# parallel worlds question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927 "2003-06-05T20:46:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![insider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@insider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insider)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/1 "2003-06-05T20:46:43Z")
Are there really parallel worlds and universes? Could that mean that there are parallel individuals and lives here and God knows where else in the Universe? Could there be a person in a parallel Universe who is writing to a newsgroup asking if there is someone with the nickname insider writing to a message board in another parallel unverse? I am getting myself lost here but it is really starting to fasinate me. I know that I am the worlds worst speller. My apologies. That is why I depend on spell checkers. ---
**Author:** ![Coffeeguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@Coffeeguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coffeeguy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/2 "2003-06-05T21:19:27Z")
Yes. –CoffeeGuy ---
**Author:** ![BytopianDream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9de0a6/32.png) [@BytopianDream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BytopianDream)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/3 "2003-06-05T21:19:56Z")
I would look into physics and astrophysics. There are many books or online articles on the subject which can be fascinating and informative. A quick google found these sites: > **[Parallel Universes](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/parallel-universes/)** > > Not just a staple of science fiction, other universes are a direct implication of cosmological observations [http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/paralleluni.shtml](http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/paralleluni.shtml) A book found at Amazon: [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385477058/103-2248256-6308666?vi=glance](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385477058/103-2248256-6308666?vi=glance) Hope this helps and sorry for the coding stuff… I’m a newbie in regards to coding the stuff. ---
**Author:** ![TGWATY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@TGWATY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TGWATY)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/4 "2003-06-05T21:41:00Z")
You don’t necessarily need another Universe. I don’t know the current status of the question of whether the Universe is open (infinite in size) or closed (finite in size), but if it is indeed open then it is almost a certainty that somewhere else in _this_ Universe your double exist/existed/will exist. Whether your double existed or will exist is sort of undefined since simultaneity on such scales is ambiguous. Not only might you have a double in this Universe, but there might be infinitely many too. Infinity is pretty weird. (Probably too weird, which is why I’d bet money that Universe is actually closed.) ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/5 "2003-06-05T21:42:17Z")
It depends on how you interpret physics. One of the leading exponents of ‘parallel universes’ is David Deutsch of Oxford University, who wrote a popular science book mainly on that subject (the book is called _Fabric of Reality_, I have read it but was unimpressed). One thing that I have not seen parallel universe theories adress is the failure of simultaneity at distance that arises from relativity (i.e. which time is parallel to which time?) ---
**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/6 "2003-06-06T00:09:22Z")
I just got back from a parallel universe and, by golly, you’re right! ---
**Author:** ![Thaumaturge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Thaumaturge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thaumaturge)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/7 "2003-06-06T00:29:25Z")
I personally do not think there are parrallel universes. While quatum waves _do_ split into a multitude of probabilities, they come back together once the system is observed. If they didn’t come back together, interference patterns would not be possible. Interference patterns are what happens after all the divergent probabilities merge back together and add up. In other words, the universe is the blending of untold numbers of parrallel universes that are constantly splitting off and merging again, one subatomic interaction at a time. Things never really stay split off for long. (nanoseconds) We live in one giant interference pattern. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/8 "2003-06-06T04:13:12Z")
There was a recent article in Scientific American (as well as a thread on the article) that postulates that given an infinite universe with an even distribution of matter, there should statistically be a section of universe identical to ours some astronomical distance away. That distance, however, is pretty big. Like so big that it doesn’t matter what units you use to measure it because the diference between the smallest uunits we know and the largest are not even an order of magnitude of how how far the next parallel universe is. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/9 "2003-06-06T04:47:31Z")
I like Dilbert creator [Scott Adams’](http://www.bobjanuary.com/bj_scans/readings/dilbert.htm) take on it - we are moving through an infinite number of motionless universes. > [@](#): > > What if every possible universe existed simultaneously, each one only slightly different than its neighbor, like the frames of an animated movie None of the universes in this model have movement. All the people and objects are frozen in one position. The only thing that moves in this reality is your perception (some might call it a soul), inhabiting one “you” after another in an endless string of nonmoving universes. Your perception would be that you were in one universe, but everything in it was moving. In fact, the only thing moving would be your line of perception from one you" to another in each adjacent universe. And because each frozen universe is slightly different, your perception is that the things in it are moving Have you ever pulled up to a stoplight next to a city bus? If you see the bus gradually moving out of the corner of your eye, you sometimes think incorrectly that your car is rolling in the opposite direction‹because your field of reference is changing. You press your brakes frantically to stop it. In this case, your perception of motion is completely opposite from reality. The bus is moving, not you. Reality could be that way, too, and it would look just the way it looks to you now. It’s interesting reading. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/10 "2003-06-06T06:16:31Z")
I should point out that even if an infinite number of duplicates of yourself existed in \*this \*universe (leaving aside the parallel universe question) these duplicates are outside the observable universe- because of the expansion of our universe no contact can be made with anything outside a sphere aprox. 15 billion light years in diameter (probably more like 12 billion) from Earth; so you can forget about meeting your doppelganger in this universe. * * * SF worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/11 "2003-06-06T09:43:54Z")
Damn- that should be _radius_ * * * SF worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) ---
**Author:** ![ambushed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@ambushed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ambushed)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parallel-worlds-question/179927/12 "2003-06-06T10:13:00Z")
Are there really parallel worlds and universes? There is absolutely NO compelling evidence to suggest that there are; only some completely theoretical models that may or may not be consistent with current data and other theoretical models. There is – at least at present – no way of ever determining the answer to that question empirically. You may as well ask to know if a transcendent God exists. Both answers are completely unknowable in this Universe.