Book Review : ‘Parallel Universes’ Stretches Usual Boundaries of Science

Parallel Universes: The Search for Other Worlds by Fred Alan Wolf (Simon & Schuster: $19.95; 351 pages)

Common sense is not a reliable guide to the truths of physics. This has been so since Copernicus put the sun, not the Earth, at the center of the solar system. Doesn’t it look as though the sun is moving? Doesn’t it feel as though the Earth is not? Well, the sun isn’t moving, and the Earth is.

In the 20th Century, the mismatch between physics and common sense has come home in spades. Quantum mechanics is one of the most successful physical theories ever devised, but it has all sorts of strange consequences.

According to the so-called Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics--the generally accepted view--the world, the universe and all outdoors do not exist until they are observed. What’s more, the observation helps create the reality. Try that on for strange!

Many people are unhappy with the Copenhagen interpretation (so named because it was devised by Niels Bohr, the great Danish physicist). Albert Einstein, for one, said he couldn’t believe that a mouse could drastically affect reality just by looking at it. To this day, the physics literature abounds with alternate interpretations for quantum mechanics, each one stranger than the next.

A Strange Read

Among the strangest is the theory of parallel universes, explained in detail in Fred Alan Wolf’s book, aptly titled, “Parallel Universes.” If you are looking for a very strange read on the boundary of science and science fiction, this is it.

Wolf, a physicist by training and an accomplished explainer of contemporary physics (no mean feat), argues here that there are infinitely many universes coexisting with ours, of which we experience only one, namely, the one you see all around you. He writes:

“We all exist as conspiracies of parallel universes. All our experiences that we say are occurring here and now are also occurring in other universes. Our knowledge of something real and out there gives us the individual experiences we have. The ability to decide what’s what and when’s when, and where’s where--our sense of experience and our sense of will that moves us through space and time with matter--can only result, according to the parallel universes interpretation of quantum physics, when there is a conspiracy, a merging together of the different choices in different universes.”

Wolf asserts that the parallel-universe theory solves one of the central problems of physics, reconciling quantum mechanics (which deals with tiny particles) with relativity (which deals with large objects). I’ll not try to repeat his explanation, but he notes that once it is accomplished, a whole new set of questions arises.

Questions and Answers

“What is inside and what is outside the universe? Does the universe have an energy? Are time and space observer-dependent? Do the time and space distortions of relativity imply that one can actually travel in time? If time travel is really possible, what happens if I go back in time and murder my 5-year-old grandpa? If parallel worlds exist, what effect do they have on time travel? Can one see beyond time barriers as the old philosophers like Nostradamus used to dream?”

And that’s just the beginning of this unusual yarn. There are several chapters on time travel. The future and the past, you see, are just parallel universes existing alongside the present. Not only can the past affect the present, the future can affect the present, too. “The future exists now,” Wolf says, “and so does the past.”

There are practical consequences, mind you. One section of the book is titled, “Using Parallel Universes to Predict the Stock Market.” (This is only a theoretical possibility.) Another section is titled, “Quantum Ethics.” There are discussions of how parallel universes affect the mind, free will and even schizophrenia. (Wolf suggests that schizophrenics may actually be in contact with parallel universes, which is why they see things so differently.)

Troubling Premise

All of this strikes me as odd, to say the least. Wolf rails against the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, but his alternative is no less mind-boggling. To be sure, anything is possible, but if “anything is possible” is your major premise, you are in big trouble.

Richard Feynman, another of this century’s great physicists, warned that it was a mistake to think about the implications of quantum mechanics. It is a powerful mathematical tool that accurately predicts the outcomes of experiments with subatomic particles. After that, you’re on your own.

Don’t wonder about how reality can be like that, Feynman said. Such speculation will only lead you “into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.” Smart guy, Feynman.

Or, as Alice said, things are getting curiouser and curiouser.