I’ve recently been looking into Membrane theory or M- theory.
Not exactly easy to explain but suffice to say it involves giant membranes floating on the 11th dimension creating gravity. Rather complex and bizarre, but with interesting implications.
You see frankly I don’t understand M- theory to its fullest, it’s fiendishly complex and I’m no physicist. What peaked my interest, however, were three words.
Infinite Parallel Universes. This doesn’t sound much but if looked at correctly, this really is of fantastic importance to almost everything.
You see, if there truly are infinite parallel universes, then every possibility will happen. If you haven’t heard this one before it goes something like this:
In this universe you decided to buy a cup of coffee, in another parallel universe a parallel you did not. In this way every possible outcome happens. Everything happens. The coffee is a very small example, apply the rule to everything, and imagine a universe where Hitler won the Second World War, where the earth was 1000 degrees cooler, where you were never born. This rule has been applied before and though interesting, doesn’t achieve a great deal. What comes of their existence? We cannot interact with them in any way at all. Parallel Universes might as well be black holes – we know they exist, but we’ll probably never perceive one.
There are, however, great ramifications to our way of life if it is recognized that there are infinite parallel universes. We lost that on which we base our lives – free will.
Let me explain, if every situation will occur, then every situation must occur; each universe will follow its own set of events. Confused? This might help…
There are an infinite number of universes, thus every possibility occurs, we have established this much. The key word to understanding this extremely perplexing conundrum (puzzle) is the word infinite. If every possibility did not happen, the universes would not be infinite. This is a tricky leap – try to follow me – because there are an infinite number of universes, each universes must follow its set path. The diagram above makes this a little easier. In universe a.) a man makes a decision to buy a house, in universe b.) He doesn’t. Every possibility has multiple outcomes, every one of those outcomes happens. Because he buys the house in universe a.) he cannot in universe b.).Because he doesn’t buy the house in b.) he must in a.). If he did not then the number of these universes would be finite, not infinite. Thus both events cause each other to happen. With only two universes this case is flimsy. Imagine an infinite (if you can! I can’t) number of them. Try it with three numbers it is easier.
1, 2 and 3.
There are six combinations of these numbers 123,132,213,231,312,321. Imagine these are universes and imagine the numbers are events. In combination three (213) the events happen in a certain order. If they did not, if they instead followed one of the other combinations then every possibility would not occur. These examples leave out the infinite part but I’m sure we can slot it in. For with infinite numbers we would have infinite combinations of numbers. Mind boggling stuff.
I hope those two rather abstract examples helped but I must reiterate now that things are a bit more clear.
There are infinite universes – everything happens. If everything does not happen the universes would not happen. For every sequence of events to occur a universe must follow a certain set of events. There they are – the philosophical implications of M- theory. If universes follow a certain combination of events…
Man, it seems, no longer has free will. He has been stripped of that by infinite possibility. Thus can man truly be held accountable for his actions?
What separates the race of man, in terms of destiny, from a torn scrap of paper, blown helplessly in a fierce wind?
Thus we have Fate.
And what, in truth, is the difference between everything happening, and nothing happening.
Leonardo