by AnonYMous
Indra and the Ants
It is very complicated.
You don't need to understand it all, but try to understand that your notion of the multiverse being too big is a mental projection of your mind. The multiverse is infinite, therefore it cannot be too big. Freed from a conception of a limited universe, does it not seem even more beautiful that there is not just one world, but all possible worlds? In fact, since you now understand that mathematically, one infinity is just as good as many, you don't even have to believe in the multiverse at all. If you just believe that your single universe is infinite in size, or eternal in time, you still will get infinite parallel worlds, within your single universe.
How?
If you allow that either space or time is infinite, the universe is already much vaster than anything you have actually imagined. It is so vast a thing, that it will allow for infinite variation and infinite repetition.
Repetition?
Even if you exist only in your traditional single world, where things only happen one way, since it is of infinite size, there are actually copies of you, scattered throughout the universe. Though of course those copies would think of you as a copy. If the world is infinitely large, then there is an infinite amount of galaxies and an infinite amount of stars. There will be somewhere in the universe of galaxies, planets just like Earth. There will be people living on these planets, and on some of these planets there will be a person just like yourself. Again, if you think of your universe as an infinite patchwork quilt, with your observable universe as a patch; then somewhere there will be other patches in the quilt just like, or very similar to your own.
So out there in the universe there are billions of me's, but I can't see them.
Correct. Due to the very limited range that you can observe, the chance of a copy of you existing in your known universe is small. Yet in a universe that is infinite, you are everywhere.
This is hard for me to believe, but I guess I did not understand the result of a limitless universe. Perhaps the universe is not infinite after all?
As you come to terms with the concept of an infinite universe, you will have some very strange and challenging insights, but that is good, you just need to, as they say, "go with the flow." But I will indulge you. Let's imagine that the universe is not infinite, and it does stop somewhere. However, it is eternal, never ending in time. Again, in an eternal universe, even if finite in size, somewhere in time, copies of you exist.
Wouldn't a world that is limited in space also be limited in time? It could not be eternal.
There are many types of eternal universes. One well-known type of universe that your scientists believe is possible is the rebirthing, or cyclical universe. This type of universe is written about in Hindu texts thousands of years old. In a cyclical universe, we have a universe that starts with a big bang, expands and then at some point contracts back onto itself, and then starts all over again. Like an infinite series of Big Bangs. As it develops, due to quantum uncertainty, this universe will cycle through many copies and slight variations of itself. Within the scope of such a universe, you exist now just as you have an infinite amount of times before, and will again. There is a well-known Hindu story called 'Indra and the Ants' that illustrates this concept. In the story, the god Indra, the creator of the universe, builds a massive castle and brags about how powerful and great he is. He is king and creator of the universe after all. Vishnu, the all mighty God, in the guise of a boy tells Indra "Don't be so brazen, I have seen many Indras come and go, you are not that special, you are just one of many Indras." Vishnu looks down at a line of ants walking on the floor of Indra's castle and says, "All of these ants were Indras once." Indra is the master of one universe; Vishnu is the master of all universes. He is not bound by any local time, he is able to observe the Indras of all times, of all universes.
Monkeys
--Perhaps I was looking a bit overwhelmed, because he then said,
Let me try to explain this to you in a more basic way that you might be familiar with. Have you heard of the thought experiment called the infinite monkey theorem?
Yes, it states that because of the simple possibility of chance, if you make a bunch of monkeys type on a typewriter, sooner or later, some monkey will write 'Hamlet' or 'War and Peace', from just pure chance.
Yes that's right, now let's imagine a universe full of these monkeys writing on typewriters.
If we line up an infinite amount of monkeys and have them all start typing, somewhere in the universe of infinite monkeys there will be monkeys who type 'War and Peace' without making a single mistake. Similarly, if we have just one monkey, an immortal monkey, who types forever, eventually he will also type 'War and Peace' most likely after many mistakes. So no matter how unlikely, if the universe is large enough or old enough, you will get a monkey to type 'War and Peace'. In the multiverse, you would not need an army of monkey's or an immortal one. One very lucky monkey will type 'War and Peace', and will do it right on the first try. He will type it perfectly in some very unlikely universe variation within the multiverse. Even more amusingly, somewhere in the multiverse there will be versions of 'War and Peace' typed with a few random words added, which will be judged even better than the original!
That would be one smart monkey.
How excited the humans of that dimension would be to find such an amazing monkey. They would breed him in hopes of creating a new race of literary geniuses. And how sad it will be, when they realize that his children are complete idiots.
Very funny. So there are copies of me somewhere in the universe, it is just unlikely I would ever meet them?
Yes, in fact it would be very unlikely, even with billions and billions of galaxies out there, that you would ever meet anyone even remotely similar.
But theoretically, it is possible to see a version of me nearby, in this universe.
Correct.
Sounds like another interesting science fiction plot.
Yes. Imagine a time in the future. Humans on Earth send an astronaut to explore a nearby star system that looks very similar to your own. When the astronaut gets there, he sees a solar system just like Earth's, and within it, a planet just like Earth. When he lands, he is shocked to find that everything seems to him to be exactly like Earth, including the people. He is even greeted by people who look just like his wife and children. The planet is an exact duplicate. It evolved in exactly the same manner as your own planet.
There was some movie along those lines I think.
Perhaps, but I doubt it really gives duplicate worlds justice. If it is truly a duplicate world, our astronaut is in trouble. Because unfortunately for him, the inhabitants of that world also sent an astronaut at the very same moment, to explore your solar system. The people of that world will think that your astronaut is actually the astronaut that they themselves had recently sent out. Since your astronaut's spaceship and appearance are exact copies of the astronaut they sent out, they assume his spaceship had a guidance malfunction and brought him back home. When your astronaut insists that everyone is just a copy of the inhabitants of the real Earth, they think he has gone mad with space sickness. Your astronaut demands to be sent home, but The United States of America of their planet, refuses to fund another failed mission to distant stars, especially if it is flown by a lunatic. Thus your astronaut is forced stay on in his new home, with his new wife, and new kids, living out the rest of his life with what he calls, doppelgangers.
Quite a story.
Yes, highly improbable, but possible. This may be fantasy, but I hope you understand now that your bias against a multiverse of infinite possibility is a product of faulty logic and the limits of your imagination, not an actual physical or mathematical limit. Your imagination can grow to understand the consequences of infinity. Once it does, the idea that there is an infinite dimension of universes out there will not surpass you.
Now you are talking of feeling or imagining infinity, not just logically understanding it.
Y
es, logical understanding is good. It can inform how you feel or imagine a concept. You felt that the universe could not be so vast as to have billions of copies of yourself, yet now you understand that it can. Now you will start to expand your feeling of how vast the universe is, and that will, in time, change your concept of the universe itself.
I understand what you are saying, that the universe is vast and the possibilities endless. But what about that feeling of uniqueness; with so much stuff, copies, variations, dimensions, what does it mean for us, do we like our mathematical equivalents just get smaller and smaller, like that infinitesimal? Are we basically meaningless?
The fact that the universe is constantly growing more vast and more complex in your mind, can make you feel as though you are ever less and less significant within it. This feeling is actually more a matter of how you interpret what you perceive, or rather, how people of your paradigm tend to perceive things. I will give you a suggestion, though it is from an alien outside of your paradigm. It may seem a bit philosophical, but perhaps it could help you reconcile, and even seek out, the knowledge of a far greater and more interesting universe. Do you know what duality and non-duality are in a mystical or spiritual context?
Not really.
The concept of duality is that you are a separate thing from the things around you. That you are you, and that the universe is something else. You are not intricate parts of each other. It was not always this way, but modern humans tend to think of themselves as separate entities from their environment. You have your bodies, small and puny, and your world, massive and vast. Since you are separate, as the universe gets bigger, you in relation, get smaller. Non-duality is the opposite concept. You are an inseparable, integrated, part of the universe, or God. You are it and it is you, there is no actual separation between you and the universe, the separation is purely a perceptual one. Therefore, as the universe gets bigger and more interesting in your mind, as your concept of the vastness and beauty of the universe expands, you yourself expand.
This does sound like a bunch of mystical mumbo jumbo to me.
Well I didn't think you were going to take an alien's personal account to heart, so I will use a human example. Remember Sue, who gained stereoscopic vision? She writes that a mystical experience happened when she was walking through a snowstorm after she had first gained her ability to see the dimension of depth. What she saw was beyond her imagination. Instead of falling in a flat sheet in front of her the snow fell all around her, she felt she was within the snowstorm, not observing it from some other place. She writes, and this time I will quote her, because I also have a pretty good memory, "I was completely unprepared for my new appreciation of space and the deep feelings of joy and wonder, the enormous emotional high. I had no idea just how different and how magnificent the world would appear in all its glorious dimensions." Sue's perception of the universe expanded immensely, immeasurably, when she could perceive space from a new perspective. Her universe became vast, not just a simple flat plane, but a three dimensional all-encompassing world. Yet instead of making her feel smaller, she felt larger, she felt more complete. She felt enveloped in the universe, it was to her a mystical experience, and much more amazing than she could have ever imagined. So being able to experience a grander universe does not have to make you feel smaller, in fact it is usually the exact opposite. For thousands of years, in many cultures outside of your paradigm, this was the belief. The removal of that feeling of separation was the ultimate spiritual goal.
-- I think he saw that I wasn't really buying the argument, and so continued,
Look you don't have to think this way. Just understand that feeling less significant is an interpretation manifested by your mind. Having a closed mind due to fear of a sense of lost uniqueness can stop you from observing a more interesting and varied universe.
Tal
--There was a moment of silence now. My guest stood up, went to the kitchen and brought me my teakettle. He poured some tea into my now empty cup, put the teakettle on a coaster on the table and sat down. It was getting quite dark and I could now hear the rain outside tapping my window. The silence was beginning to be uncomfortable so I asked him a further question.
Ok, so I think I understand the science behind the multiverse. Any single universe is just one of many variations in the multiverse. And you are claiming you can observe these variations. But how can you possibly observe many worlds simultaneously?
--He opened his next bottle of juice, looked down at my chessboard and said,
Do you know the great chess grand master Mikhail Tal?
Of course. He was the eighth World Chess champion, won the title in 1960, at the age of 23, at that time the youngest champion ever. He was known as the Wizard of Riga, his birthplace, for his imaginative and aggressive attacking style. I personally prefer the more conservative controlled approach of Karpov. But Tal is a favorite of many chess players. His style was both ruthless and beautiful. He sacrificed his pieces in suicidal attacks that almost always lead to an awe-inspiring win. He was also known for his steely glare, which he used to great effect in intimidating the young Bobby Fischer.
A very animated description! As with many geniuses, Tal's life imitated his art. He drank, smoked and was constantly hospitalized for various health conditions. At fifty-five, he already looked like a ghost. I was there when he rose from his deathbed, walked over to a famous chess tournament in Moscow, and proceeded to beat the reigning World Champion Gary Kasparov, then in his prime. When the tournament ended, he went back to the hospital and died shortly after.
Yes, that story is legendary in chess circles.
Tal was famous, like Paul Morphy before him, for playing interesting simuls. You have heard of a simul?
Yes, it is a simultaneous exhibition. Many grandmasters will show off their skills by playing games versus many players simultaneously, often 30 or 40 players, but the record is over 600.
Correct, and how does the grandmaster play against all of these players, do his opponents all get together and decide on a move?
No, each opponent has his own chessboard and makes his own unique moves. The grandmaster will go from board to board in order, making one move at each board. Usually his opponents are arranged in a circle or square so that the GM will return to his starting point. He will then make the second move and go around the circle again. This can take some time. As he wins, players drop out, and by the end, there are usually just a few players left. Grandmasters perform simuls just about everywhere they go, this way many people get a chance to play them. They are so good at what they do, even though they are contemplating 30 or 40 different games, they still win a vast majority of the time. It's funny that you mentioned Kasparov earlier, because I played him in a simul. I was holding my own at first because I had memorized a lot of opening theory. But once we got into the middle game and I was one of the few survivors, he focused on my game for a few moments. I felt his intensity and lost my nerve. I made a blunder and ended up losing badly.
Don't feel bad, when facing Kasparov, most people lose their nerve. Just as Fischer did when facing Tal. I spent quite a bit of time in the U.S.S.R during the cold war, when the art of chess was being elevated to its highest levels. Once, I observed an interesting simul featuring Tal. In this simul, a number of players, mostly youths, were seated on one side of a very long table in a massive auditorium, with chess boards in front of them. They were playing chess versus an opponent, but he was not there. Tal was thirty-three then, and recovering from major surgery, always a risky proposition in those days. He was sitting in a chair in a small room separated from the auditorium. He was wearing a short sleeve white shirt and black tie, smoking a cigarette. The room otherwise was empty aside from a single microphone. He had no chessboards in this room. Occasionally he leaned forward and spoke chess moves into the microphone.
Ah, Tal is playing blindfolded chess. Many great chess players do not even need to see the board or the pieces. They can play without ever looking at
it, in their mind.
That is right, Tal does not physically see any of the boards. He is not even in the main playing hall. Each move by his opponents is relayed to him through a speaker in his room, and he in return speaks his desired move back through a microphone. After he calls out a move, an arbiter in the playing hall moves Tal's chess pieces on the boards of his opponents. Tal is not only playing multiple games against multiple opponents, but also playing those games completely in his mind. At no time has he ever physically seen the boards, nor has he ever physically touched the pieces. In his mind, he is keeping track of all the games, in each game considering many possible moves, positions and consequences. Though they all start the same, each game will evolve in different ways. Each board is going to have completely different positions for all of the pieces, with its own googols of possibilities. Yet he has no problem keeping it all in order. At one point he even stops one of his youthful opponents who makes a blunder, and tells him to change his move. If the youth stays with his errant choice, Tal will win. With some embarrassment, the youth changes his move, and the game continues. So you see, you are like those young aspiring members of the Russian chess machine, each one extremely focused on controlling their own single chessboard. And I, am Tal. You are one consciousness that observes one world, your own personal chessboard. I am one consciousness that observes many worlds.