istryj
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- Nov 29, 2024
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We are used to the classical model of parallel worlds: worlds that are identical in almost everything but differ in some small detail, while being completely isolated from one another and fully self-contained. But what if this is not the case at all?
Imagine that you decide to have lunch at a restaurant. Before that, you watched a TV program where scientists conducted that famous experiment with the cat in the box—the cat was taken out dead. Now you are sitting in the restaurant, eating. Across from you sits another person; perhaps it is even someone you know. And that person also watched the same TV program—but in their version of the experiment, the cat was taken out alive.
And so you coexist with this person within the same space-time continuum, without even realizing that you belong to different universes. The insurmountable boundary between you does not lie in dimensions, but in communication: you will never start a conversation with them about the cat experiment you saw on television. This is a fundamental impossibility, and it is precisely what makes it possible for the two of you to occupy the same place at the same time.
We are used to a classical model of time, where there is a past where we were, a present where we are, and a future where we will be. But what if this is not so? What if there is no present at all—only a phase transition from what has already occurred to what is merely assumed?
We are used to thinking that the past has already happened, and that in order to influence it we would need to return to it. But what if that is not true either? What if the past is just as undefined as the future—and the further back in time you go, the less defined it becomes?
I will try to explain. That which you observe is defined; that which you do not observe returns to a state of indeterminacy. This is why the farther into the past you go, the more plastic it becomes—there are simply fewer witnesses. And just as we shape the future by influencing it through our actions, in the same way we could influence the past—we simply do not know how.
What is hidden inside the box found in the attic of your grandmother’s house? Anything at all, until we open it. Whatever we want—if only we knew how to manipulate the past.
Imagine that you decide to have lunch at a restaurant. Before that, you watched a TV program where scientists conducted that famous experiment with the cat in the box—the cat was taken out dead. Now you are sitting in the restaurant, eating. Across from you sits another person; perhaps it is even someone you know. And that person also watched the same TV program—but in their version of the experiment, the cat was taken out alive.
And so you coexist with this person within the same space-time continuum, without even realizing that you belong to different universes. The insurmountable boundary between you does not lie in dimensions, but in communication: you will never start a conversation with them about the cat experiment you saw on television. This is a fundamental impossibility, and it is precisely what makes it possible for the two of you to occupy the same place at the same time.
We are used to a classical model of time, where there is a past where we were, a present where we are, and a future where we will be. But what if this is not so? What if there is no present at all—only a phase transition from what has already occurred to what is merely assumed?
We are used to thinking that the past has already happened, and that in order to influence it we would need to return to it. But what if that is not true either? What if the past is just as undefined as the future—and the further back in time you go, the less defined it becomes?
I will try to explain. That which you observe is defined; that which you do not observe returns to a state of indeterminacy. This is why the farther into the past you go, the more plastic it becomes—there are simply fewer witnesses. And just as we shape the future by influencing it through our actions, in the same way we could influence the past—we simply do not know how.
What is hidden inside the box found in the attic of your grandmother’s house? Anything at all, until we open it. Whatever we want—if only we knew how to manipulate the past.
