The \u201cInverted World” of Netflix’s most popular series, Stranger Things, is not just an author’s fiction idea. The hypothesis of a parallel universe or “many worlds” emerged decades ago, in 1957, by physicist Hugh Everett.<\/p>\n
The young doctoral candidate at Princeton University came up with a radical idea: the existence of parallel universes, just like ours. These universes would be related to ours. In fact, they would derive from ours, which, in turn, would be derived from others. In these parallel universes, our wars would have other effects than those known to us. Species already extinct in our universe would develop and adapt in others, and we humans could be extinct in those other places.<\/p>\n
The explanation for everything is in quantum physics. Imagine that you were a solid human being when a friend looked at you, and when he looked again, you had assumed the gaseous form. This became known as the Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty. The physicist Werner Heisenberg has suggested that by merely observing quantum matter, we affect his behavior. So we can never be completely sure about the nature of a quantum object or its attributes, such as velocity and location.<\/p>\n
For Everett, measuring a quantum object doesn\u2019t force it from one state to another, but a measure taken from a quantum object causes a break in the universe. The universe is literally duplicated, dividing into a universe for every possible outcome of the measure. For example, let’s say that the wave function of an object is either a particle or a wave. When a physicist measures the particle, there are two possible outcomes: it will be measured as a particle or as a wave.<\/p>\n
When a physicist measures the object, the universe breaks into two distinct universes to accommodate each of the possible outcomes. Then, a scientist in a universe discovers that the object was measured in the waveform. The same scientist, in the other universe, measures the object as a particle. This also explains how a particle can be measured in more than one state.<\/p>\n
It may seem strange, but the interpretation of Everett’s Many Worlds has implications beyond the quantum level. If an action has more than one possible result, then (if Everett’s theory is right) the universe breaks down when that action is taken, which remains true even when the person decides not to take action.<\/p>\n
Within the multiverse, anything that can happen will happen, say Everett and his followers. In one of these universes, you were never born. In another, no star has ever formed, and all around is an endless darkness. Already another is exactly like this one, with the difference that, at this moment, you are in the Olympic Village, waiting to dispute the 400 meters medley of swimming.<\/p>\n
As another Everett admirer, Professor Clarke of Stranger Things says, “There is a universe in the Theory of Many Worlds where this tragedy [Will’s death] did not happen.” But, as it happens in the series, would it give us to get in touch with these other universes? In practice, no. But, theoretically, yes.<\/p>\n
The certainty that interpretation is theoretically possible came in the late 1990s with mental experience – an imagined experience, used to prove or deny theoretically an idea – called quantum suicide:<\/p>\n
“In this experiment, is needed to imagine a man about to pull the trigger of a weapon aimed at himself. When the man pulls the trigger, there are two possible results: the weapon fires or not, in which case the man lives or dies. That the trigger is pulled, the universe splits to accommodate every possible result. When the man dies, the universe is no longer able to divide based on the pulling of the trigger and the possible result for death is reduced to one: the continuous death. <\/em><\/p>\n But when a man pulls the trigger and the universe divides in two, the version of the man who has lived will not be aware that in the other version of the divided universe he died. Instead of this, he will still alive with another chance to pull the trigger. And each time he does it, the universe will split again, with the version of the man who lives by staying, and he remains unconscious of all its deaths in the parallel universes. In this sense, it can exist indefinitely. It’s called quantum immortality.<\/em>”<\/p>\n This mental experiment renewed interest in Everett’s theory, considered nonsense for many years.<\/p>\n So do the parallel universes really exist? According to the theory of the Many Worlds, we can not be sure, since we can not see or feel them in any way. So, if the theory of the Many Worlds is right, Einstein is still alive in a parallel universe. Can you imagine?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The \u201cInverted World” of Netflix’s most popular series, Stranger Things, is not just an author’s fiction idea. The hypothesis of a parallel universe or “many worlds” emerged decades ago, in 1957, by physicist Hugh Everett. The young doctoral candidate at Princeton University came up with a radical idea: the existence of parallel universes, just like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-physics-in-cinema"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t