So parallel universes really do exist?

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So, if there were alternive undiverses, how would you know which one is real? Or like in history, how would you know what really happened?

They'd all be real. As for the second question, I guess the universe that would branch off with a new historical direction would be the copy, but I don't know if there would be any way to detect which that was. Or maybe they divide at the same time.

This is such a fascinating topic!

Here's an article from YAHOO today where they think that interactions between parallel worlds might be the reason stuff acts weirdly at the quantum level. The authors think that someday parallel universes might become a testable theory via this new direction of study.

"Parallel Worlds Could Explain Wacky Quantum Physics

Parallel Worlds Could Explain Wacky Quantum Physics

The idea that an infinite number of parallel worlds could exist alongside our own is hard to wrap the mind around, but a version of this so-called Many Worlds theory could provide an answer to the controversial idea of quantum mechanics and its many different interpretations.

Bill Poirier, a professor of physics at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, proposed a theory that not only assumes parallel worlds exist, but also says their interaction can explain all the quantum mechanics "weirdness" in the observable universe.
Poirier first published the idea four years ago, but other physicists have recently started building on the idea and have demonstrated that it is mathematically possible. The latest research was published Oct. 23 in the journal Physical Review X.
Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics that describes the rules that govern the universe on the microscopic scale. It tries to explain how subatomic particles can behave as both particles and as waves. It also offers an explanation about why particles appear to exist in multiple positions at the same time. [The 9 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics]

This fuzzy clump of possible positions is described by a "wave function" ? an equation that predicts the many possible spots a given particle can occupy. But the wave function collapses the second anyone measures the actual position of the particle. This is where the multiverse theory comes in.

Some physicists believe that once a particle's position is measured, the many other positions it could take according to its wave function split off and create separate, parallel worlds, each only slightly different from the original.

Hugh Everett was the first physicist to propose the possibility of a multiverse ? an infinite number of parallel universes that exist alongside our own. He published his "Many Worlds" theory in the 1950s, but the idea was not well-received in the academic world.
Everett ended his career in physics shortly after getting his Ph.D., but many physicists now take the multiverse and parallel-worlds idea seriously. Poirier reworked the Many Worlds theory into the less abstract "Many Interacting Worlds" (MIW) theory, which could help explain the weird world of quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics has existed for more than a century, but its interpretation is just as controversial today as it was 100 years ago, Poirier wrote in his original paper.

Albert Einstein was not a fan of quantum mechanics. The idea that a particle could exist in a haze of probability instead of a definite location did not make sense to him, and he once famously said, "God does not play dice with the universe." However, this new MIW theory might have helped to put Einstein's mind at ease. In the MIW theory, quantum particles don't act like waves at all. Each parallel world has normal-behaving particles and physical objects. The wave-function equation doesn't have to exist at all.
In the new study, which builds on Poirier's idea, physicists from Griffith University in Australia and the University of California, Davis, demonstrate that it only takes two interacting parallel worlds ? not an infinite number ? to produce the weird quantum behavior that physicists have observed. Neighboring worlds repulse one another, the researchers wrote in the paper. This force of repulsion could explain bizarre quantum effects, such as particles that can tunnel through barriers.
But how can physicists prove we're living in just one of millions of other worlds, or that these worlds interact? Poirier thinks it will take some time to develop a way to test the idea.

"Experimental observations are the ultimate test of any theory," Poirier said in a statement. "So far, Many Interacting Worlds makes the same predictions as standard quantum theory, so all we can say for sure at present is that it might be correct."
The authors of the new paper hope that expanding the MIW theory will lead to ways to test for parallel worlds and further explain quantum mechanics.

Richard Feynman, a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, once said, "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics," but Poirier and his colleagues argue that physicists have much to gain from trying."

http://news.yahoo.com/parallel-worlds-c ... 03032.html

IMHO there's GOTTA be another world better than this one, in some other place or dimension.

Not familiar with that.

Have toyed with writing a sci fi novel about characters who time travel sideways into parallel universe. The universes all fan out with ever greater degrees of deviation in historic course from the track you are on in this universe.

There is the universe in which you got that chick's phone number at the party, and didnt mess up.

Then there is the one in which the other political party won the last election.

Then there is the one in which an unknown Austrian serving as a corporal in the German army in WWI named Adolf dies of his wounds in battle, and never becomes the Fuherer.

Then there is the universe in which the South won the Civil war.

Then there is the universe in which the asteroid missed, and the dinosaurs still rule the earth, and humans never evolved. And so on. With ever greater degreees of deviance from the world as we know it.

And the characters shuttle back and forth between these alternate present days in parallel universes.

Alot of things would be different, but not as different as you might think.

For example the dinosaurs being spared. Mammals would have stayed in evolutionary checkmate- as the supporting actors: small furry noctornal insectovors like shrews, and hedghogs-scurrying around in the shadows of the dinosaurs. Humans would not have evolved. But after 63 million years an upright tool using bipdedal species of intelligent dinosaur ( with feathers instead of body hair) would have evolved. And these creatures would have a high tech civilization today. And a pair of feathered lizard men would be chatting to each other over something like the internet about the possiblity of a parrallel universe in which mammals had taken over the planet.

Wow.

The South winning.

It would have been hard, but not impossible for the south to win the Civil War Imho .

If it had won the USA would have been split into atleast two countries (maybe more). The south being the CSA, and the north retaining the USA name.

There might have been subsequent fighting over who got what in the western frontier. But basically all of the south (from Texas east to Virginia) with some territories (oklahoma, maybe parts of New Mexico) being the new independant CSA.

The war would have ended with the City of Washington either IN the Confederacy, or on the border with the Conferacy. So the Yankees would probably have moved their captital farther into the north.

In the real history Seward was laughed at in Congress for trying to buy Alaska right after the war- but he presuaded Congress to buy "Seward's Folly" from Czarist Russia anyway. In our alternate history- no way- we need a new capital-not an ice box.

So the Czar would have held onto Alaska.

But then in 1905 Russia got its ass kicked by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War. In the real history Japan got Port Arthur, and the southern half of Sakhalin Island as territorial spoils of the war with Russia. In the alternate history they also got Alaska!

So we start the 20th centurey with most of North America's Black population still being slaves in the independant confederacy. And Japan owning Alaska.

Thats mind boogling enough for one night!

Lol!

/\ /\ Reading History in detail, the Southern States of the USA would have had to give up slavery at some time or other, post Civil war. Too many civilized nations had outlawed it. As to the more subtle changes that could have taken place, well, you'll have to read Harry Turtledove books to find out.

As to Adolph, there was a multitude of troublemakers in Germany when he started consolidating power. Its entirely possible one of them could have come to power. But the question remains, would they have caused as much destruction, or more? What if this other 'Leader" had closed the borders before Einstein and others had time to leave and co-opted them for the war effort ?