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[GXRO6883]

How did you find PF?

google

I was pondering the notion of fiction in the multiverse and remembered my fluids dynamics lecturer many years ago telling us all something about quantum mechanics and how the air molecules in the room could all spontaneously move to one side and we would all suffocate. Slightly disturbing and weirdly the idea stuck.

My pop science understanding of physics together with a wildly incomplete knowledge of the complex interaction and behaviours of the subatomic world leads no doubt to me unscientifically filling in the gaps with unsubstantiated and probably incorrect assumptions. So please don't punish me for that, I don't have the time or probably the brain cells left to learn the required maths to understand this topic well enough to not be needing to make some guesses.

My working assumption is that its possible for any particle to disappear and reappear somewhere else apparently instantaneously, although I seem to remember reading something about the shortest time period and therefore I developed an internal mental image of the universe such that every particle moves at the same time and instantly to a new point and remains in that location for the minimum time (blink rate) before moving again. The new position being a function of all the external forces being applied from literally every other particle in the universe. This could be utter nonsense and actually doesn't matter for my dumb thought experiment.
Also that's a big excel table and a bucket load of processing - I'm sure the size of this or a better version has been calculated to either prove or disprove god, I forget.

Anyway I have waffled on enough, my answer to the question of whether or not there is any such thing in fiction in a truly infinite multiverse is here based on what I understand quantum mechanics allows to happen.

If there is a consensus that this is wrong because.... I'll take the video down or make a better one, I'm not in the business of knowingly propagating misinformation, we have AI generated confirmation bias content to look forward to for that.

Many thanks

Mark

 

[PeroK]

How did you find PF?: google

I was pondering the notion of fiction in the multiverse and remembered my fluids dynamics lecturer many years ago telling us all something about quantum mechanics and how the air molecules in the room could all spontaneously move to one side and we would all suffocate. Slightly disturbing and weirdly the idea stuck.

It's a shame if that nonsense is all you remember about QM. In any case, you don't instantaneously suffocate, so you could move to the other side of the room - assuming all the air miraculously stays there.

That said, you would also suffocate if all the oxygen molecules moved to a corner of the room and left you breathing almost pure nitrogen.

These things don't happen! But, regular accidents do. Buildings collapse from poor construction or from a sudden earthquake. And nuclear war is not impossible, etc. Quantum miracles are the least of your worries.

 

[GXRO6883]

Thanks for your thought's, I'm genuinely not worried, more curious about the universe - apologies for offending your sense of decency regarding topics that should never be talked about.

Given you have so well deconstructed my reasoning with science I would genuinely love to know if you have an alternative answer to the question regarding whether you think there is any such thing as fiction in the multiverse? or is that too trivial and beneath taking the time to think about for a few minutes?

I was hoping for something a bit more sciencey in the answers to be fair

 

[PeroK]

Thanks for your thought's, I'm genuinely not worried, more curious about the universe - apologies for offending your sense of decency regarding topics that should never be talked about.

Given you have so well deconstructed my reasoning with science I would genuinely love to know if you have an alternative answer to the question regarding whether you think there is any such thing as fiction in the multiverse? or is that too trivial and beneath taking the time to think about for a few minutes?

I was hoping for something a bit more sciencey in the answers to be fair

There are some threads already on variations of this question. I think the question is more philosophical than scientific. The problem for any scientific theory is to prove that there really are an infinite numbers of things, rather than just a very large finite number - which ruins the argument. It's fine to have a working assumption of a spatially infinite homogeneous universe and study cosmology using that model. But, if you assert that there are infinitely many duplicate Earths, then that conclusion is not supported by the available evidence. The available evidence only says that the universe has a minimum size, which is nowhere near large enough to expect even one duplicate Earth.

There are simple paradoxes of the infinite in mathematics - those exist because by definition we have infinite sets in mathematics. Whether we have a spatially infinite universe or an infinite multiverse cannot simply be defined. You need the clear evidence of those things before you can start stating conclusions based on them.

This type of fantasising is not why I study physics.

 

[phinds]

apologies for offending your sense of decency regarding topics that should never be talked about.

or is that too trivial and beneath taking the time to think about for a few minutes?

This kind of attitude is not going to serve you well here.

You are, unfortunately, correct in your analysis that you do not understand modern science, at least in terms of cosmology and quantum mechanics. If you propound nonsense, it is likely to be pointed out, BUT ... there is no personal animosity involved. Our goal here is to educate, not intimidate or insult, but often when we do that, it can come across as negative when it is not intended to be so.

What's important here is not your lack of knowledge, it's your enthusiasm for science. That will work well here, but be warned in advance that pretty much everything you "know" from pop-sci presentations will prove to be wrong or at best misleading. I was really surprised (and dismayed) when I first got here to find out how much of what I "knew" was just nonsense.

Good luck.

 

[berkeman]

This kind of attitude is not going to serve you well here.

Agreed. This "Introduction" thread is done.