• Question: Are there parallel worlds?

    Asked by anonymous to Steve, Emma, Christian, Bose, Alice on 9 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Emma Dean

      Emma Dean answered on 9 Mar 2016:

      Quite possibly! Scientists haven’t come up with any hard evidence yet to confirm this. There hasn’t been any evidence to disprove it either. I think it is very likely that there are, but that is just my opinion. The scientific community is very divided on this topic.

    • Photo: Steve Marsden

      Steve Marsden answered on 9 Mar 2016:

      There is a principle in quantum mechanics, called the many worlds interpretation.

      In quantum mechanics there is a large amount of randomness. Given an unstable atom, that will eventually radioactively decay, it is not possible to predict precisely when it will decay. As far as the theory goes, it states that it’s not that we don’t understand the atom well enough, but that it is completely random. God just rolls a die, and from that determines when (or even if) the atom will decay.

      Many people have problems with this, so suggest that in actuality, there are an infinite number of worlds, and the atom will decay at a different time in all of them. In fact, every time there is a ‘decision’ made in quantum mechanics, new worlds would pop into existence, one in which every possible outcome is played out.

      The many worlds interpretation is one of only two interpretations of quantum mechanics. The other is the copenhagen interpretation, which I won’t go into here, other than to say that this is becoming more and more dubious as we learn more about quantum mechanics. This would certainly suggest that the many worlds interpretation may be correct, but we don’t know of any way to actually test it.

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