quantum quagmire
<< May 30, 2005 @ 02:42 >>
Old Friend M was relaying a story about finding an unexplainable popped kernel of popcorn in a glass of cola and ice. I suggested that an ancient race of time traveling popcorn eaters had spilled this kernel millenia ago in what is now a subarctic glacier, and the ice in the glass was in fact mined from this glacier. Old Friend M said that this was highly unlikely. I responded:
"well... but quantum research suggests that we live in a multiverse where every time more than one thing can happen in fact each thing happens, all spawning a new universe. so you happen to live in the universe where these extraordinary set of events took place, and I have to wonder why I didn't get lucky and end up in the universe where I won the $215 million powerball. so really... there is no probability of winning the powerball, there is only the probability of ending up in the universe where you won the powerball."
Old Friend M, never short of wit or wisdom, responded simply:
"Statistically speaking, there are more universes where you got hit by a car and killed."
Reader Comments...
May 31, 2005 @ 00:44:30
Christy (monster)
That conversation rules.
May 31, 2005 @ 01:08:03
xopl (#001)
As each quantum interaction takes place, and each new universe is spawned, there exists a copy of me in many of these universes. I am me now, and they are me if something slightly different had happened just then. The transition into a parallel universe isn't a conscious endeavor. I can't choose to be in the universe where I won the powerball, because I (plural) am in fact in the universes where I did and where I didn't right now, both. Some other Zach isn't writing this right now, because he's off spending big wads of cash. And, some other Zach is dead from a meteor strike. I am this Zach who is here right now, taking comfort in the fact that there is another Zach right now who is ridiculously happy. Next time something good happens to "me" I will laugh at that poor bastard copy of me in the universe where that thing didn't happen.
ok, this is really hurting my head right now. I'm pretty sure the moral of the story is: everything that happens to me is up to me, because if I for instance hit my thumb with a hammer, I'm pretty sure I'll end up in the universe where it hurts. Short of that, wondering how the continuity works is painful.
May 31, 2005 @ 01:17:44
Christy (monster)
I love to think about parallel universes. (i was talking to kehla about slackers the other day, and she said the first part is like you're describing. is that the one?)
I love to think about time travel paradoxes. (paradoci?)
PS. I drove past a powerball billboard today and had almost the exact same sequence of thoughts. I didn't decide to mock my "poor bastard copy", though.
May 31, 2005 @ 01:29:40
xopl (#001)
uh, the film slackers? nothing to do with quantum anything as far as I remember.
So, you are saying you won the powerball?
May 31, 2005 @ 10:52:42
Christy (monster)
Unfortunately, no.
I also thought about this joke my dad used to tell when this guy would pray every day to win the lottery, and finally he decided that god didn't love him so he said some jerky thing, and god replied, "Well, you gotta buy a lottery ticket!"
I didn't buy a lottery ticket, either.