h a l f b a k e r yWhy did I think of that?
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Requires two wormholes and two pieces of string which are exactly the same length, and some assistants.
At a pre-arranged time the two wormholes, placed 1000km apart, are opened into the same parallel universe, the assistant goes through and measures the amount of string sticking out of their side
of the wormhole, and chalks a red mark where the end of the string was.
Experiment complete, assistants returns, the measurements are compared and finally we will know if the universes are parallel, or not.
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I don't understand how this could possibly work.
Won't the assistants just collide with their evil
goatee-sporting doppelgangers who are on their way
to make a blue chalk mark in our universe? |
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That's what I'm counting on. After a certain amount of "No, no, after you, I insist" the distance between the red and blue chalk marks acts as a secondary measure, confirming the string measurements. |
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After enough universes are measured, the white, orange, taupe, beige, blue and red and (inexplicably) Hello Kitty pink crayon marks will tend to average out the errors. |
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You need to measure across both universes on
opposing diagonals. If the diagonal measurements
are the same, then the two universes are parallel. |
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but... but... what if you go through, find there *is*
another universe there, but that it's *not* parallel? |
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Michio Kaku's head explodes on live TV while
Morgan Freeman narrates; Stephen Hawking tries
to explain a point but is helpless while his
computer goes into an endless loop of re-boots;
Preskill and Thorne hack into the Federal Reserve
and start making leveraged bets based on criteria
mere post-docs would never understand; the
scientific papers underpinning the work of the
LHC all collapse, leaving a tunnel of rubble and
magnets; Einstein is found to have mistaken
matter for doesn't matter in the equivalence to
energy; and Susskind is called upon for emergency
plumbing duties in the theoretical physics
departments of a large percentage of the world's
major universities. |
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You thought accidentally creating a black hole was
risky. |
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'Parallel Realities' is something of a misnomer anyhow, or
perhaps merely a broad generality, since realities routinely
merge,
diverge, edge nearer or further, and carom off of one
another on their hellbent race toward infinity. |
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tsk, who's to say they're "parallel", ie: discrete, rather than continuous along another dimension(s). (Okay, that's almost what Ao said, but not quite) |
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//You need to measure across both universes on opposing diagonals. |
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Ahh, that's the easy bit, just use two worms holes, one at each opp diag corner, connect with the bit of string. |
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diagonal = infinity - length of string. |
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Here's a test bun because I would like to see you try. [+] |
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Ha, you're not catching me out again like that..last time, it was "just hold these two wires" and the next thing I know - due to some piddling firmware glitch with the wormhole - I'd become my own great-aunt again. |
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Mind you, the extra string came in handy though. |
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"The first thing to realize about parallel universes... is that they are not parallel. It is also important to realize that they are not, strictly speaking, universes either, but it is easiest if you don't try to realize it until a little later, after you've realized that everything you've realized up to that moment is not true." |
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Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless |
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Wouldn't they get all tangled up with numerous strings of String Theory? |
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Ah, but you see, the strings aren't really strings... |
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Ah, you're just stringing him along |
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If they find a perpendicular universe instead, I'll open up a
convenience store next to the wormhole. |
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The most amazing and truest form of "convenience store". |
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Because whatever your need is in this universe, dear buyer,
it
is bound to be met coincidentally by what is just about to
be discarded by your anti-other over the wormhole fence. |
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This is, without parallel, a brilliant idea... |
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