Universe or Multiverse?

Is there a multiverse? Here's what Reality Fractal has to say.

Excerpt from Reality Fractal - Simplified:

"Importantly, the Mandelbrot set is the collection of all possible Julia sets. The Universe is a dissociated point on the multifractal version of the Mandelbrot set. The point moves along the RF Mandelbrot set which causes the evolution of the Universe; every time step is a new RF Julia set with a seed corresponding to the position on the RF Mandelbrot set."

“Is this implying a multiverse theory?” - Megan

If the Universe is a dissociated point on the multifractal version of the Mandelbrot set, then what limits the number of points traversing it to just 1? Nothing. In fact, we see that there are countless conscious beings (dissociated points) in the RF Julia set. RF does support the possibility of a multiverse, but not as it is typically laid out in pop culture, especially not Hugh Everett’s Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI). The multiverse, as promulgated by prominent academics of the day, namely Sean Carroll, is incompatible with RF. The MWI claims that there is a physically real universal wavefunction, and there is no wavefunction collapse. It implies that all possible outcomes are realized in different universes. Let’s deconstruct this claim.

The universal wavefunction is a function (mathematical construction) of the entire Universe regarded as a physical structure. The first problem with this is that the utility of wavefunctions is to make probabilistic predictions of where a particle may be found when interacted with. In other words, wavefunctions are purely mathematical. What this means is that although wavefunctions do exist within the minds of individuals, they do not have a physical manifestation. Those who believe in MWI also believe that the wavefunction has a physical manifestation, of which we have no evidence.

Quantum harmonic oscillators for a single spinless particle. The oscillations have no trajectory, but are instead represented each as waves; the vertical axis shows the real part (blue) and imaginary part (red) of the wave function. Credit: KMaster888

Wavefunctions are probability amplitudes that can be turned into actual probabilities using the Born rule, which states the probability that a measurement of a quantum system will yield a given result. Probabilities use mathematics to try and make predictions about the behavior of physical systems by assigning the likelihood of a particular outcome. In other words, although probabilities can be useful tools that correlate to outcomes in physical reality, this does not necessarily mean that all possible interactions actually manifest.

Take the case of the statistical relationship between cancer and smoking. Smokers are more likely to develop cancer than nonsmokers, but not all smokers will develop cancer, and not all nonsmokers will avoid the cancers typically associated with smoking. What this means is that there is no direct correspondence between the action and the outcome, although there is a strong correlation. What an MWI proponent would claim is that the probability manifests in the real world with all possible outcomes existing for each individual. Imagine a scenario where you experience all the possible outcomes associated with smoking. In one universe, you smoke and get cancer. In another universe, you smoke and don’t get cancer. In a third universe, you don’t smoke and get cancer, and in a fourth universe, you don’t smoke and don’t get cancer. MWI says you experience all of these outcomes and that all of these branching universes are disconnected from each other. Importantly, one can see that such a metaphysics is incompatible with free will since anything that can happen will happen. I will discuss free will in a future post.

The MWI crowd takes the wavefunction to be physically real, meaning that every quantum interaction between subatomic particles splits off a new universe. This is combinatorically explosive. MWI states that when one subatomic particle interacts with another, that it interacts with it in every possible way. Keep in mind that in the human body alone, there are approximately 7e27 (7 billion billion billion) atoms. If we just take the most abundant element in humans, oxygen, which has 8 protons, 8 neutrons, and 8 electrons, with gluons holding together the up and down quarks that make up the protons and neutrons, we are looking at 8x3x2 = 48 up and down quarks within the protons and neutrons with an average of 16 gluons for each proton or neutron (16x16 = 256 gluons) and 8 electrons. This brings the rough estimate of a particle count for the human body to 312 x 7e27 = 2.184e30 or 2,184,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 subatomic particles based on our best understanding of particle physics today. So to be a MWI believer, you have to think that for every 5.39e-44 seconds or 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000539 seconds, there are 2.814e30 new universes created just to account for the possible interactions within a single human body.

The elemental composition of the human body, with oxygen being the most abundant element at 65%. This is predominantly due to the abundance of water. Credit: Stem Cell Regeneration Center

Now, extrapolate that out to all 8 billion of us, and go further and extrapolate it out to all of the mass of the Earth. And go even further and extrapolate out to all the subatomic particles in the Universe. This would mean that every 5.39e-44 seconds, there would be roughly 1e90 universes splitting off or in other words, 1.85e133 or 18,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 universes would split off of our universe every second. Within each one of those newly created universes, another 1.85e133 universes would split off in the next second. So you have 1.85e133 universes per second per universe! So, every second that goes by, there are 1.85e133 universes that didn’t exist before, and each one of those universes will split off another 1.85e133 universes per second. This leads to an absolutely unfathomable number of universes and a gargantuan amount of waste!

A simplified MWI splitting multiverse. Note that this is only a few branches rather than 1.85e133 branches per second. Credit: Standford University

Why would the Universe split off at every single possible quantum interaction? Simple answer: It wouldn’t. Occam’s Razor states that the simplest explanation is the most likely to be the correct one. So, is it simpler to have 1.85e133 universes created every second, with each one making 1.85e133 universes on its own each second, or is it more likely that the wavefunction is actually just a mathematical concept that helps us to predict the likelihood of a particular particle’s location? OBVIOUSLY, it is the latter! This highlights the absolute absurdity of MWI.

So, what does RF propose is actually happening? Wavefunctions collapse (choices are made), and they collapse via interactions with conscious observers. This makes it such that the Universe only exists for the conscious observers, where the Universe needs to be, and where it makes sense to be. Conscious observers collapse the wavefunctions, and that constructs the universe we are in currently. If there is no conscious observer, then there is no collapse (there is no one making a choice). This means there is no universe if nobody is there to observe it.

Now what is a multiverse theory that would be supported by RF? One where there are multiple points traversing the RF Mandelbrot set. These points would be discrete relative to each other, and they would be incapable of interacting with other points at the RF Julia set level since they are dissociated. Their corresponding universes would be self-similar to each other. There is no way to determine the possible number of multiverses at our level of being since we are dissociated points on an evolving RF Julia set. We are dissociated from the RF Mandelbrot point, and there may be other RF Mandelbrot points evolving in different directions, but at our level of dissociation, it is impossible to probe. One would first need to reintegrate with the Universe in their discarnate phase, and then one would be able to make observations that could find the presence of other universes.

So, in principle, additional universes are unprobeable within the RF Julia set but could be probeable in the RF Mandelbrot set once one is fully reassociated at that level. The natural conclusion of the entire process remains the same, however. The RF Mandelbrot points are still dissociated and will eventually unify into a singularity once the possibility space has been thoroughly explored by all the conscious beings. It is also possible that God will create a new RF that would have different physical laws once the RF Mandelbrot set is fully exhausted and God’s will to do isn’t yet satiated.

This is notably different from MWI. The RF multiverse does not have pointlessly splitting off universes for every interaction, but rather there can be the presence of different disjoint universes with self-similar properties, the evolution of which is guided by the embedded conscious beings. One could think of the Mandelbrot set as the possibility space of all the vantage points in spacetime that could manifest, but only a fraction of all the possibility space will be explored at the discretion of conscious beings. If no conscious being decides to explore a particular facet of the RF Mandelbrot set, then it will not be explored or even rendered. Let alone each one of those possibilities splitting off into new universes.

The reason academics toy with such theories is due to their implicit materialistic metaphysics. Academics that take MWI seriously believe that there is only physical reality and that our conscious experience is:

“… an emergent phenomenon from sufficiently complex cognitive systems. This is a mischaracterization of the actual situation. Upon sufficient introspection, one can distinguish consciousness from cognition.” - from the abstract of Reality Fractal

Once one eschews the insufficient materialistic paradigm, one finds that parsimony and simplicity return in explanations. The presence of the simplification without any loss in explanatory power indicates that RF is correct. If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below!