# A silly thought

Staff Emeritus
Gold Member
Let's assume the 'parallel universes' interpretation of quantum mechanics is accurate, and that each time a wave function is collapsed, the universe "branches off" into multiple incarnations of itself to accomodate each possible outcome of the quantum measurement.

It therefore follows that there will exist at least several such universes in which the behavior of quantum particles, although randomly generated, will appear to follow a set of well-defined mathematical laws. Scientists will have been duped into thinking that classical determinism extends all the way down to the atomic level!

Now imagine by analogy that the fundamental natural order of ALL nature is in fact random and indeterministic in the flavor of the quantum mechanics we know, regardless of scale. We just happen to exist in one of those rare parallel universes where every random 'quantum' event occurring on a sufficiently large scale, up till now, has followed well-defined mathematical laws, i.e. the laws of physics. But like the scientists of the last paragraph, we're in for a big surprise sooner or later... Better hope you don't wake up tomorrow with a fork for a nose.

...twilight zone?

drag