Word: parallelling
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...particle in the cosmos produces a multitude of new universes in each instant--and in the next instant, every one of these new universes fragments again. Yet plenty of physicists consider this to be a perfectly valid idea. And if it's correct, the number of universes evolving in parallel is far greater than we could ever count...
...purely theoretical, though, since there's no conceivable way to make contact with even one of these alternate universes. So while each of us may spawn an uncountable number of parallel selves as the particles within us split and re-split, the chance of tapping into our other histories is precisely zero--and so, alas, is the chance of figuring out whether this interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct...
...universe could thus be the result of an inflationary bubble that formed in a pre-existing universe--an arena better described as a metauniverse, or metaverse. Other, parallel bubbles could have formed just as easily. (If two expanding bubbles somehow met, the result would be a wall of fiery energy spanning one side of the cosmos. No evidence of that to date...
...detection would be a powerful boost to alternate-universe theories. "Confirming inflation," says Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt, "would give us a lot more confidence about some of its implications." And that includes ideas that have lived until now only in the parallel universe of fantasy...
...Oxford physicist David Deutsch might allow such history-changing visits. In this picture, there are many interlacing world histories, so that if you went back in time and killed your grandmother when she was a young girl, this would simply cause space-time to branch off into a new parallel universe that doesn't interfere with the familiar...