If there are indeed an infinite number of parallel universes, as quantum mechanics and string theory suggests, is it not plausible that any conceivable thought is a window to another universe?

@intrinsick

Try this on for a moment. Just in our world and existance. In the beginning was what? It was the word and when the word was spoken what happened? It was and sprung into existance. Guess what we are our own word. You are the creator for your own life.

The problem with the multiple universe theory, it seems to me, is that at every smallest unit of time, there are an infinite number of universes branching off. There’s just no end to it. Just think, in a day, there are probably a nearly infinite number of smallest units of time, so we’d have infinities of infinities of infinities of variations on any given universe within less than a second.

I don’t know. It’s something you can’t quantify. I suppose that’s why it’s quantum physics. So if we have infinities of universes splitting off in every quant of time and matter, we have a problem of where they all are. Do they each get a dimension of their own? Do they interact with each other in any way? It’s just so large that it seems meaningless.

In any case, to answer your question, not only does every thought become a window to another universe, it becomes a window to an infinite number of universes. So be careful about that thinking…. just kidding. It doesn’t matter. If you’re careful, there are an infinite number of universes where you are not careful. An infinite times over.

I suppose it is possible. I don’t know if I subscribe to the theory of an infinite number of universes but I think it’s plausible we have more than one.

Just as lying down on your back on a clear night can fill you with the enormous sense of how minute you are and how minute the world is…so does thinking about all the possibilities of multiple universes.

I suppose that almost all fiction books would be reality in some parallel universe.

BUT most importantly, it is important to make a distinguishment between the two types of other universes. One type of other universe would be the different universes in multiverse theory, which is the theory that there are infinately many different universes floating around in an eleven-dimensional space. Our universe is just one small unviverse that takes up four of these eleven dimensions.
The second type of other universe is what is often considered a parallel universe. This theory is less firm than the above, but we still consider it a possibility. Each time something happens, the universe splits into however many (almost infinite) different possibilities. Each of these universes may exist in a parallel time dimension. Importantly, each of these universes have the same laws of physics as ours.
When it comes to fiction, if the fictional universe uses the same exact laws of physics as ours, it may exist in either one of these types of other universes. If it doesn’t obey the exact same laws of physics, it could not exist as a parallel universe, and must be one of the multiverses. Some fiction stories involve physics so weird and inpossible (as an example, someone able change the laws of physics at will) that I am willing say say there is probably no universes that have exactly that story in it.

@wundayatta
I don’t really understand why any of that would be a problem to this notion…

I’m inclined to believe the many-worlds interpretation, because several people whom I’ve come to expect to have their epistemic act together¹ say it’s the most reasonable explanation of some quantum phenomena or other. But I don’t actually know the details of what it involves, how it works or why it’s supposedly true. Something about quantum particles appearing and disappearing.
_____
¹ That says a lot, you know.

Norm Chan, of another website (tested.com) put forth his theory of infinite winning, in that, by focusing positive thoughts, one could transcend their sad lives and constantly be moving their consciousness to a universe in which things are going right for them. Not sure if he is serious, but it is an amusing philosophy.

Actually, recent thoughts are that blackholes legitmately contain new universes. By that theory, as long as you’ve got a blackhole in place of each thought, then yea, you can have a universe in each thought. :)

@Fyrius (or anyone) Just what does an infinite number of universes mean? It would be like each quantum of time spawning an infinite number of new universes. Just like new big bangs, only impossibly hard to imagine numbers of them.

Even if the infinite universe theory is a good one, I doubt if there would or could be any connection or communication between any of the universes. So we’re on our own, anyway. It really is of no consequence that this happens.

Any conceivable thought would be a door to another universe, but you’d never know you were in a different universe from the one the quantum of time before.

The only thing that matters is communication and the sharing of information. If there are an infinite number of universes spawning every nanosecond, but we have no communication with any of them, then they don’t matter. They are just a thought experiment.

Even if there are a finite number of universes spawning all the time, it still doesn’t matter unless we can communicate with one of the others.

Let’s just suppose there there are an infinite number of universes and between them all, they contain everything that is possible to happen over all time. Let’s say that consciousness can interact with these universes, but the way it does so is by choosing which universe to inhabit at any particular time.

We think, but our consciousnesses are somehow linked to the universal flow, and we select our realities as we go, although we are unaware we are doing so. Even so, there is only so much we can do; only so many universes that we can sift through at any particular time. Perhaps some people can do a better job at it than others.

But really, as I keep on saying, if there is no communication between any two universes, then none of it matters because we can’t test the theory and we can’t change anything, even if we could test the theory. These thoughts are just games we play for our own entertainment. It all comes back to our attitudes about what we do. Whether we feel we are in control of our lives or not.

Except that doesn’t matter either. You can still be in control even if you don’t feel like you are in control. Everything that you think and feel is a choice, even the choice to be angry with your choices yet still make them.

Of course, what does “choice” mean, if you aren’t exactly aware that you are making choices?

It is plausible, but quickly becomes incomprehensible, at least to most people. Anybody who made it through the last third of Neal Stephenson’s Anathem should know how confusing it can get.

I don’t remember finding Anathem all that challenging. But maybe that’s because I’ve read so many of his other novels. But this that we’re talking about here really messes me up.

@wundayatta It was Frau Jad’s hopping between alternate realities that got me.

In at least one of the multiple universes of infinite variety, this would have to be one possibility, right?

But.. could there be one universe where there is only one universe and all others fail to exist?
Does EVERY thing have to be possible in all of the universes or are only some things possible in each universe?

@ninjacolin And now you know why I drink. I can’t really think about that sort of stuff sober without getting a headache.

At a glance though,i think you just discovered a paradox that disproves the OP’s proposition. While there could be a universe with flying pigs, some things truly are impossible.

Thoughts require neurons. Neurons require electrons. Electrons obey the laws of quantum mechanics. Which might be explained by the many worlds interpretation. So here’s your window.