Beck Possible World?

Somewhere in the multiverse, Glenn Beck was just elected President.

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(STARpod.org) -- Modern cosmology, according to Max Tegmark at MIT, provides evidence we live in a multiverse of universes where possible lives are played out for real in many alternative worlds.

If Tegmark is correct, controversial Fox News host Glenn Beck was just elected President of the United States of America.

I will leave it to the reader to ponder the implications of the above case example, which illustrates a core problem created by the existence of the human mind in a quantum universe.

It's a strange theory that commands the attention of serious physicists around the globe: there is ever growing evidence that we live inside a mutliverse of many parallel worlds.

Stranger still, our own universe appears to be infinite in extent and inflating into bubbles where every possible arrangement of events is explored.

If this idea is correct, somewhere, out there, Glenn Beck is the President of the United States.

I call it the Beck Possible World -- an alternative to German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz's Best Possible World.

Leibniz believed, from religious and philosophical arguments, that the one world we observe is by necessity the best of all possible worlds.

In the Beck Possible World, an alternative reality that falls out of the theory of parallel worlds, Glenn Beck is the President.

All the above occurred to me as I read in the New York Times that "Glenn Beck ... wants to go beyond broadcasting his opinions and start rallying his political base -- formerly known as his audience -- to take action."

The idea that Glenn Beck was just elected President may appear mind-numbing on many levels, however, to quote Oxford quantum physicist David Deutsch:

"The quantum theory of parallel universes is not the problem, it is the solution. It is not some troublesome, optional interpretation emerging from arcane theoretical considerations. It is the explanation—the only one that is tenable—of a remarkable and counter-intuitive reality."

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

MIT cosmologist "Mad" Max Tegmark, named as one of the "ten people who could change the world" by Forbes, concurs with Deutsch on the reality of parallel worlds:

"If these parallel universes exist, why don’t we perceive them? ... Because you are made of atoms, then if atoms can be in two places at once in super position, so can you."

"The key point is that parallel universes are not a theory in themselves, but a prediction of certain theories."

The implication which comes from taking the most fundamental theory in all of science -- quantum mechanics, at its face value -- is that the world is constantly splitting into alternative versions, ultimately exploring all possible outcomes.

If you think this is all muddled metaphysics, consider David Deutsch's point of view as expressed by Tegmark:

"There is also a global effort to build quantum computers which, if successful, will ... effectively [be] performing parallel computations in Everett's parallel worlds."

It was Hugh Everett III, who, in the 1950s, first realized that the quantum theory, taken at face value, described "many worlds" of parallel outcomes.

In a letter Everett wrote to physicist Bryce DeWitt on May 31, 1957 (published at the excellent PBS NOVA website), Everett explains the rationale behind his counterintuitive idea:

"As any fool can plainly see the earth doesn't really move because we don't experience any motion. However, a theory which involves the motion of the earth is not difficult to swallow if it is a complete enough theory that one can also deduce that no motion will be felt by the earth's inhabitants ... Thus, in order to decide whether or not a theory contradicts our experience, it is necessary to see what the theory itself predicts our experience will be ... I can't resist asking: Do you feel the motion of the earth?"

Everett wryly made his point: the fact that we do not experience the other worlds is not a valid argument against their existence.

It was David Deutsch's "thought-experiment" to test for the reality of the alternative outcomes, which led to the movement behind quantum computing machines which rely on matter in other universes.

In an email debate published by Hotwired, Deutsch responded to Seth Lloyd of MIT:

"When a quantum computer solves a problem by dividing it into more sub-problems than there are atoms in the universe, and then solving each sub-problem, it will prove to us that those sub-problems were solved somewhere -- but not in our universe, for there isn't enough room here. What more do you need to persuade you that other universes exist?"

According to Tegmark, "We should expect quantum mechanics to feel counterintuitive, because evolution endowed us with intuition only for those aspects of physics that had survival value for our distant ancestors, such as the trajectories of flying rocks."

If this is correct, the trajectories of all that makes up the human mind are counter intuitively branching and exploring every possible experience and condition.

Tegmark also points to what he calls the Level One parallel worlds, which exist far away from us in the same universe.

"If space is infinite and the distribution of matter is sufficiently uniform on large scales, then even the most unlikely events must take place somewhere. In particular, there are infinitely many other inhabited planets, including not just one but infinitely many with people with the same appearance, name and memories as you. Indeed, there are infinitely many other regions the size of our observable universe, where every possible cosmic history is played out."

As David Deutsch explains, "The proper criterion for whether something exists is not whether it can still affect us, but whether it figures in our best explanation of what affects us."

And that includes the Beck Possible World.

This is the first in a series of articles about the implications of the quantum theory of alternative worlds.

For more information about the many worlds of parallel realities, please visit STARpod.org.

Copyright (c) 2009 by Gary S Bekkum / STARstream Research / STARpod.org -- All rights reserved.

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