Monday, November 24, 2008

Des Possibilités Infinies | 無限の可能性

... It says: Infinite Possibilities.

I’ve never been one to dismiss something simply because I can’t see it. This isn't necessarily a faith; it's a fascination with questioning what is and what may be. It's the wonderment that goes along with thinking about all the infinite possibilities of what could potentially exist. I would spend countless hours discussing all the endless options with my dad. He would ask, "What if there's another Earth, exactly like this one, where an identical you, and an identical me, live?"

I used to listen in awe, nodding my head fervently at all the fantastic notions. Just as my dad does, I've always believed in, and hoped for, something bigger – something grander than what we can physically see. Though there's no tangible proof, I've always had a hunch that we’re not alone in space. In my opinion, how could we be? In a way, I feel it’s naive and narrow-minded to assume that we are all there is; that in all of infinite space and time, we are the only living, breathing beings in existence.

Last night I am watched a mind-boggling show on the History Channel about parallel universes. It reminded me so much of those kitchen table talks with my dad. The scientists discussed many of the same "what if's" that Dad and I always do, only they offered rationale and explained the research methods that might actually prove some of these seemingly far-fetched hypotheses one day.


I tried to take notes while I was watching so I could share some of the most intriguing highlights with you, but it was so complicated that I definitely didn't catch everything. But here's some of the stuff I did: they think that parallel universes might really be possible. There are different levels of these universes; perhaps one, an exact replica of our own solar system, with a like Earth and beings that identically resemble us living there, but it's so far out in space we can't see it or even begin to realize it exists.

But the most baffling to me was that they may exist right here, in our own space and time. So, essentially, multiple parallel universes may exist simultaneously, but in different dimensions that we cannot see. As the show was saying, at this very moment, all around you in different dimensions (think of many pieces of paper stacked closely together, and the space between each paper is a dimension - those in that dimension believe their reality is the one and only, and don't know another reality exists right next to them...) are infinite realities all playing out at the same time. You could potentially live out every possibility that could ever exist for you (though, you wouldn't know it, because we're not aware of these parallel realities).

Even more astonishing is the idea that in one dimension, perhaps dinosaurs never became extinct. And in the next dimension, the World War never happened, while another deadly war did. And because these dimensions exist so close together, all these various realities are not only playing out at the same time, but they're happening in the same space - in YOUR space! As an example, they showed a guy sitting in his living room watching TV, oblivious to the fact that mere millimeters from him, in a different dimension he couldn't see, a dinosaur was roaming freely. Wild, isn't it?

If all this is true, maybe there are more of us that live in a parallel universe - maybe in another dimension, yet right next to me, sharing the same space, or in another like Earth with exact replicas of us? And since all options get played out, in one of these parallel universes, I maybe a criminal, or maybe instead of music, I'm passionate about politics. Or perhaps I don't even exist at all!

Scientists are searching for tangible proof that parallel universes exist. That's part of the reason they're colliding particles. (i.e. CERN). But should we be finding these parallel universes? What are the implications? Or, as the show explained, maybe it's imperative we find them, and learn how to transport ourselves there, so we can eventually save humanity, when the Earth is no longer a hospitable (or existing) place to live.

I don't know what to think. But I do believe that it is logical to ask something like: What if the whole world exists on the head of a pin? And we're really tiny creatures, smaller than ants, and we only think we're so big and powerful? What if the planet Earth is just another tiny cell of a living being in another universe?

Look beyond the odds, and you'll find that everything is, if not all, logical.

Who knows what “real” reality is, but it's certainly fun and exhilarating to think about.

What are your thoughts?



Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you used today. Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. After all, dreaming or imagining or whatever you call it, is a form of planning. What to do? It's part of us.


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