Am I unique?

[Speakpigeon]

There is a theory called String Theory. It is speculative mathematics. Some of the versions of ST call for a finite number (about 10⁵⁰⁰) of possible configurations of "universes."

If that is correct and reality whole (the number of existing "universes") is infinite a strange conclusion arises. You have a duplicate. You have an infinite number of duplicates. Every possible future for those duplicates exists somewhere. If it is possible at all it must happen to you somewhere for every "it." An infinity will be among the lucky ones to live as long as possible given the current starting point.

I cheer for those lucky ones of me who won the lottery last week. Very few of me did.

You are equivocating my dear.

If those are "dupplicates" then they are not you. What happens to them has nothing to do with you. They're not even in the same universe!
EB

 

[George S]

What is the difference between the you duplicate and you? By definition, nothing. To be a perfect duplicate is the be the same. Your duplicate is you as much as you are. Neither can tell the difference. And perhaps choice and chance interact differently in all other universes... wait, no an infinite universe with finite configurations leads to infinite duplicates. Choice and chance will act differently and the same, always in infinite amounts given infinite time. Will there come a time when all of you in all universes ceases to be? If there is a chance to live to the ripe age of x but no further, then one of you will. A "you" that is as much you as you are, being identical and all, will make it. You will. And then, at last, you expire. To join your long lost duplicates to whom choice and chance lead to their earlier demise. One complete life completed. Enjoy the journey.

 

[Speakpigeon]

What is the difference between the you duplicate and you? By definition, nothing.

Says who?

To be a perfect duplicate is the be the same. Your duplicate is you as much as you are.

The OP talks of "duplicates", not of "perfect duplicates".

Further, the duplicates we make are never absolutely identical to the original or even between themselves.

Further, they would live in different universes, living different lives. Not the same thing at all.

Neither can tell the difference. And perhaps choice and chance interact differently in all other universes... wait, no an infinite universe with finite configurations leads to infinite duplicates. Choice and chance will act differently and the same, always in infinite amounts given infinite time. Will there come a time when all of you in all universes ceases to be? If there is a chance to live to the ripe age of x but no further, then one of you will. A "you" that is as much you as you are, being identical and all, will make it. You will. And then, at last, you expire. To join your long lost duplicates to whom choice and chance lead to their earlier demise. One complete life completed. Enjoy the journey.

Duplicates might be identical for a very short period of time, if at all, after being created but your suggestion that they would have different fates says it all. They would be different people. They wouldn't be you.

The best way to get it is to think of the events your duplicates would be going through and the observations they would be able to make on these events. As soon as there would be the smallest observable difference between the events duplicates would be going through and the ones you would be going through then there would be differences between what they would observe and what you would observe. If you were identical to them, you would make the same observations as they would, but you wouldn't.

And that's not just whenever events would diverge but as soon as there would be any duplicate. The mere potential for witnessing different events is enough to characterise duplicates as not identical to you, or indeed not identical to each other.
EB

 

[Kharakov]

Duplicates might be identical for a very short period of time, if at all, after being created but your suggestion that they would have different fates says it all. They would be different people. They wouldn't be you.

A possible "block universe" interpretation of Many Worlds would have infinite branches at each point, so while you have infinitely many duplicates that branched off at some point, you also have infinitely many "duplicates" that have followed your path up to this point, only to split off at this point.

As long as you travel into the future, you "shed" more duplicates (they are no longer exact duplicates). Some of the duplicates live in universes in which something slightly different happened 500 million light years away. Some live in universes in which something happened 60 billion light years away, and it won't ever have an effect upon you (unless FTL travel becomes possible). Butterfly effect applies as well.

Basically, with a block universe, the future exists as well as the past, so the duplicates exist in some sense even when they are exactly the same (down to everything within there specific "universe" of the multiverse).

Of course, this could be complete BS... no duplicates, no many world interpretation. Not a lot of experience switching threw universes.

 

[The Helmetmaker]

There is a theory called String Theory. It is speculative mathematics. Some of the versions of ST call for a finite number (about 10⁵⁰⁰) of possible configurations of "universes."

If that is correct and reality whole (the number of existing "universes") is infinite a strange conclusion arises. You have a duplicate. You have an infinite number of duplicates. Every possible future for those duplicates exists somewhere. If it is possible at all it must happen to you somewhere for every "it." An infinity will be among the lucky ones to live as long as possible given the current starting point.

I cheer for those lucky ones of me who won the lottery last week. Very few of me did.

In order for me to have a duplicate, the other "me" in the other universe would have to have all of the same ancestors going all the way back to the first protohumans to arise in east Africa. The odds of this happening are astronomically small in an astronomically large number of universes, many of which have completely different rules governing matter, energy, spacetime, etc. Many of those universes wouldn't even have matter in them except maybe for a fraction of a second.

So first we would need to calculate the odds that all of the same individual humans would chose the same mates under the same conditions, then calculate the number of universes capable of producing and sustaining humans, what fraction of those universes actually would produce humans (there are a lot of random events governing evolution as we know it [namely certain mass extinction events]) at all, and use that to compare to the astronomically slim odds of you having all the same ancestors.

But if the universe is causally determined, then all duplicate universes would be identical to this one, right?

 

[George S]

But if the universe is causally determined, then all duplicate universes would be identical to this one, right?

Schrodinger's Equation is about the universe being causally probabilistically determined.

Consider the 5th dimension to be probability space. Different world lines in that 5D space describe the probabilities of the possible futures.

The question is whether the reduction of Schrodinger's Equation by "observation" (which describes a point in 5D space) is somehow more real than the other nearby worldlines.

 

[The Helmetmaker]

causally probabilistically

That's a new one on me. Stochastic, maybe?

causally probabilistically determined

In other words, indeterminate.

The question is whether the reduction of Schrodinger's Equation by "observation" (which describes a point in 5D space) is somehow more real than the other nearby worldlines

Since the others are wholly imaginary, the real is real, neither more nor less.

 

[Speakpigeon]

Duplicates might be identical for a very short period of time, if at all, after being created but your suggestion that they would have different fates says it all. They would be different people. They wouldn't be you.

A possible "block universe" interpretation of Many Worlds would have infinite branches at each point, so while you have infinitely many duplicates that branched off at some point, you also have infinitely many "duplicates" that have followed your path up to this point, only to split off at this point.

As long as you travel into the future, you "shed" more duplicates (they are no longer exact duplicates). Some of the duplicates live in universes in which something slightly different happened 500 million light years away. Some live in universes in which something happened 60 billion light years away, and it won't ever have an effect upon you (unless FTL travel becomes possible). Butterfly effect applies as well.

Basically, with a block universe, the future exists as well as the past, so the duplicates exist in some sense even when they are exactly the same (down to everything within there specific "universe" of the multiverse).

Oh, I see! Thanks! Different universes are produced (say, according to the Quantum Physic multiverse view) with some difference somewhere, maybe just in the path followed by one particular photon, and so a big chunk of the rest of two universes created in this case would remain identical for a very long time, so we do have exact duplicates, and very, very many in theory, very many of which could remain identical and live exactly the same life for the rest of their lives.

Unless it be vastly more probable that at least one particle, at any time, in any particular living human body, give rise to two different particles and therefore universes than not. Which would take the wind out of identical duplicates... but not entirely. So, you must be right.

Profligate, I say... Or, we say.
EB

 

[Bronzeage]

In order for me to have a duplicate, the other "me" in the other universe would have to have all of the same ancestors going all the way back to the first protohumans to arise in east Africa. The odds of this happening are astronomically small in an astronomically large number of universes, many of which have completely different rules governing matter, energy, spacetime, etc. Many of those universes wouldn't even have matter in them except maybe for a fraction of a second.

So first we would need to calculate the odds that all of the same individual humans would chose the same mates under the same conditions, then calculate the number of universes capable of producing and sustaining humans, what fraction of those universes actually would produce humans (there are a lot of random events governing evolution as we know it [namely certain mass extinction events]) at all, and use that to compare to the astronomically slim odds of you having all the same ancestors.

Odds don't matter when you have an infinite time and space for the event to occur.

I think that is actually from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There was a Galactic Economic crash when it was discovered, in an infinite universe, every manufactured good could be found growing wild on at least one planet.

Mattresses are friendly, dim-witted, docile creatures capable of speech. They are all called Zem and live in the swamps of Sqornshellous Zeta. Many of them are slaughtered, dried out, and shipped around the galaxy to be slept on by grateful customers, though they do not appear to mind this, one noting that since they are all called Zem they never know which of them have been killed anyway so their concern and grief - "globbering" - is kept to a minimum.