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Old 05-28-2003, 10:53 AM   #21
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How exactly does the multiple world hypothesis deal with the question of an infinite number of universes?

Because it's infinite, does it mean that all things MUST happen at some point in space/time, so that DD's universe of Donald Duck sailors MUST exist at some point; or does it say that all things CAN happen at some point, so that although there is an infinite number of possibilities, there are actually only a finite number of universes?

Are these universes independent of each other and emerge as some kind of decay within a reverse vaccuum fluctuation (I think that's the right term), or do quantum fluctuations within universes spawn other universes, along the lines that if you decide to turn left or right at an intersection, a separate reality is created for each?
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Old 05-28-2003, 04:19 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally posted by Tom Sawyer
How exactly does the multiple world hypothesis deal with the question of an infinite number of universes?

Because it's infinite, does it mean that all things MUST happen at some point in space/time, so that DD's universe of Donald Duck sailors MUST exist at some point; or does it say that all things CAN happen at some point, so that although there is an infinite number of possibilities, there are actually only a finite number of universes?

Are these universes independent of each other and emerge as some kind of decay within a reverse vaccuum fluctuation (I think that's the right term), or do quantum fluctuations within universes spawn other universes, along the lines that if you decide to turn left or right at an intersection, a separate reality is created for each?
A cosmologist might be needed at this point, but this is my layperson's understanding of the article's points -

You don't have to worry about the 'Donald Duck sailors' - only that which is POSSIBLE must exist. (But then what is or is not possible is another entirely different argument.)

The universes would be independent of each other, i.e, exist in different dimensions, including the Level three quantum fluxuation universes.

If not, i.e., if one universe can intrude on another - and this happens every trillion years on average - then we are probably alright and can sleep easy. If it happens on average every 12 billion years, then the Stock Market, not to mention everything else in our universe, might go KABLOOEY in the next microsecond.

Nervous, Tom?
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