Wednesday, April 23, 2014

I have been thinking about parallel universes, parallel lives, time being imaginary,  and multiverses today.  It is really interesting to imagine that they exist - but - if they do, where we are right now as we consider them is all that we are capable of "knowing" as an absolute certainty at the current time. 

One experience that I had stands out in my mind as a question that has no answer.  I am unsure which of the above concepts it might be more closely related to (if any).   About seven years ago, when I was working at the college, I attended a conference on autism in the Albany area.  It was close enough to where I live that I drove there.  Several colleagues from the college met me at the conference.  At lunchtime we all went out to eat together at a nearby restaurant.  I made sure to take enough cash that day in case we shared one check (that was back in the days when people actually carried cash).  I checked my wallet before I left home.  When it came time to pay our bill and I opened my wallet, my money was gone.  No one had been near my purse, and so I knew it must be somewhere and I searched for it for some time.  Nothing.  Of course, I borrowed money to pay my share of the check.   When I got back to the conference I searched the bag with my notebook, etc.  Nothing.  I couldn't get it out of my mind for the rest of the afternoon because I knew it had been there.  When I got back in my car to drive home, I looked again.  I opened my wallet, and was not really surprised that there it was - my money.  Where had it gone and how had it returned?  Did the money in my wallet temporarily enter a different time or maybe even a different place?

The following article on parallel lives is interesting:  http://www.npr.org/2011/01/24/132932268/a-physicist-explains-why-parallel-universes-may-exist