In a Sad Corner of the Multiverse

Posted on February 26, 2011 in Depression Humor? Science

My current reading consists of three books crammed into my Kindle — Styron’s [amazonify]0679736638::text::::The Confessions of Nat Turner[/amazonify], Metaxas’s [amazonify]1595551387::text::::Bonhoeffer[/amazonify], and a curious but apparently true work of physics by Brian Greene called [amazonify]0307265633::text::::The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos[/amazonify].

I have to admire anyone who wades through piles of scientific papers in an attempt to explain how parallel universes — or taken collectively, a multiverse — arise from taking theoretical physics to its logical extremes. I don’t pretend to understand the math, so I am taking Greene at his word.

The concept shoves me into a place of despair. In its crudest form, consider that there are parallel Milky Ways with parallel earths ((Anyone who has watched Star Trek knows the theme)). On many of these there is another Joel, perhaps pecking away at his computer like I am, except his history has been different. Due thanks to the Universe issues from my lips that this is not the somewhere he lives on the streets (having never met his wife) or is even dead. But there’s a depressing thought that emerges as I read this and I find myself cursing conditions here.

It is possible, you see, that a new universe comes into existence every minute or so. And from this fruition, come new realities. One of these realities has brought me to a better place than this where I am successful or at least secure in a world where the politics are sane. I make a difference in that world. So why, I ask, did I get stuck in this time stream? Why have I deteriorated alongside the rest of the country? Why don’t I get to travel in a better one and stay there?

The despair grows unbearable when I think: “What if this is the best universe?” Ah, then it is tragedy all the way down.

Fork the multiverse. It’s screwed me.