I've been thinking about Many Worlds lately.
Many Worlds is capitalised because it's a theory, first formalised by the late physicist Hugh Everett III, often thought of as one of the lost genii of the 20th Century. His theory gained little credence when he first proposed it, at least partly as the mathematics needed to describe it didn't exist. Since then, the mathematics needed to test and examine the theory have been developed, and his star has risen steadily as more and more physicists believe he is on to something. He was also the father of the brilliant Mark Everett, lead singer of the Eels who made a fascinating and moving documentary about their relationship and the underpinnings of the Many Worlds theory (see link at bottom of blog).
VERY briefly it says that due to the probabilistic nature of particle behaviour at the quantum level, every possible state of of every possible outcome, is. Every path a particle could have made, every path you could have taken and didn't, was made, in other parallel/branched/nested universes. This actually explains, very neatly, many of the otherwise mysterious observed behaviours of quantum level events. I've even seen a demonstration of the effect, the famous Double Slit photon Experiment, with my own eyes.
It has been suggested that this 'path branching' occurs only with the interaction of a concious mind (generated by our brains, which it turns out do operate at a quantum level) implying that our choices are more than just value based decisions; they are quantum knives, splitting maybes into worlds. And it could also be that we 'slip' between these worlds, these parallel branches more often than we realise, at least the ones that are closest to the sum over N value of our probable, potential states.
In my head anyway...
It certainly makes sense to me.
That may be because of my slightly were-mind, which obviously makes me feel not quite like everyone else, or the fact that compared to most people I seem to have had a succession of very different lives, so I am more likely to be seduced by the idea of alternate paths. I can point, as we all can, to times were a seemingly inconsequential decision was made which subsequently utterly transformed my life. Not getting a lift on a bike that crashed, hitching down to Cornwall for a couple of weeks, staying for another pint in the Swordid beer garden two summers ago.
Looking back, it's easy to see these nexuses, and to wonder what would have happened if... Well it seems one of you, somewhere, knows.
My acceptance may also be because I have actually experienced the shifts. Possibly. I have met a man I 'knew' had died, and have seen some odd things that don't seem to bother anyone else. Or is just that I was looking harder? I can remember coming ashore once when I was fishing, looking at the money I was being paid with and thinking when did fiver's get that small, and who the hell is that on the back?
Fishing is the kind of occupation that disassociates you from normal life though, so it may just have been the feeling of transience and Otherness that comes with the danger of the job and the way you are treated ashore. Or the Guinness I'd been drinking.
Or, it maybe that my life at the moment is so hilariously, relentlessly rubbish (barring the occasional day, and person and son - you know who you are) that I would believe anything, rather than that This Is All There Is.
There's two* possible ways of looking at all this I guess from a philosophical point of view, negatively and positively. It could release you from moderate behaviour and give you the ethical license to do anything you want, knowing that you are only one of an infinite series of Wolfs and therefore your wicked actions are statistically insignificant. For everyone you hurt, there are more that you didn't. Out There. Or you could be dead. Or everyone you have ever known could be. All of which are equally depressing conclusions.
Or, you could take the view that if you try to do the right thing for those that you love in this world, then that striving, that will to good, could be propagated through the worlds, increasing the amount of happy endings for you and your pack throughout the multiverse. The likelihood is, if you have loved someone in this world branch, you will love them in all the myriad branches since then. And who knows, in some of them they may love you too.
Somewhere out there, not many worlds away, there are countless Marroks, each shaving a little more than the previous Marrok and worrying a little more about when the next full moon is coming along.
Somewhere out there, there are a billion worlds, where all those I love are within reach and happy, where I am not alone. And that for me is a solace of sorts, for now.
In this world.
*actually there are shed loads if you think about it, but two will do for me thanks.
http://www.pbs.org/remotelyconnected/2008/10/parallel_lives_parallel_univer.html
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