things and not worrying about it.

I feel I have an infinite number of things to say on the subject of parallel universes. You seem to be interested in how they actually form. As far as I'm aware, they spawn from our universe as a 'bubble' universe, as they call them. Does this help?

I also have a very interesting thought about the way that absolutely every possibility must be played out in some universe somewhere. If this is true, then in a parallel universe there must be different laws of physics. Therefore, in some parallel universe somewhere, there must exist the playing out of the events that somebody in this universe has written down as 'fiction'. Think about it.

This would mean that the events that Douglas Adams describes in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would actually be happening in another universe. Also (and I'm sorry to pick this particular example) the Harry Potter events would be occurring in another universe where the physics is right for it to happen. Dr. Who, Star Trek, The Invisible Man, everything... (even Coronation Street, I suppose).

As a response to what 'The one who enjoys the word Pony (and of course llama) and wearing one sock' said about the infinite universe, I think I should point out that the universes are 'parallel' in a higher dimension. Although we can't see it, the universe has four dimensions, and most of the parallel universes have 4 dimensions too, so therefore they are parallel in the fifth dimension (don't try to visualise this unless you use lower dimensional analogies).

Furthermore, the universe may be finite but have no boundaries. This is because it could be curved around in the fourth dimension (which is actually part of Einstein's theory of relativity). Therefore, when you travel as far as possible in one direction, you end up back where you started without realising it, even without changing course!

Here's yet another thought. The word 'universe' is suppose to mean 'all that exists', so it is contradictory to use it in the plural, as in 'parallel universes'. Physicists use the word universe with a capital U to describe the entire ensemble (Universe), or sometimes they call it the 'multiverse'. DNA called it the 'Whole Sort of General Mish-Mash' once in his books, and even the physicist Timothy Ferris once called it 'The Whole Shebang'. But anyway, who cares what it's called?

Perhaps I'll put more of my thoughts in a part two.

Nephew Who comming in tapping on his console
"Professor, perhaps you could create the entry on your local-market home town. It does not have to be good enough for the editors ( jet ). But it will create the first entry to a parallel universe you encounter."

<> cleaning his empty pipe
"That will not be needed being here whithout your body present is not only virtual existance. Your thoughts remain here for others even if you are gone. That is what this universe is made of anyway, information flowing like energy, data residing on servers and in caches like matter. We even encountered ruptures to the void of nothing ( A1052001 ) as moderation comes by. That is if you are prepared to beleive nothing."

Susan Winkle aka Nephew Who holding an electronic Guide in her hands
"Hmm, SmokeTooMuch as in the Monty Python sketch sounds like that blue parrot on the corner ( A1096940 ). He also can not keep his beak shut for one moment ( IE-only ). Perhaps you can make some coffee to divert non IE users to a parallel universe where the parrot is less marquee."

Traveller in Time (changing colour over time) on his head
"Admitted it is just a matter of perspective. We have lots of perspectives all just in another angle and all totally amazed by this universe."

SnackSeller carrying a low box on a his belly, hanging on a belt round his neck
"Albatross for Sale! Albatross for Sale! AAalbatross for Saale! ( A552908 )"

Thank you for putting in that bit about higher dimensions. If higher dimensions were not possible, nothing would come of this conversation. The best way to visualize infinite parallel universes is to think of two-dimensional creatures. Everytime they make a decision, their world splits off into that number of universes. Since they are two-dimensional, the only way they could be parallel is by stacking them in three space. That's how they are formed. In my opinion, higher dimensions are much more interesting to talk about than parallel universes. There are no means to determine whether they exist or not, because there is a fundemental principle that prevents us from doing that. Namely, we cannot transport ourselves into higher dimensions and see whether there are different worlds. We simply cannot comprehend it. However, higher dimensions are something we could possibly detect and locate, sort of the difference between building a neutron bomb from scratch or laying down the framework for nuclear physics first. I read a book called, "Hyperspace" which an excellent read for anyone interested in higher dimensions and things like string theory (a personal fave). Enjoy!

Neutrino

With higher dimensions, think of a creature which lives on i line and that is it, all he can see and interpretate is forward and back, he doesnt know left, right, up or down, so for his parallel universe they could be next to his world or above and he wouldnt know.

Now take a creature who lives in a 2D world that is like a square piece of paper, he know about, forward, back, left and right but not up and down, so his parallel universes are above and below him.

Now take us, we live in a 3D world and we know about forward, back, right, left, up and down, so our parallel universes are in another place we dont know about and cant see.


Each of the three examples above live so close to their parallel universes but cant see them. Try and explain to any of them the higher dimension. Try to explain to a creature thats lives on a line what right and left are, you couldn't, try explaining up and down to a creature that lives on a 2D world that square, you couldn't. Now try and explain to us another dimention.

We are not capabable of viewing this other dimention, though we have some idea of what it is, most people cant.


So parallel universes exist in a higher dimention but we cant see them.

Iffy. Here is a story set in a 2D world, your 'piece of paper': http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~banchoff/Flatland/

It's a classic.

who's the auther? i can't be bothered reading that much off a computer screen.

I've heard of that story, I don't remember the author, but it was written sometime at the beginning of the 20th or the end of the 19th century. It actually is mentioned in Hyperspace, so you could look him up there.

The author is Edwin Abbott Abbott, as it says at the top of the page.