Parallel Worlds pro et contra
Шрифт:
Chapter 12. Quantum Suicide
After all the preparations, a meeting of the Sphere system's governing council was scheduled. At the meeting, among themselves and to any outside observer, they were ordinary citizens, but were the real leaders of well-known international, political, governmental structures, secret clubs, religious and charitable organizations. Rutra took Amita with him to the meeting, having previously agreed with the council. No one but Rutra and the "luminary of science" knew where this secret identity came from. But Rutra was going to announce it later, after he had conducted a trial experiment.
Amita, of course, had no idea of the location of the facility or the people with whom she would be in contact. Those were the rules, and Ruthra, even in his high status, could not break them. Once everything was ready and the masks were put on, the assistants turned on the overview. The theme of the program included visualization of outer space. The signal to begin was given. Everyone tuned in to hear an interesting interpretation of their intentions from the "luminary of science". The scientist began his speech without introduction.
– Once upon a time it would have been amazing for us to hear that the same events can happen in different parts of the world, such as a cup of coffee in the morning, which can be reported almost instantly, and sometimes online, in photo or video mode, to all parts of the world. Or, for example, you copy the same information and increase the number of bytes in the drive because of it. Simply put – you fill something with the same copy. The same thing becomes a lot, the space fills up, but nothing fundamentally new appears. You already know about our program, about the method, I'm not afraid to say, of discovery. The key element in the search was a multiworld interpretation of the surrounding reality. Since the existence of many worlds, many variants of our world, is being scientifically studied, I decided to find out where they really are. Where are they in practice, so to speak. Let's get into the science a bit. Like other interpretations, the many-worlds interpretation is meant to explain the traditional two-slit experiment. Simply put, the experiment where a particle flies out and a wave flies in. The paradox is that such an experiment in the observable world should look like this: a bullet flies out and an arrow flies in. And, as we know, the most interesting thing is this: this property manifests itself if there is an observation of it. To put it simply, there is a variety of different worlds, universes, but judging by the logic this experiment gives us, they can be seen, understood and felt only by those who can see, understand and feel them. Tell me, isn't it a paradox? You are probably laughing already, but let me remind you: everyone laughed at the fact that "a bullet flies out and an arrow flies in". And this is a fact, and no one can neither prove nor disprove it. If we look, the particle travels as a wave, if we don't look, it travels as a ball. Who does that? So much for the paradox of intelligence in the universe. All right, I've gone too far. What I was going to say. It makes sense that time and space are infinite, doesn't it? It makes sense. Why? Because if they end, what comes after them? And after them, there's only them. Can there be infinite variants of something in infinity? You will answer – maybe, and I will confidently say – yes. Therefore it is logical that in this infinity, somewhere in the incredible depths, or distances, or variants of universes, there is a moment exactly repeating this one. That is, there's exactly the same great scientist telling equally intelligent and respected colleagues about the existence of our world. A world called planet Earth. Imagine what his colleagues think. What? Yes, that's right. They think exactly what you're thinking. You will say: well, dear and great, let it be your way, let there be an incredible number (billions, trillions, trillions, trillions, let there be a number of (billions, trillions, trillions, trillions, let there be a number of googols, let there be a number of Graham's number raised to billion-trillionth degrees) universes, in them – as many galaxies, billions and trillions of stars, trillions and trillions of planets, and in the midst of all this – let there be possible existence of exactly the same world as ours, and exactly the same situation. But why should we think exactly as we do now? To put it more simply: let there be a world like ours in infinity, and let us be the same there, but is it natural for us to think the same way? So I'll tell you this. You have now given birth to the same infinite number of worlds just because you have thought about them, you have already let your thoughts into them, and there are several billions of their variants, and there is one exactly the same one that has passed in your brain now.
Even though everyone was wearing masks, they could see each other's facial expressions, emotions, and movements in real life. Some of those at the table, who were not from the science block, sat with their elbows on the table and rubbed their foreheads with their palms. Such multilevel complex interpretations of the scientist were already habitual for them, as well as the paradoxical nature of his next sentence, which, however, always had a logically justified confirmation of the arguments and examples given.
That is why the definition – the great luminary of science – he was given with a joking smile, which, however, in no way hurt his ego. He had the talent of a scientific fantasist, translating everything incredible into reality so magnificently that any most delusional idea coming out of his mouth was perceived not only with faith in the possibility of realization, but also with fear that he had conceived such a thing. The internal security service was constantly scanning his brain, even his trips to the toilet were under full control, because they were afraid: there was little chance that the scientist could think up and put into practice.
"Mage" he continued, charged with super strength:
– There are many assumptions as to how it actually works, but they all fall into two important kinds. The first: all universes live independently, are quite unlike each other; the second: worlds are parallel almost literally, have billions of variants of events, with two or more almost identical ones occurring. Scientifically speaking, it is like this: the possibility of their existence consists in the assumption that this universe state is a quantum superposition of several (and possibly an infinite number of) states of identical non-interacting parallel universes.
He suddenly raised his head high and looked around at everyone, focusing his gaze on the lady invited by Rutra. Despite her presence having been agreed upon and approved by the council for three months now (accordingly, the direction of the program had been known for at least 6 months), still the mysterious appearance of an unknown person in such a secret location was troubling. Rutra had informed the council in advance of the future revelation of her identity, explaining such a thing as further proof of the real workings of the method used to carry out the program-experiment.
– I've got it all figured out, you don't have to tell me. Everything will be with description… Superposition is superposition of one state on another, that is existence in several states at the same time. If a photon or an electron is in superposition – it does everything at once at the same time. It is both a particle and a wave; it is in several places at once, it can form perfect and imperfect forms; simply put, it behaves – you can't guess how. But everything changes as soon as the observer arrives. It seems as if the particle knows about the measuring apparatus and the observer. The photon immediately becomes law-abiding and starts to behave according to some single scenario. This is called "superposition collapse", or "wave function collapse". It is the presence of an observer that makes the chaos disappear and turn into one possible scenario. Here's a miracle one, here's a miracle two. That's me talking about the observer. Think why, as soon as the concept of God, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, omnipresent, appears in the human consciousness, the concepts of goodness and sin, hell and heaven, order and chaos appear at once… Now about the existence of such universes, where these naughty particles, which are billions of trillions of trillions in trillionth degrees, form their worlds. That is, worlds whose original imprint they have formed, relying on the world from whence they came, or, to be more precise, where they were born, or, even more precisely, from a kind of mirror reflection of one world in another. For in those times when people did not know a mirror, something similar was imagined by seeing the properties of reflection in nature. And in essence, what is it? It is a flight of the Sun's particles, for example, to our face, a bounce from it, a flight to water, say, and after the bounce – a flight back to the face, or rather, to our eyes, or more precisely – to the brain. It is the same in the Universe: some particles came from somewhere, entered our world, transformed it… in fact – formed it the way it is, and they change it constantly, flew to those areas where there is a corresponding environment, the formation of the similar, and there already appeared a world that thinks that it is the only possible one. Let's take an even more incredible example – the conception of a child, a living being in general. After all, it is usual for us, so it is not surprising that absolutely incredible processes are going on, all components are combined, and under certain conditions before, during and after, and the miracle of life appears. And at first the embryo does not resemble a human creature at all. For simplicity, imagine a world where only robots live. A world where artificial intelligence lives, and it produces its own kind. Let's say it has no information, no knowledge of the existence of a method of birth for living beings. They simply don't know our and similar life form. They have some truth embedded in them, for example, that they were created by some space robot. Then, of course, the human method of creating their own kind is simply absurd, bordering on delirium. After all, thousands of gods, which were and are in the history of mankind, are also incredible for us. We think that they are creations of our mind and imagination, we believe that it is god who gave us these concepts. There's no other way. If otherwise, then it is no god, because it is already a generation of human mind. God is also a kind of mirror picture formed by our thoughts, and they in their turn, proceeding from the received life experience, are projected into the material world by our deeds. And as for the example with conception, I will repeat once again: if, say, artificial intelligence would know that in their world "birth" is a self-assembly from parts, loading the program into a ready-made being, like a soul into a body, and then the method of conception and appearance of a human being would be described to it, then for the machine all this would be as magical and miraculous as for us the formation of one world from another by particles, which even in a microscope not everyone can see. That's how it is.
Ruthra, taking advantage of the second pause, hurriedly asked a question he knew the answer to. It was his way of voicing it to the council.
– Certainly you have described everything very convincingly and interestingly, but still please tell me, can there be any real evidence for this?
– In turn, I note that you most likely believe what I have said. Otherwise, why did you invite such a beautiful creature of God to a secret meeting in a secret place, which she most likely does not even know about.
At this, Ruthra smiled.
– Well, just now you were talking about your belief in God's creatures. What's the point?
At this already the scientist smiled, continued:
– Tell me, for example, is our head of the information-analytical service fully aware of the scientific background of parallel worlds?
He said it in an intriguing tone, as it seemed not only to Rutra: many people who were studying the video presentation of the new project with fascination were distracted from their studies, looked up at the scientist with interest, and literally turned to listen.