"Sliders" the TV Show, what would really happen?

[TachyonGod]

Hi everyone, this is my 1st post here on PhysicsForums.

I used to love watching Sliders when it was on TV in the 90's, all those infinite parallel worlds to slide to.
But, recently I was thinking about it and when Quinn slid the first time, he would have destroyed the world, maybe even the whole universe.

Why so?

Since there is an infinite number of universes, then presumably there is an infinite number of Quinn's also.

Quinn dials up a universe to slide to, at the same time an infinite number of Quinn's in other parallel universes are also dialing up the same universe, even the same location. When Quinn arrives at his destination, an infinite number of Quinn's arrive at the same time and location.

I'm not a physicist, but I think that much mass in the exact same location would probably trigger a large fusion explosion.
Not only that, but there would also be an infinite number of Quinn's who dialed up a location really close the the one described above, and so on, there would be an infinite number of locations with infinite numbers Quinn's arriving there.

It gets crazier..

There could have been an infinite number of alternate universes dialed up as well as the above one. With an infinite number of Quinn's doing all the variations as describe above.

When Intelligence beings get smart enough to open portals to parallel universes, that's probably how Big Bangs happen.

Anyway just a though.

 

[Melbourne Guy]

Not only that, but there would also be an infinite number of Quinn's who dialed up a location really close the the one described above, and so on, there would be an infinite number of locations with infinite numbers Quinn's arriving there.

I love this idea, truly one of those D'oh thoughts, @TachyonGod 👍

I'm not sure where it leaves a concept like Sliders, I guess there's some limiting factor at play to allow the protagonists to hop around the multiverse, but given your suggestion, I'm struggling to figure out a reasonable mechanism that isn't merely deus ex machina.

 

[hmmm27]

Well... "fiction".

If parallel worlds are a continuum instead of discrete, and Quinn is actually an object continuous across that dimension, "dialing up" a universe might transpose the entire object over a certain distance dimensionally.

We got to see the "successful" iterations, but maybe at the far ends of the Quinn-blob, there's universes where only a couple of the team show up ; where a Quinn segment was just walking down the street to go to the store and all of a sudden middle of a swamp (because the town never got built where he ended up) when most of his segment transposes. etc.

If parallel worlds are discrete and unconnected (save for some kid's magical device), then I don't see where the blowing up is going to happen : world 1's Quinn hops over 10 worlds to world 11 ; world 2's Quinn ends up in world 12 ; etc.

Or, it could be the same'ish mechanism of avoiding time-travel paradice : the world didn't blow up because the world didn't blow up.

 

[Vanadium 50]

If I said "sliding just doesn't work that way", what would your response be?

 

[Melbourne Guy]

Well... "fiction".

Yep, handwavium is the get out of jail for every plot hole in sci-fi. As it has to be, but @TachyonGod's premise is nontrivial, if there are infinite copies of Quinn.

I am having trouble visualising your concept of a 'continuous Quinn', though @hmmm27. I get, for the purpose of a tv show, that we only see the successful jumps, but I do not understand the mechanism where Quinn might spontaneously transition to a swamp while walking down the street?

 

[Melbourne Guy]

If I said "sliding just doesn't work that way", what would your response be?

I might stamp my foot and cry, "Why not?"

But that's just me, others will likely behave in a more mature fashion

 

[hmmm27]

I am having trouble visualising your concept of a 'continuous Quinn', though @hmmm27. I get, for the purpose of a tv show, that we only see the successful jumps, but I do not understand the mechanism where Quinn might spontaneously transition to a swamp while walking down the street?

Admittedly, that was a bit spurious ; ironically, I haven't quite fleshed out the concept (and am too lazy to go looking for those that have).

Say most of a Quinn blob wakes up, does the morning ritual, and decides to Slide, pushing the button on the machine (remember, I haven't seen the show in decades, so don't mind the details). But, there's a small segment in the middle of the blob that can't remember where he's put the coffee and is walking down the sidewalk towards the store for more.

If blobs tend towards cohesion rather than simply falling apart (and in Q's case forming 3 blobs : one craving caffeine, and two mildly buzzed and universe-hopping), then that sub-blob segment could find itself translated over a few universe-kilometers (or whatever the metric is for slideways travel) for no reason, whatsoever. I suppose in that scenario the swamp has nothing to do with anything, merely an indicator of having slid.

 

[Melbourne Guy]

I suppose in that scenario the swamp has nothing to do with anything,

Yeah, I got that was merely an example outcome 👍

Say most of a Quinn blob wakes up

That's the bit that I'm struggling with. Is this some finite number of Quinn's connected somehow (entangled?) across almost the same versions of the continuum, so that when one Quinn goes, they all go? And for some reason (quantum effects?) there are slight transmission errors or some such that causes some number of connected Quinn's to either stay behind or end up in the 'wrong' continuum compared to where the rest have gone?

That's the best I've got, it's a very nebulous concept!

 

[TachyonGod]

We got to see the "successful" iterations, but maybe at the far ends of the Quinn-blob, there's universes where only a couple of the team show up ; where a Quinn segment was just walking down the street to go to the store and all of a sudden middle of a swamp (because the town never got built where he ended up) when most of his segment transposes. etc.

There is in essence an infinite number of Quinns in ALL possible scenarios. Those where he doesn't invent sliding don't matter, because the ones that do and also participate in the scenario described is still infinite in number.

Say most of a Quinn blob wakes up

With the notion of blob, i assume you are referring to a portion of the infinite numbers of Quinns. My understanding of infinity is that a subset of an infinite set is still itself infinite.

 

[hmmm27]

With the notion of blob, i assume you are referring to a portion of the infinite numbers of Quinns. My understanding of infinity is that a subset of an infinite set is still itself infinite.

I was going for the possibility of a sideways continuous Quinn, not an infinite number of zero-width Quinns.

 

[Rive]

all those infinite parallel worlds

Well. Regarding that 'infinite', I think that any sane resolution of multiverse would include some kind of reduction to 'stable' or 'likely' versions instead of a continuous infinite-at-infinite range of variations of quantum choices.

You may set the criteria of 'stable' to exclude infinite amount of protagonists appearing in limited, confined space, creating plot&mass black holes

With other words: just the usual plot armour, now with quantum functionality.

 

[Hornbein]

My understanding of infinity is that a subset of an infinite set is still itself infinite.

It may or may not be infinite. [1] is a subset.

Let's say that each Quinn in Universe n goes to Universe 2n.

 

[TachyonGod]

Well. Regarding that 'infinite', I think that any sane resolution of multiverse would include some kind of reduction to 'stable' or 'likely' versions instead of a continuous infinite-at-infinite range of variations of quantum choices.

Why?

Let's say we were able to locate a universe with a version of Quinn that is absolutely Unique compared to all the infinities of Quinns, how long would that remine true? For instance, down the street from this Quinn some guy crossing the road turned left, but wasn't sure if he wanted to turn right. The universe splits in two so both possibilities play out. Countless choices like this happen in every moment. These things have nothing to do with Quinn, in every case, these new Quinns are identical to the Unique one defined above.

 

[Melbourne Guy]

Let's say we were able to locate a universe with a version of Quinn that is absolutely Unique compared to all the infinities of Quinns

Aren't they all going to be unique? An infinity of uniqueness, QM tells us that has to be case, and MWI does so explicitly with each collapse diverging the Quinn's even if only at the microscopic level.

 

[TachyonGod]

That was my point. How long could a Unique Quinn exist for? A universe like that wouldn't exist, and if one did, it wouldn't be unique for long, like instantly.

 

[TachyonGod]

Sorry Melbourne Guy, I mis-understood what you said. Yes each universes are unique, but not all of their constituent parts. There were 2 identical Quinns, but with a guy down the street, turning left in one universe, and that guy turning right in another universe.

 

[Melbourne Guy]

Yes each universes are unique, but not all of their constituent parts.

I'm wondering if they wouldn't be unique all the way down, so the 'constituent parts' seem identical at the macro level, but they can't be because every QM interaction carves off another universe. Or are the infinite universes created some other way than a MWI-style mechanism?