Whenever I’m brainstorming a new novel I always begin with the words “what if?” What if I drop a 21stcentury woman into the past when women were given little freedoms and society held onto strict rules of conduct? How would she behave in such an environment, and how would others respond to her? Currently, I’m writing a story based around a dimensional shift. Instead of the heroine finding herself hurled into the past, I’m going to send her into a parallel dimension filled with political intrigue and warfare. In this dimension, Earth’s landmasses are smaller in size; due to asteroid strikes that took place thousands of years ago. A place where bears are domesticated and dogs don’t exist, where technology and religion evolved in a different manner. Of course, parallel universes and dimensions are commonly found in Science Fiction, video games, television, movies, and comic books. My ideas are only beginning to percolate, but with every story I write, I always start with research. Researching hypothetical parallel dimensions involves a lot of quantum physics dealing with math or string theory, both of which have a tendency to hurt my brain after a while, but I shall persevere.
What if there was more than one of you residing side by side in a multiverse you can’t see or feel? What if the actions and decisions you make today causes more branches to break off from this dimension creating other branches of reality?
Five theories that suggest the possibility of a multiverse are infinite universes, bubble universes, daughter universes, mathematical universes, and my focus, parallel universes. In the story I’m creating, the parallel universe is set in the same time and space, it’s merely an offshoot where circumstances and life evolved differently. Prominent physicists are divided over the issue of the multiverse since many in the physics community agree that the scientific method cannot be used to falsify the claims of a multiverse. Proponents Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson clash with skeptical scientists David Gross and George Ellis due to the fact that the theory can’t be tested.
“Parallel universes may or may not exist; the case is unproved. We are going to have to live with that uncertainty. Nothing is wrong with scientifically based philosophical speculation, which is what the multiverse proposals are.” George Ellis, Scientific American.
Stephen Hawking spent years studying the idea of parallel universes. In his final days, he co-wrote a paper discussing how parallel dimensions could operate within our current understanding of physics. The paper is called “A Smooth Exit from External Inflation.” In the paper, Hawking and James Hartle explain the mathematics necessary for a deep-space probe to collect evidence. Hawking believed the evidence for the multiverse could be measured by background radiation dating. The Hawking-Hartle theory uses quantum mechanics to explain the beginnings of the universe, which implies that the Big Bang theory created infinite universes. In these alternate universes, there could be Earth-like planets and societies where different cosmic and technological advancements occurred. The “Many Worlds” scenario was first proposed in 1957 by Hugh Everett III, an American Physicist, who claimed that it was possible that every action has more than one outcome that is produced in an alternate universe.
Some Physicists believe that Quantum Theory (a basis in which modern physics explains the nature and behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level) allows for multiple versions of our universe to exist and that they may even overlap and interact on a quantum level. Everett III’s “Many Worlds” theory suggests that these multiple worlds occupy the same region of time and space, perhaps interacting with each other on the quantum level. Physicists agree that there are only so many ways for matter to arrange itself in the infinite universe, so eventually, the patterns of matter are likely to repeat and thus produce other universes similar to our own. String theory tries to resolve the conflict between Einstein’s theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. The theory of relativity explains the big things, while quantum mechanics explains the small things, unfortunately when combined the math doesn’t work. Some physicists believe that String theory holds the key to understanding the multiverse and fixing the math inconsistencies.
As the scientific community continues to try and make strides in understanding the universe and matter, I’m going to begin chapter three of my novel, which I’m currently titling, Dimensional Shift.
CERN and the Large Hadron Collider: https://lahilden.com/cern-the-european-organization-for-nuclear-research/
A special thank you to: https://www.space.com/32728-parallel-universes.html, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43976977, https://www.iflscience.com/physics/physicist-predicts-parallel-universes-overlap-and-interact/
