Assume there are an infinite supply of parallel universes and it is not only proven by science but we discover a means of communicating with them so we can basically have an internet connection or skype between worlds.
Would this cause any large scale existential crisis? For one thing there are an infinite number of better worlds. Worlds with science we can learn from, information we need to make the world better, etc.
But also if anyone you know or love here dies, there are worlds where that didn’t happen. Worlds where your grandma is healthy rather than suffering from dementia. Where that car accident never happened.
At the same time, no matter what goals you set for yourself, there are worlds where you already achieved them. If you want to lose weight, there is a world that already happened. Get married to the redhead in the next apartment, get a better job, etc. it all already happened and you can see the effects.
But there are also infinite terrible worlds. Worlds where every bad decisions you’ve ever almost made happened, where every bit of bad luck you’ve ever almost experienced went wrong. Where the worlds are horrible.
Does this cause any large scale identity crisis on a society wide level? Do people stop caring about death when they can see worlds where those deaths never happened? Will seeing endless worlds that are nearly identical but either better or worse make people stop caring about morality or improving our world since it makes them feel no matter what decision they make, it doesn’t matter in the grand picture?
Larry Niven discussed this thoroughly in “All the Myriad Ways” - a lot of people didn’t handle it well (imagine learning that someone who put in the same effort as you have, achieved great success by that effort - while you haven’t, etc.)
Personally I would find it fascinating assuming there are no major practical problems. In particular I would find it endlessly fascinating to communicate with different versions of myself and if they are anything like me they would enjoy it too. I even suspect I would understand myself better and become a better human being.
With infinite versions of me out there, the versions of me that have more interesting or favorable circumstances are going to be inundated with requests for contacts. These contacts are ALL going to come from versions of me that are not doing as well as this one. These other versions of me have already contacted the most interesting versions of me, who have screened them out long ago. Why do I want to take the call of a version of me that’s already been turned down by better versions of me? Who needs sloppy infinites?
I never could understand this. Just because there are an infinite number of universes doesn’t mean that lots or any would be close enough to ours that there would be another you.
If the “number” of universes is aleph-0 and the “number” of variations is aleph-1 or larger, there could easily be no other universes at all like ours.
If the number of universes is close to the number of possibilities, it would take a hell of a long time to find the one that’s very similar.
The good news: Alternate universes exist. At least one.
The bad news: We’re in one. The real universe is somewhere over yonder.
The worse new: You can’t get there from here and if you could, you wouldn’t much like it.
The short story Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang in the Exhalation collection addresses some of this, though with a limit (minor spoiler):
The universes only start branching when the communication device is created. So, you can’t find out how other universes are doing having had different decisions in the distant past. And the only initial difference in the universes is that a light on the device is different color between branches, so the operator has to make a decision based on that binary choice (take a job or not, marry a person or not, etc.).
If there is an “alternate universe” for which we can prove the existence of and which we communicate with, then, by the definition of universe, wouldn’t this “alternate universe” be in fact be part of our universe.
If we could communicate with these other universes via the ‘internet’, then we could conceivably operate ‘remote control’ bodies in these worlds (the people there would have to build them for us, of course). This would allow a kind of tourism between worlds, using remote presence technology. And they could come here.
I don’t think it wouldn’t cause a crisis for me. The other “me’s” are similar to me but they’re not me. There are plenty of people on earth that are also similar to me. Some are doing better. Some are doing worse.
I was going to suggest Larry Niven’s classic short story “All the Myriad Ways,” but Andy L. beat me to it. I guess my only consolation is knowing that in other space-time continuums I got to it before he did.
But wouldn’t proof of alternate universes (whatever that might be) blast a great big hole in the concept of free will? And, in turn, wouldn’t it force an awful lot of people to radically alter their concepts of themselves, many of them in profoundly negative ways?
I’ve often wondered if hard core materialists have any understanding of why many would find the concept of strict determinism so demoralizing.
The show Counterpart had all sorts of existential crisis with just two identical mirror universes slowly diverging from each other. You had both J K Simmons from Whiplash and J K Simmons from the Farmers Insurance commercials in the same show. Almost without exception, every time someone met their counterpart from the other universe, they viewed each other with either extreme contempt or bitter jealousy or both. I mean think about it. What would you think if you met parallel you who made a different big “what if” choice and turned out to be a big loser? Or was fabulously successful and happy but you felt like the loser by comparison?