Do Fictional Worlds Exist in the Multiverse?

[R0dr1go]

TL;DR

Do fictional places that the human mind imagined exist in other universes? and if so, did that universe only exist after we came up with the idea or did we just happen to think about an already existing universe?

I'm a 16 year old who has wondered this question for a while. If the multiverse theory is correct, and I understand correctly, there would be infinite universes in which each universe would be different from another in some form. If this is the case, would that mean that places and worlds that we have created in our minds (places in movies, books, etc.) exist in other universes? And, if so, do the universes where these fictional places exist become real when we conceive it in our minds (and if that is correct, what power does consciousness hold in reality?), or, has that universe existed before, and we just so happen to think about it? Thanks.

 

[Orodruin]

TL;DR Summary: Do fictional places that the human mind imagined exist in other universes? and if so, did that universe only exist after we came up with the idea or did we just happen to think about an already existing universe?

would that mean that places and worlds that we have created in our minds (places in movies, books, etc.) exist in other universes?

No.

 

[PeterDonis]

the multiverse theory

What multiverse theory? Please give a specific reference.

 

[Ibix]

I'm a 16 year old who has wondered this question for a while. If the multiverse theory is correct, and I understand correctly, there would be infinite universes in which each universe would be different from another in some form.

There isn't just one multiverse theory. And serious scientific ones limit "other worlds" to ones that form by some understood process. For example, the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics means that the "other worlds" have the same physical laws as this one, just different outcomes of measurements - i.e. different history. This is unlikely to manifest as "mirror universes" like in Star Trek because a sequence of events that makes everyone evil but otherwise unchanged is not really plausible.

So no, your imagination does not create alternate universes. You can easily imagine universes that don't even obey a systematic set of physical laws (indeed that covers almost all fiction), and that is clearly outside the realm of any physics.

 

[kimbyd]

TL;DR Summary: Do fictional places that the human mind imagined exist in other universes? and if so, did that universe only exist after we came up with the idea or did we just happen to think about an already existing universe?

I'm a 16 year old who has wondered this question for a while. If the multiverse theory is correct, and I understand correctly, there would be infinite universes in which each universe would be different from another in some form. If this is the case, would that mean that places and worlds that we have created in our minds (places in movies, books, etc.) exist in other universes? And, if so, do the universes where these fictional places exist become real when we conceive it in our minds (and if that is correct, what power does consciousness hold in reality?), or, has that universe existed before, and we just so happen to think about it? Thanks.

Fictional universes generally violate the laws of physics in one way or another. Often in very mundane ways. Mythbusters has a bunch of episodes where they debunk various Hollywood tropes and shows that the real world doesn't work that way, for instance.

A simple example is gunfire. Gunfire is often shown to have a large "kick" to it, knocking people back. Turns out that in reality, the mass of the bullet is so small that it just doesn't impart much momentum to the target. Little stuff like that makes most fictional worlds impossible, even when the authors try really really hard to get everything right.

 

[KobiashiBooBoo]

If our universe is truly infinite, then within the physical laws, then there could be entire areas that are exactly the same as ours but with one molecule of difference. "Could" be....

 

[woodiemac993]

TL;DR Summary: Do fictional places that the human mind imagined exist in other universes? and if so, did that universe only exist after we came up with the idea or did we just happen to think about an already existing universe?

I'm a 16 year old who has wondered this question for a while. If the multiverse theory is correct, and I understand correctly, there would be infinite universes in which each universe would be different from another in some form. If this is the case, would that mean that places and worlds that we have created in our minds (places in movies, books, etc.) exist in other universes? And, if so, do the universes where these fictional places exist become real when we conceive it in our minds (and if that is correct, what power does consciousness hold in reality?), or, has that universe existed before, and we just so happen to think about it? Thanks.

Like everything in multiverse theory, it's complicated.

Technically, all the different universes in a multiverse bloom are a finite number determined by calculating all the real particles in the universe as well as the number of virtual particles in the base universe and all the daughter universes at any given moment. Every possible "choice" those particles can make individually, as part of a gestalt or group, a mineral, an organism, a fluid, an atmospheric gas, interstellar dust, stars, even black holes (which are technically particles no matter how big they get), plus all the higher order choices made by ever more complex and intelligent organisms.

Though literally astronomical, the number isn't actually infinite, so there is a limit to the possibilities available in this multiverse. With all its physical laws evolving the same way and then after inflation, everything starts diverging into branching universes in which all possible sets and combinations are expressed (but that doesn't include our fictiverses).

There's not an alternate Battlestar Galactica or Star Wars universe or a Buffyverse that is directly part of the multiverse you come from. However, the possibility has been suggested that fictiverses also all have to exist, and that there's some relationship between what we imagine and share and the existence of a universe in which the basic gist of everything in the work of fiction in question. Only with anything that works be contradictory or impossible by rules governing the multiverse THAT fictiverse is in.

So perhaps fictional universes exist, just not on the same axes of space we occupy.

[Post edited by a Mentor]

 

[Jaime Rudas]

If our universe is truly infinite, then within the physical laws, then there could be entire areas that are exactly the same as ours but with one molecule of difference. "Could" be....

Technically, all the different universes in a multiverse bloom are a finite number determined by calculating all the real particles in the universe [...]. Though literally astronomical, the number isn't actually infinite, so there is a limit to the possibilities available in this multiverse with all its physical laws evolving the same way [...]

If space-time is continuous, the probability that two areas of an infinite universe are exactly the same is zero.

 

[Nugatory]

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