Overview
If you’ve seen any superhero movies in the last few years, you have probably heard of the “Multiverse”. One of the reasons it is so prevalent is that it allows the writers to use the same characters over and over and put their own special take on them, It’s not really a new idea…
Back on October 6, 1967, CBS aired and Episode of Star Trek called “Mirror, Mirror“. In it, a transporter malfunction sends Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura into a parallel universe where the Federation is replaced by the evil “Terran Empire”, Kirk is a despot, and Spock is sporting a mustache and goatee. The episode was a big hit and the parallel universe was revisited multiple time in various Star Trek series.
A year later in the October 1968 issue, Galaxy magazine published a short story from a science fiction author named Larry Niven. It was called “All the Myriad Ways“. In it, a detective named Gene Trimble is trying to determine the cause for a huge increase in the number of suicides, a phenomena that started shortly after the discover of the “Megauniverse” (his term for the Multiverse). The story does a great job of describing the entire concept along with the practical ramifications of that knowledge.
There are probably more like that, but as a kid, those were the first two I encountered.
Fast forward to somewhere around 1975 (1976?). Me and a buddy are hanging out in the laundry room at our apartment complex. Laundry takes forever, and we started having an argument about time travel. My take was if time is its own singular dimension and you could go back in time, it would be a very, very bad idea. The Earth, the solar system, the entire universe is in constant motion. If you could snap your fingers and go back in time even a measly ten minutes, you are likely to find yourself floating in empty space! My friend argued the opposite. I think he did to mess with me more than for any other reason, so it was an agreement we never resolved, but it did get me thinking…
If parallel realities did exist, what “form” would that take? What are the mechanics that govern it? Can I use that concept as a basis for a good science fiction story? Ultimately, I developed my own idea of the Multiverse. Originally, I called it “The Turnip” due to how I envisioned it, but that structure changed over time, and while Multiverse is the new and popular term, it doesn’t quite fit either. In it’s place, allow me to present the new, the improved, the all-encompassing…
Disclaimer
For the record, I have no training in advanced mathematics or quantum physics. What I am about to describe may not be remotely possible from a scientific point of view. That’s okay. I’ve decided to take the “ant’s point of view”.
Imagine for a moment a colony of ants that somehow made it on to a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean. From their point of view, the only thing they know for sure is that it is real and its their home, but even the smartest ant in the colony doesn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of actually understand what is really going on around them.
Guess what? We’re still ants!
Premise
The basic premise is that everything that can happen, DOES happen. For instance, you have to decide on going left or going right at the intersection. The truth is that you actually do both, and create two different realities (branches).
The next concept to recognize is that some decisions take you further “away” from center, while others bring you “closer” to center. The analogy here is walking around the block. If you start by taking a right then a left, you end up in the exact same place as starting with a left followed by a right. It is only when you take two rights or two lefts that you get further away from the start. Why is this important? Because you might start in one place and over time, make 1000 decisions. You could start in the same spot, make 1000 different decisions but ultimately, you end up in the same place.
The Binary Model
Good so far? Now consider this…
At the beginning of time, there is some event like the “Big Bang”. At that point, reality is “dense”, options are minimal and happen at a sub-atomic level. Over time, reality continues to “split”, over and over. Each split creates a new “branch”. Every branch of reality becomes more diverse, but less “dense” as options increase. Basically, if you could model it physically, it’s kind of like a stacked cylinder. Each “layer” represents a change in time and a new split. Tracing a route through the splits is considered a “path” .
As time progresses, the splits multiply exponentially, with branches moving further and further away from each other. The number of splits keep expanding, but there is a limit. You eventually get to a point where all the matter in the universe has separated into individual elements. This is the “Equator” line, where you are as far from the Big Bang as you can go. So what happens then? The elements start to coalesce back into new forms and choices become more limited. Eventually, everything narrows until all matter is in one place, which leads to what? “The Collapse”, of course. Which then becomes another Big Bang – it’s an endless cycle!
The Trinary Model
The Binary Model is a good start, IF we accept that there are only two choices; a “left” and a “right”. What if no choice is an option? That complicates things… or does it?
This is something I struggled with over the years until recently, where I started trying to draw the models. I always used to consider the model as a “sphere” – expanding with each time slice. I am now more comfortable with the cylinder model, which is based on continually subdividing the same (constant) amount of matter in reality. Still, it always felt like something was missing, until I realized that a “Trinary” design might actually work better, where there is a “left”, a “right” and a “neutral” (no change).
I don’t quite have the graphics ability to represent it here, so pay more attention to the numbers.
The 1st Split
- Is actually trinary, since a “neutral” results keeps you stuck at the start.
- Creates Cells “1” and “2”.
The 2nd Split
- Although each cell has three options, the results overlap…
- Cell 1 (left) = Cell 2 (right) and creates a new Cell 3.
- Cell 2 (left) = Cell 1 (right) and creates a new Cell 4.
- This reinforces the original premise of you can get to the same place taking multiple routes.
- A “neutral” result for Cell 1 or 2 leaves them as they were, but in a diminished state (carry over).
The 3rd Split
- Results in four new cells and four “carry over” cells.
Why is the Model Circular?
Just in case you are wondering, this goes back to high school geometry class where I learned that a circle is the limit of all polygons (no many how many sides a polygon has, it will never quite be a circle). So, in my models, the more decisions that are made, the more it looks like a circle.
Ramifications
In both models you reach a point where some of the branches start to develop life. In branches that are close together, that life will be more similar than branches that are far apart. Also, some of those distant branches may have different physical properties. This becomes VERY important later.
Somewhere in all of that is the path that we are currently on (our reality), but it has many, many close paths where only a few things are different. Maybe I’m a doctor in one path and a sailor in another, but in both cases, I can make turns that has me getting run over by a bus in Miami (or something else totally crazy).
If you can visualize this model, it starts to explain how all the fantastic universes came to be… Star Trek , Star Wars, Disney Princesses, Harry Potter, etc. They ALL exist, but are separated far enough along the cylinder that you can’t actually merge them without going far, far into the future.
Now here’s the real kicker (and basis for some sci-fi stories in my head). While you can not physically merge the various paths, the “energy” produced by them “bleeds over” into other realities. People that are sensitive to that can actually “dream” about those other realities, not knowing that they actually exists. This is where the initial inspiration for many of these “universes” come from. People are actually channeling another reality.
Finally (and inevitably) some scientist on one of the branches will figure out a way to travel between the various branches, which can then lead to a massive variety of crazy stories. The first scientist to do so was Jonathon Katarr, which is a fictional character I developed 47 years ago when I first came up with this idea.
So, “simple”, right?
Discussion Points
Some things to discuss and/or figure out…
- Uberverse? Surly we can give it a better name than that!
- Which model is better – Binary or Trinary?
- Is there really any difference between the two?
- Is entropy just the act of moving closer to the “Equator”?
- What happens after you pass the “Equator” headed “north”?
- Since everything that can happen, does happen, then every possible scenario exists at once. What if all reality is just one fixed blob of matter and movement is actually the path your consciousness takes through it over time?
- Viewed “externally”, is the Uberverse just a continuous non-descript entity or does it like a color wheel where some colors are more “pronounced” then others (true blue, red, green yellow, etc)? Could some timelines be more distinct or pronounced than others? If so, what does that represent?
By the way, if you are not a fan of the Uberverse Theory, checkout this article from Live Science:
10 Wild Theories About the Universe