There’s something that you should know about me – I don’t believe in free will. I think that all the decisions that people claim that they have the power to make are illusions. Everything that could happen already has happened, and we are powerless to change the nature of our fate. It’s not because of some divine being. In fact, when one truly thinks about this idea that I have, the existence of a divine being becomes even more ridiculous. Because it makes the idea of lording over this one universe that much less impressive. I know what you’re thinking – how can you possibly believe that? How can all choices just be an illusion? Simple – the Infinite Space.
Let me explain. I believe that the universe that we exist in is but one of the infinite number of possibilities that exist in an endless ocean of possibilities.. These possibilities are connected through forces unknown. It sounds like a bold declaration. But let me give you something to chew on. Here’s a video from Minute Physics about the Schrodinger’s Cat paradox.
This video got me to thinking about so much stuff. Why? Because the concept is interesting.. We don’t know what the truth is until we look to see if the cat is dead or alive. It truly is both. How can that be? The answer seemed pretty obvious to me – both possibilities have to exist. It can’t be one or the other. But where is that other possibility? Easy – the Infinite Space. In that place, there is a reality where the cat is dead, if we look and kitty is alive (we love kitty!). There is no other way. Quantum physics is trying to figure out the answer, but I think that this makes a lot of sense.
Many of my favorite works of fiction have toyed with the concept. In Bioshock Infinite, there is a kind of particle that can break the bounds between the spaces. The Lutece’s figure out how to harness it and use it to break the bonds between worlds in the Infinite Space. Elizabeth has the ability to open doors between the spaces between worlds, but there was a time when she was able to create them on her own. She called it a form of wish fulfillment. Whatever she wanted, she just had to concentrate and she could open a door to that thing. It’s crazy stuff. While that was interesting, it all ended on a note of disbelief, where Booker is killed and that someone closes the door to all possibilities. Yet you hear in the end that there is still a universe where he is alive and everything happens as it is supposed to. So I guess she still failed.
Next up is Rick and Morty. In this series, they have repeated instances where they go into alternate universes in order to do things. But the one that really got me was the episode where Morty wants Rick to create a love potion for him to get his girl, and it spirals out of control until they reach a point where Rick had destroyed all of reality and there seems to be no way to put it right. So he doesn’t. Instead, he finds a universe that exists where he manages to solve the entire problem, and then both him and Morty die. The two then bury themselves and carry on. It is implicated that this strategy is one that Rick has used before, as he says that they won’t get too many opportunities to do this again. I love the grim undertones of that show. It really takes all the hijinks in the series and makes them out to have horrific, ongoing consequences.
Finally, there is my favorite game of last year – Life is Strange. This series did something similar to Bioshock Infinite, but it took the concept a little further. See, it has Max be given the ability to control time. But is she truly controlling time? I did a post about this (link here), but I’ll give my main points here. When Max uses her talent, you see something interesting. She remains in a given place, but time moves around her. It’s how you are able to use it to sneak past guards or get into places without other people knowing it. But what happens to those timelines that she leaves? The implication is that they keep going. So the timeline that Max and Chloe blow up the door to the Principal’s office still happened. As is the one where (if you are really dumb and couldn’t resist trying everything) Chloe accidentally shoots herself when you’re messing with David’s gun. Worse still, there is the one where Max saved William and ended up paralyzing and potentially killing Chloe. That reality continues with Chloe’s parents being destroyed and Max being solely to blame. But the end of the game fucks that up and makes it just like the Bioshock Infinite ending where you can just go back in time and stop it from happening by stopping the catalyst. But that wouldn’t have stopped the tornado. I talked in another post about how dumb the ending to this game was (please don’t make another season. It can only get worse). I still love it, but like Mass Effect 3, the ending crashes and burns.
What a digression all of this was. My point in all of this is that I believe that all possibilities exist in the Infinite Space. An endless space where every outcome exists in its own reality. I don’t think there is a way that one could possibly see this, but I like the one in Cosmos, where it’s like this huge area of interconnecting lights that stretch out for forever, with each light being a possibility. Within the Infinite Space, there are endless possibilities. There is a universe where the first girl I ever loved and I are together. There’s a nice thought. There’s a universe where I chose to turn down the PR company that ended up being a disaster for me. There’s a universe where I didn’t lost my first apartment. It is an endless sea of possibility.
But there’s an interesting idea that a girly-mate of mine posed to me – what if there were realities that touched one-another? I got to thinking about that. If we are to believe the Infinite Space is a real thing, and all of these universes are connected through a larger tapestry of existence, then I don’t see why universes couldn’t touch one-another. There are likely points, countless in number, that our universes have touched one-another and even interacted. I can hear the counter-point –
Then why wouldn’t we know about it? Wouldn’t there have been like people or something coming through?
It’s hubris on our part to think that only our world or our species could be affected. There are endless possibilities for how our universes would interact when making contact. It could also affect anything. There are countless instances of unexplained things happening. Any number of those could be our universe interacting with another in an unforeseen way.
The goal of sciences like quantum physics is to understand stuff like this, and I acknowledge that my perception is simply conjecture that is based on what I have taken in and conclusions I have reached. Could totally be wrong. Part of the fun with science is finding out. What do you think about my hypothesis (yes, hypothesis. It cannot be a theory because there is currently no evidence for it. For all those who say that evolution is “just a theory”)? Let me know in the Comments.
Until next time, a quote,
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.” – Daniel J. Boorstin
Peace out,
Maverick
Lucien Maverick's Den 