February 27, 2008

The Multiverse

Regardless of what the masses believe regarding the soon to be mentioned subject (preview: the multiverse theory), I believe I have come to the ultimate justification for any expenditure in proving and utilizing, if proven true, the following theory: the multiverse. Yes, the multiverse. WTF is a multiverse you ask? A brief history (as far as I understand where they [i.e. present day scientists] get their ideas), complete with diagrams.

The multiverse theory seems to me to come from two different ideas and or observations and I think either one is just dandy. Today, there is a debate about whether light is a particle or a wave, or some fancy combination of both. By particle, I mean individual "photons" of light and when I say wave, I mean the electromagnetic wave that propagates all around us allowing us to see. So, which is it? Well if you use what is called the "Double-Slit Experiment," you can demonstrate that light acts like a wave. By shining a laser at a double slit, you set up an interference pattern on a screen beyond the slit like so:
This is produced by overlapping waves. Now, the interesting thing is if you reduce the intensity of the light until only one photon of light is coming at a time through this double slit, then you get something quite interesting and remarkable. This:
Astonishing! I believe the popular opinion among the more extreme thinking branches is that the only way these single, tiny balls of light still make this pattern, even though there is nothing else in the way to hit it or knock it off course, is that in another parallel universe, somebody is running the same experiment, and those photons are interacting with out photons. There's more to say, but this is a blog and nobody cares.

The second idea is much simpler and I don't think there are any proofs yet for this. It is merely that every choice that anybody in any time has ever had to make has spawned a parallel universe; one where you did the alternative to whatever choice you eventually made. One where you went with brown socks and then destroyed the world and one where you stuck with white socks and had a good day at school. Get the drift? Good. It makes for fascinating discussions about science, psychology, morality, and Western civilization. For your viewing pleasure, I have drawn the first four dimensions and then what the multiverse would be like. Think of the sphere as one time unit. (The fourth dimension having popularly been accepted as time.)Theoretically, since there are an infinite number of these universes, there is one where everybody has blue hair naturally, or where the sky is a deep and majestic shade of purple-green, or where most everybody is a comfortable baked clam. Yes, I know. "What a stupid theory," you must be saying. Well, I would postulate that those universes would be infinitely "far away" from us and we don't need to worry about it. If you were to think of all these universes as little beads strung along a wire, then the one where everybody is a baked clam is probably ten to the ten trillion universes away from us. It doesn't matter. I'm concerned with the universes maybe fifty or more away on either side of use. Now we come to the reason for my sharing and the justification.

Somewhere, and most likely not to far away down that imaginary line of universes, is a planet Earth where the sci-fi TV show Firefly did not get canceled. It got signed for five or six or even more seasons and went on to great things. I am going to go to this universe someday and bring back the DVD sets of these seasons, so that this world doesn't have to suffer the stupidity of certain network executives and their shortsightedness by canceling the show before it even had a chance.

(Yes, you read all that sci-babble for that. Sorry)

p.s. Even more astonishing, though I didn't include any numbers in my picture, is that these parallel universes don't necessarily have to be at the same time in...well time. You could go to a universe that is our exact universe except at an earlier or later time frame. How cool would that be?

February 9, 2008

Segue

Walking down a hill through trees,
Every which way known to me.
I see a path I've not yet tread
And wonder why I've always said
"Every which way's known to me?"

Veering neither left nor right,
It stretches fore and out of sight
'Tween rock and stone and hill-gripped bush.
Advancing forth, I reach and push
Aside a branch that blocks the path
That's not unlike a basket's lath.
And seeing now the way is clear
I gaze and feel and sense and hear
Something strange and almost queer.

Stepping o'er threshold wide,
And glancing not from side to side,
Forth I walk my new found road
That's brightly lit by sun in nodes
And forms the sine from side to side.

Glancing back, I'm stunned to see
Everything the way it should be
For here the world has changed
On my road, ever so strange.
The air is lighter, grass sweeter,
And animals like lotus eaters.
What path do I trod with leg,
Started with so smooth a segue?