Dr. Senna Grows a Second Head (2)

Senna's Theory of Drift Across the Multiverse (Senna's series #6) - continuation

According to Heisenberg (and Aristotle before him), there is a realm of possibilities and a realm of actualities. At the very moment of each choice between different possibilities, one of the many possibilities leaps from the realm of possibilities to the realm of actualities and becomes reality. The very act of choosing between multiple possibilities is widely debated in various sciences. In quantum mechanics, the act itself is random and has no cause. Quantum mechanics therefore violates the principle of causality. In the animal and human worlds, the act of choice is the focus of biologists, sociologists, and metaphysicists. To what extent is that choice determined by reflexes, instincts, laws, the opinions of others, and free will? Everett, as a PhD student under the eminent quantum physicist John Wheeler, decided to tackle this question in the same way that Alexander the Great untied Gordian knot. He proposed the hypothesis that all possibilities become reality. This idea had been mentioned before by Erwin Schrödinger, but not pursued.  In Everett's theory, in each point of choice, the universe splits into two or more universes. In each of these universes a different possibility is chosen. So, the number of universes is equal to the number of possibilities. Since choices in nature and in life are constantly occurring, the universe is constantly splitting, the tree of possibilities turning into reality is branching and growing. This theory has been called the theory of many worlds, or multiverse theory. According to this theory, each of us has many (if not infinitely many) "clones" living different lives in different universes. Some of us may have very similar destinies, while others may be radically different.

I wonder how the splitting of the universe into two takes place - does it take some time, however short, or does it happen instantaneously? Nature doesn't like instantaneous - everything takes time. Is it possible to feel or measure that moment of split? Another question is whether different worlds of multiverse can reunite if they become identical at a certain point in time? Imagine a shopper paying at the checkout. He has two twenties in his wallet. He grasps one of them with his fingers, pulls it out, hands it to the cashier, and takes the change. Suddenly he remembers that he forgot to buy something, returns to the shop, takes the item, and pays the second twenty at the same checkout. Throughout this process, the shopper had many choices, but we will focus on his choice of one of the two twenties. If the buyer had chosen a different twenty for his first purchase, the world would have been a different place, because the buyer and the cashier would have interchanged twenties with different serial numbers. At that point, the universe should split in two. However, if the buyer then left his second twenty in the same checkout, the worlds would be the same again: the cashier has both twenties and the buyer has neither. Would the universes reunite at that point, and would the shopper be reunited with his newly separated clone? Another example: an even shorter universe-splitting: in one case, the shopper thinks for a second before paying the twenty, perhaps deciding to pay by cash or card, and in the other case, the shopper hands over the twenty without thinking. In both cases, after the deed of sale, the buyer parts with twenty banknote and the seller gets it. However, the universes must have split in that one second of thought, when in one universe the twenty had already changed hands and in the other the buyer hesitated. Will that desynchronization of the universes cause them to split for good? What is the tolerance for desynchronization? How long is the buyer allowed to hesitate before the worlds split? Microsecond, picosecond, or zero seconds? I repeat - nature does not like the instantaneous. But in metaphysics this is a weak argument.

***

Dr. Senna cautiously entered the kitchen. No one was there. The sink was piled high with dirty dishes, and a pile of papers with formulas lay on the table. Dr. Senna looked at them in surprise. These were his decades-old noise cancelation calculations. A strange feeling of déjà vu. Senna was filled with a gentle nostalgia. He had lost track of time… and couldn't understand how he got here. Sitting on the stool, he tried to remember his life. As if through a mist, the contours of his life began to emerge. Twenty years after the life-changing book, following the fashions of the time, Senna grew a second (cloned) head. He worked less, lived a happy family life, spending lots of time with his dog Duke, or listening to his vinyl record collection. But that life seemed more like a dream than reality. Episodes of life would suddenly appear like paintings before his eyes and quickly melt. He could not remember his wife's name. There was no trace of his wife and dog around him. He went back to his office. No records, no turntable. The desk was piled high with papers and books, and papers were lying on the floor. Suddenly, Senna felt a strong duality - as if two people with two lives were merged in one body. Two heads must have desynchronized. Whisky was needed. Or a cold shower. The bathroom was as messy as the study or the kitchen. A real bachelor’s house. He saw his own image in the mirror, tired and unshaven... But he had only one head. Upright. He was surprised that he wasn't surprised. Memory told him that he should have had two heads, but his memory seemed unreliable, maybe even deceitful. He had only one hat in his wardrobe, not two.

Senna was a rational and pragmatic person. He decided not to consult a psychologist but to solve the riddle himself. It could have been a hallucination. Like many UC Berkeley professors, he sometimes used hallucinogenic mushrooms to enhance intuition and creativity. But he never abused them. Is he hallucinating now, or has he always lived in hallucinations? He decided to wait. If he is full of mushrooms, after a while the effect will wear off and the hallucination will disappear.

After a couple of hours, nothing had changed. So, if the hallucination has messed up his brain, it was in the past and the present is reality. He felt this clearly now. But the feeling of duality never left him. When did it start? Senna vaguely felt that this was not the first time she had felt duality. Yesterday, when he was leaving the grocery store, he felt as if someone was following closely behind him. He turned around, but there was no one behind him. On second thought, however, he had a similar feeling now. His body seems to be twinned and one body is following the other so closely that they almost overlap. He remembered when Pierre Rondelette, in a seminar on the universe, had mentioned the multiverse hypothesis and had concluded that each of us has a very large number of clones in other worlds of multiverse, living similar or very different lives. Rondelette stressed that the correctness of this hypothesis cannot be proved or disproved, because we cannot have a connection or communication with other worlds. But Senna questioned this premise. Could there really be no such connection? He sat down at his computer and searched the scientific literature on the subject. He found no hard evidence that different worlds cannot have a physical, spiritual, or informational connection.  

Senna wondered. The connection could be the answer to his dual-personality condition. He has many clones in other worlds. In some world, there is also a double-headed Senna. All of us - the Sennas - started from the same point, some separated a long time ago, some a few seconds ago. Isn't the separation finished the moment when different choices caused the universe to split? Maybe the mental connection remains for a while, or maybe even the physical? After all, our paths could not have fundamentally diverged just because I spend one second less doing something than my other clones. The slower clone just follows behind me one second behind. I can't see him because he's in another physical space, but I can still feel him. Apparently, people with split personality condition just have a greater sensitivity to the mental connection with their clones in other worlds of multiverse. This reassured Senna. He even felt special, endowed with a special sensor.

Moreover, thought Senna, it is hardly plausible that the process of the universe branching into a multiverse is discrete. Unless time is discrete. If time is not discrete then branching is continuous, uninterrupted. All the branches merge into one steadily thickening trunk. Therefore, I would not be surprised that it is possible to drift across that trunk, transmigrating into his other clones. Senna decided to share his reasoning with Pierre Rondelette. Their relationship had soured after the conflict at the seminar, but improved when Rondelette did not object to Senna using the title he had invented, "The Universe as Super-tort", for the new edition of Senna’s seminal book.  After that, the relationship steadily improved and now Rondelette was Senna's best friend at UC Berkeley.

Senna opened with a shocking statement: “Pierre, I am being followed by my clone very closely, so closely that you cannot visually separate him from my body. But I do feel and know it. It had started when I was leaving Safeway yesterday.” Then he explained to bewildered Pierre his theory of drift across the multiverse. Rondelette initial shock passed away, but he remained semi-critical of Senna's theory and found contradictions in it, but was intrigued by its implications. He corrected some logical weaknesses in the theory and proposed to publish a joint article in the philosophy journal American Philosophical Quarterly. Their article " Drift Across Possibilities Tree " caused a shock in the philosophical community. (They used word Possibilities – not Actualities, because to a drifter they still were possibilities.) If the authors are right that travel (drift) between alternative realities (worlds in a multiverse) is possible in principle, it will lead to a fundamental change in our choices, morality, ethics and even our freedom. A person who is dissatisfied with his life or repentant for his bad deeds may decide to transmigrate to his clone's world and life, and if that is not satisfactory, he will choose another clone until he achieves happiness. Clones with a similar value systems will start drifting towards the same world. In principle, this will limit the thickening of the tree of possibilities turning into reality, and may even cause it to shrink into one or more branches. Indirectly, a person will be able to correct his wrong choices, his bad deeds. But will this not reduce the responsibility of making new choices?

The article caused so much controversy that a special Quarterly Collection had to be published to accommodate all the polemical articles. Senna reading reviews of their article began to think about the consequences of his theory. What impact would the ability to travel through multiple universes and correct past mistakes, bad actions, and even crimes have on an individual's morale and on the entire ethics? Undoubtedly, such an ability would free people and allow them to make more risky decisions, choose less predictable but more creative career paths. More people would probably be happy, and there would be more achievements in sciences and arts. On the other hand, people's conscience could fall asleep, and they could become less responsible for making new decisions and choices, relying purely on impulse and instinct, and thinking about the consequences later, or never. This would erase one of the main differences between humans and animals - the responsibility for their actions, which conscience constantly reminds us of. An even bigger question would arise: how much free will would remain in making choices if they were made subconsciously? In Senna's opinion, the negative consequences outweighed the positive ones. He submitted a letter with his opinion to Quarterly Collection and joined the growing number of participants in this debate.

The controversy has spilled over into the mass media. Newspapers printed biographies of the authors, TV stations carried interviews and public debates. The article by Senna and Rondelette thus set a record citation index and entered the Guinness Book of Records.