Listen now | Join us in the basement studio as we dig into the multiverse. We navigate the speculative world of infinite possibilities, parallel universes, and personal what-ifs.
An entertaining discussion on all things and stories multiverse. I was surprised that you didn't discuss Recursion by Blake Crouch. He wrote this right after Dark Matter and I feel it's an even better multiverse story than Dark Matter. Micaiah Johnson wrote The Space Between Worlds which is all about multiverse travel, except you can't travel to a world where your counterpart is still alive. It was a very interesting read. Please add these titles to your notes for listeners to check out other multiverse stories. Thanks!
Bruce, thanks for these suggestions. Not sure how I forgot about Recursion🤔 and the Space Between Worlds sounds interesting. I’ll have to put this one on my TBR list. I’ll indeed put these on the multiverse list and mention them in the mini episode.
Re. alternate timelines I'm immediately drawn to Ray Bradbury's classic short story, "A Sound of Thunder." An adventure-seeking time traveler inadvertently crushes a Jurassic-era butterfly, a seemingly inconsequential act. However, upon returning to his own timeline, the time traveler finds his fragile democracy has morphed into a cruel dictatorship. Are our personal decisions more important than we might think?
Bart, I had forgotten about this story. Thanks for reminding me.
One idea of the multiverse is the Anthropic multiverse or the anthropic principle, which suggests that we observe the universe the way it is because we are here to observe it.
If we follow this logic, it implies that our decisions, no matter how small, have consequences for the observable universe. Therefore, while personal decisions are important, some may be less significant than others when considering all possible decisions at every observable time point.
The challenge is that we have no way to determine which of these decisions will lead to the desired personal outcomes versus the undesirable ones.
An entertaining discussion on all things and stories multiverse. I was surprised that you didn't discuss Recursion by Blake Crouch. He wrote this right after Dark Matter and I feel it's an even better multiverse story than Dark Matter. Micaiah Johnson wrote The Space Between Worlds which is all about multiverse travel, except you can't travel to a world where your counterpart is still alive. It was a very interesting read. Please add these titles to your notes for listeners to check out other multiverse stories. Thanks!
Bruce, thanks for these suggestions. Not sure how I forgot about Recursion🤔 and the Space Between Worlds sounds interesting. I’ll have to put this one on my TBR list. I’ll indeed put these on the multiverse list and mention them in the mini episode.
Thanks for listening. 😊
Re. alternate timelines I'm immediately drawn to Ray Bradbury's classic short story, "A Sound of Thunder." An adventure-seeking time traveler inadvertently crushes a Jurassic-era butterfly, a seemingly inconsequential act. However, upon returning to his own timeline, the time traveler finds his fragile democracy has morphed into a cruel dictatorship. Are our personal decisions more important than we might think?
Bart, I had forgotten about this story. Thanks for reminding me.
One idea of the multiverse is the Anthropic multiverse or the anthropic principle, which suggests that we observe the universe the way it is because we are here to observe it.
If we follow this logic, it implies that our decisions, no matter how small, have consequences for the observable universe. Therefore, while personal decisions are important, some may be less significant than others when considering all possible decisions at every observable time point.
The challenge is that we have no way to determine which of these decisions will lead to the desired personal outcomes versus the undesirable ones.
Great question.