The Multiverse
*in an auditorium, the lights dim and a single red haired figure, Seraph, the construct core of the ship Seventh Wing walks to the center podium, dressed like a university professor, taking a sip of the water, she taps the desk to call all the persons in the room to attention*
Ahem, Welcome class to the discussion of the Multiverse in general, we will be discussing the various theorems that can come up… if you were to open the text books that this fine university foists upon us. *holds up her hand and the holographic representation appears and falls open, from which she reads*
The multiverse (or meta-universe) is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes (including our universe) that together comprise all of reality. The different universes within the multiverse are sometimes called parallel universes. The structure of the multiverse, the nature of each universe within it and the relationship between the various constituent universes, depend on the specific multiverse hypothesis considered.
*at which point she snaps the book closed and throws it at a student who has fallen asleep*
Now that I am done boring you all to tears, lets just throw those books out.
Granted recent experiences with some of you may leave you a bit leery of tree refrences, but….
*floating behind her a tree like structure appears* it sadly is the best way to explain this.
*pointing to the base* We have here, the trunk line of a Universe, This is in its most basic form, the universe that we live in, it is connected, to all others by the Nexus, the central point from which all universes emerge, we however will get back the Nexus later. As the passage of time progresses we move farther along the trunk line of the universe the more chances we will have for divergence. *as she explains this she moves the pointer up to the first branch*
Divergence is made when a person makes a choice. However not every choice makes a decision, if this were the case the multiverse would look like this *the image changes to an amorphous blob* Granted it looks similar to this anyways, but this is an incomprehensible mess. *the diagram reverts to its original configuration*
Lets do a bit of a demonstration *a second hologram appears before her, a man stands at one end of a dark hallway, next to him is a light switch* Bob, walks down this hallway twice a day he knows its every nuance, every bit of the carpet… Some tellings of multiverse theory will tell you that two entirely separate universes will emerge depending on whether or not Bob turns on the light or not *the image splits, one Bob turns on the light and walks down the hall, the other does not* Granted, whether or not Bob chooses to turn on the light is up to him, but the universes do not each go on to their separate ways just based on this one man's choice. Simply put there is not enough energy created, by this decision to warrant two separate branch universes. Instead, while the universe may split, perhaps even hiccup briefly, it soon after rejoins into one.
However, lets say that this Bob *the Bobs reset their positions, the Bob who turned on the light, reaches out, turns on the light and walks down the hall* does his thing, and this Bob *the Bob who didn't turn on his light* turns around and walks out of the hallway and goes on a killing spree killing hundreds before he is stopped *said Bob goes through cartoonish actions showing this* In this case, their actions are so different… So much difference can now happen between the two universes, that the quantum energy difference between the two causes this *points to the branch of the tree diagram, at a point when one of the branches breaks off* Branch universes.
Granted wanton violence is not always needed to create this, it is just an example.
Now then… as is evidenced by the first example, not every decision made by every person in this universe is sufficient to create a branch. Branches are most often created by… there is not really a term for them, so I shall use the term Alphanoids. Alphanoids are persons who are influential to the world around them, they take an active role in the events around them. Any person however can become an Alphanoid, they merely must make the decision to become one of these special people. Perhaps a better description of the second Bobs, would be a person who has an opportunity to either become an Alphanoid, or not, if he chooses to become one, he influences many more lives.
Branch universes because of the influence of these Alphanoids can be very different places indeed. Take the Cantinaverse, please…. *glances around, crickets chirp…. clears throat* sorry, bad joke on my part. Imagine if during one of those initial critical battles *as she says this the Bobs are replaced by one of the Midnight Massacre , Lets say that in this universe, *as the battle plays out the diagram seems to follow one person in particular* Haweke Karbn, Zags to the left, instead of the right as he did here *the image splits again each showing one of the potential outcomes, However the one who zagged to the left, is the victim of a stray lucky shot and is destroyed, while the other one carries on and that image plays out as history remembers it, therefore it fades out, leaving instead the now Haweke-less universe remaining* an unlikely event to be sure, but imagine what this universe is like… how events in the future that happened in the Cantinaverse we know, would play out without this central character. People he saved would die, people he killed would live, or would they die by someone else's hand… This is a prime example of a divergent universe created by an Alphanoid.
However Divergent or Branch universes aside, as most of us lack the technology to travel between them, most "experts"*said with air quotes* agree, that worrying about what could have been, is a good way to drive yourself Fruitier than a Nut cake.
*all the holograms now disapear, save for the original tree, this time focusing on the base*
As promised let us go back to the Nexus.
Almost all universes are connected to one another by way of the nexus, the exemptions of course being the majority of independently generated Pocket universes which are a separate discussion entirely. It can be safe to say however that most living beings do not fully comprehend the nexus as they pass through it, as in most cases travel between a Universe of origin and one of Destination, generally results in a "Blink and you miss it" transition from one trunk line universe to another.
Travel to the Nexus, and therefore to other Universes can be achieved by many ways, such as Sliding technology *an image of Sliders wristcomp appears*, personal dimensional quantum tunneling *a holo of Kris forming one of her inter-universal gateways appears next to the image of Slider's wristcomp* Or most common a Gravitic anomaly, such as the Route of Ages *said route appears next to the other two*
On a final note it should be noted that careful planning and choosing of destinations along these branch universes should be made, before traveling to and from them after all, this universe *All other images disappear save for the original tree diagram, a glowing spot appears on the left side of the tree where her pointer is pointing at* may be far, FAR less hospitable than this one *she points to a point on the opposite side*
That concludes todays lecture. *she steps back and glances around the classroom, without fail the entire audience is sound asleep, most of them snoring, causing Seraph to stalk off, grumbling* I gotta install electro-shock systems on those seats….
