Norman Friedman has written a worthwhile book, Bridging Science and Spirit: Common Elements in David Bohm's Physics, the Perennial Philosophy and Seth. As the title indicates, the book is an exploration of overlapping points between certain interpretations of quantum physics and certain mystical traditions. There's a lot of good information about both subjects. But there are points when Friedman loses me.
One such point comes when he talks about multiple universes. He begins by bringing up the "many worlds" theory proposed by physicist Hugh Everett. "In attempting to explain the measurement problem in physics, Everett assumed that the universe splits into all its probabilities when a measurement is made. These universes exist side by side and simultaneously, though not in contact." (p. 134)
What this means is that every time we make an observation, we are choosing one possible reality out of a spectrum of probabilities. All of the other probabilities are realized in alternate universes, so we are constantly spinning off new universes in huge numbers. The number of parallel universes in this scheme is virtually infinite and increasing exponentially all the time.
This means, of course, that there are a virtually infinite number of copies of each of us occupying these various universes, so that each of us actualizes all the possible choices that we could make across the full spectrum of realities that we create. And not only are we spinning off our present-day reality, but the choices we make even affect the nature of the past. Friedman again:
Within a society, different groups can and do choose different paths. As an example, one group sees Jesus as the son of God who lived 2000 years ago. A second group's history depicts Jesus as a Zealot who stormed to the temple in order to expel Roman rule. Another group says that Jesus never existed. Since all probable events are actualized somewhere, all three histories can be made acceptable by common consent ... [Page 161]
Now, this is awfully far-fetched. According to this view, a historical figure like Jesus -- or Julius Caesar or Thomas Jefferson, et al. -- simultaneously did and did not exist, and simultaneously exhibited certain properties and did not exhibit those properties, and simultaneously took certain actions and did not take those actions. Presumably we ourselves simultaneously exist and do not exist, since in some alternate universes we would never have been born.
There is, of course, no way to prove that reality isn't like this. But the hypothesis strikes me as so wildly implausible that virtually any alternative theory would be preferable. And there are alternative explanations of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics.
As I understand it, the most widely accepted interpretation is that only one of the various probabilities is actualized -- that the quantum probability wave collapses down to a single point when an observation is made, and the other probabilities remain unrealized in any dimension. No doubt there are problems with this interpretation as well, but at least it does not oblige us to believe in an infinite number of contradictory and paradoxical universes.
Or maybe I'm wrong, and reality does ramify into countless branches with every new observation and/or choice we make. If so, there must be an almost infinite number of Michael Prescotts who have just written a blog post on this subject and come to the exact opposite conclusion from my own.
http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/mich ... orlds.html
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