My Desire To Learn: Time and Quantum Physics

Time and The Multi-verse Theory

So, apart from cooking, music, and brewing, I’ve become fascinated with Quantum Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, and whatever other names are given to similar theoretical sciences.

The first thing I want to say is that I’m 100% novice when it comes to these topics, and most of the information I have now I’ve only learned at the most basic level, so I fully expect to revisit this post down the road and laugh at how absurd my understanding of these things are. But that’s also why I wanted to write about it.

Perhaps the blog should be titled, “The Lay Man’s Attempt to Learn About Time”. So, in this introduction, I just wanted to talk about what draws me to want to learn about these things. I certainly am not interested in becoming a scientist, but I just want to understand for myself, and please feel free to chime in with a comment if you’d like.

I. Time

It’s not hard to relate to an interest in time travel. I think most people find it intriguing, especially those in my generation that grew up watching “Back To The Future” and a slew of other time-travel movies.

I, as I’m sure most of you, found myself getting wrapped up in the minutia of what can and can’t be possible. Yes, I realize that it’s just a movie, but it’s apparent that there is a certain amount of logic that is associated with it as well and rules that seem universal to traveling through time. The big question being, “Are you allowed to change things in the past?” Obviously Marty was allowed to. I mean, it wouldn’t have been a fun movie series if he wasn’t.

In the 2002 remake of “The Time Machine”, the main character goes mad trying to find the answer to the question of “Why can’t I change the past?” after his fiancée is murdered and he tries countless times to change it, all to no avail. It was also a common theme on “Lost” that it is impossible to change the past, and many argue as to whether or not they did. I fall into the camp of NOT being able to change the past.

Now that was what first piqued my interest, but it has since grown into a fascination with the notion of time itself, how it works, and what role God plays in all of it. One of my favorite podcasts, Radio Lab, put out 2 episodes on time that are really great and I would highly recommend anyone who is interested to listen to them.

Whenever God gets brought into the spectrum of studying time and His place in it, it always seems to circle back to the question of “Free-will vs. Predestination”. To me it’s not much of a question at all, and I don’t really understand why that is to others. It seems obvious that they are not mutually exclusive. Maybe it's not as obvious as I like to think it is.

II. Multi-verse Theory

This is something that just keeps coming up in fiction and non=fiction TV shows I watch ( R.I.P. Flash Forward) and seems to tie into theoretical discussions of Time, and it’s one that really frustrates me based on what limited knowledge I have of it/them.

Please keep in mind that my understanding of the MVT is very limited (which is exactly why I want to learn!), but this is my understanding of part of how it works:

There are an infinite number of worlds or universes that all exist simultaneously, and they are created or divided whenever a choice is made, and the universes collectively contain every possible scenario of every decision that could have been made.

For example (borrowed from Radio Lab… seriously, listen to it, so good), if I’m at a restaurant and I’m debating what ice cream flavor I want, say I choose vanilla. According to (my understanding of) the MVT, new universes were just created in which I chose chocolate, or rocky road, or German chocolate cake, or changed my mind altogether and didn’t get any. And so now there are more universes existing simultaneously with the “consequences” of that particular action ad infinitum.

So I do have some specific questions while studying this one.
1 . Where does this information originate?
2 . Why would that happen?
3 . Does it even matter?

To me, it sounds like philosophical non-sense. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate philosophical thought, just that it sounds idealistic, like someone was just trying to make themselves feel better or not as scared of the choices that they make.

My brother is developing a video game, and I was talking to him about it early on in the process. He explained to me how the game is based on making actual choices and facing whatever consequences come from those choices without the comfort of a “redo” or being able to undo what was done. He explained how that was a theme that had been reoccurring in his life, that choices are real and we need to make sure we’re prepared to deal with whatever our choices bring us.

That really spoke to me, especially in a time in our culture where no one wants to take responsibility for anything. Everyone’s looking for someone to blame or a way to justify things they do, say, think, etc.

It feels like another way for people to not feel bad about making bad choices, because somewhere deep down, a part of them feels better to know that in some universe somewhere they’ve made the right choices and all of the things that they don’t like about themselves are perfect in another version of themselves. It’s like escapism or a medicine of some kind. I just don’t see the point.

That being said, I want to learn about it to see what it has to say and hopefully to find out that I’m wrong. Initially, I did the obligatory Wiki search on “Multi-verse Theory” and found that it wouldn’t be that simple, I’d have to start at the beginning.

So, equipped with a few books and a drive for knowledge, I’ll begin my quest to learn what I can about Quantum Physics, and I’ll be updating on here with my progress when I feel like there’s something interesting to bring up.

I hope you enjoy reading as I fumble through this crazy world I’m about to get in!

- Grey