Quote:
Originally posted by ThatGuyAgain
I think your refering to the multiverse theory, but im not sure, maybe im just getting over my head. I read some article in "new scientist" where the theory was that there was a finite number of universes (A really large number to big to print, but still finite)and each one held one possibilty of what could happen in the next instance.
Eg. Your sitting on your butt reading Thatguyagain pretend to have a clue about what he's talking about. In one reality, you think "meh, this guys a moron". In another, you think "I could sure go for some nachos with ice cream". In another, you have a heart attack and drop dead.
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Yeh, I think he meant that too.
(Only read the following if you're interested).
The Schrodinger's cat thought experiment devised by Edwin Schrodinger says that a live cat and its ghost can both exist at the same time. By the way, a 'thought experiment' is not intended to be carried out 'for real', but its supposed to have such obvious implications that the result is beyond doubt.
Basically, the basis for Schrodinger's argument is the way that the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics says that a quantum entity exists in a superposition of states until it is measured, and then collapses into a definate state.
The cat in the box
Imagine takng such an electron as it emerges from an electron gun and holding it in a set of magnetic or electric fields, without trying to measure its spin immediately. The electron trap inside a piece of apparatus connected to a container of poisonous gas, and everything is sealed inside a large room where a healthy cat lives, supplied with plenty of food and water.
When the spin of the electron is eventually measured, an automatic device will release the gas and kill the cat if the spin is up, but will let the cat live of the spin is down. Schrodinger pointed out that according to the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics, everything sealed inside the room, including the cat, is in a 50:50 superposition of states until somebody 'looks' into the room and 'notices' what has happened. The cat is both dead and alive at the same time.
There are, unsurprisngly, several rival ineterpretations of quantum mechanics which try to avoid this. The one that many cosmologists like involves parallel words. For example, the moment an electron is released, the entire world splits into two copies of itself. In one, the electron has spin down and the cat lives. In the other, the electron has soin up and the cat dies. For a human observer in either world, there is still a 50:50 chance of finding a live cat when you look into the room, but neither cat is in a superposition of states.
So in extending this example, the entire Universe is multiplied into an infinite number of branches, and anything that can possible happen does happen in one (or more) of the branches of reality. Just to reiterate, this experiment really is 'all in the mind', so nothing remotely like this has even been tried with a real cat
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*Collapses*.