Fun With Physics #6 · 9:15pm Jan 24th, 2013
First off, I'll just give a little disclaimer: this blog post doesn't have any calculations. It's all theoretical stuff, that's generally impossible to calculate anyway.
I think you know where I'm going with this. It's time to venture into the mysterious and messed-up realm of QUANTUM PHYSICS. Dunh dun daah!
Now, most people only know quantum physics as something insanely complicated, and only for the most hopeless of learning addicts. And you'd be right. I admit to a rather severe learning addiction, and whenever I venture into anything related to quantum physics, I come out confused and with a hurting brain. But, there are several concepts in it that are actually comprehensible to the mortal mind.
Based on quantum theory, there are an infinite number of universes, representing an infinite number of possibilities. The majority of physicists (including Stephen Hawking) believe in this. Say you flip a coin. The probability of getting a heads or a tails is about 50%. So, when you flipped the coin, there would be an instant divergence into an infinite (but roughly equal) number of universes where the coin lands on either heads or tails. Still with me? Well, there would be another set of universes where the coin lands exactly on edge.
Now here you're thinking, "Pfft. You kidding me? That could never happen."
Well, there's actually a statistical probability that a coin, when tossed, will land exactly on edge and stay there. So, it goes from the realm of the impossible to the merely improbable. And that's where quantum physics takes its roots from.
See, quantum physics doesn't regard things as straight yes-or-no possibilities. It looks at things as a series of probabilities. And, of course, since there's an infinite number of universes out there, there's a basically infinite chance that something improbable will happen (since a portion of an infinite number is still infinite).
So quantum physics essentially states that anything at all can happen at any time for any reason. If I were to throw myself at a wall, there's an incredibly small probability that I would phase through it and reappear outside, in the Canadian winter. (This process is referred to as quantum tunneling) Is it a small probability? Yes. But it can happen, and so it will somewhere. And in the other 99.999...% of the universes, I'd just bounce back and make a fool out of myself.
Likewise, say I decided to shoot myself (unlikely). In most of the universes, I'd be dead. But in some, the gun would jam, misfire, or the bullet would refuse to work. I could try it as many times as I want with as many bullets as I want, and it still wouldn't work, because there's an existing probability that it won't. (Of course, I'd still be dead 99.999...% of the time)
So, how does all this relate to ponies, you ask? All your other physics blogs have related to them in some way.
And this one does, albeit in a fairly perfunctory manner. As there are an infinite number of possibilities out there, there's a chance that equines gained intelligence instead of humans. That monkeys stayed in the trees, and that equines started using tools, changing the environment around them, and building towns, cities... entire civilizations, even.
Is it probable? Hell no. Grazing animals, as a rule, have a low brain mass/body weight ratio, and no real need to gain any kind of significant intelligence. Based on the amount of energy that the human brain consumes, this would be an evolutionary hinderance. But nobody ever said it was impossible.
Hey, if free-floating consciousnesses are an accepted theory, is a universe populated with ponies really that far-fetched?
Interesting.
The big picture is, there is a universe where MLP exists, verbatim as it is in the show. But that also means that there are universes where Alicorn, OC, self-insert Mary Sues exist. But that also means there is a universe where all of these are beaten up by a tag-team of you, Chuck Norris, Batman, and a sentient Twinkie with a portal gun.
this is the only one of these blogs to not confuse me in the slightest
Thus we get 'quantum immortality', based on the idea that, well, since you'll never get to see the universes where the gun does work...
The Problem with quantum physics, including the multiverse theroy: It only actually works with objects smaller than an atom.
So unless you are a photon or a quark, your time is better spent on... I don't know... writing fanfiction?
Why don't you get started.
Going back to the coin thing, let's say I were to not look at the coin. It would essentially be in a limbo state; only by looking at it would I know whether it was heads or tails. Until I looked at it, the divergence wouldn't occur. It's the exact same principle as Schrödinger's Cat.
747542 Hm. Well played. Consider me reprimanded.