Does Earth Exist in a Parallel Universe?

Unveiled

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00:00As far as our understanding goes, Earth is unique. Thousands of exoplanets have been

00:05observed and some are considered Earth-like, but none can quite match our little blue dot.

00:10Nevertheless, in the ongoing search for second planets that might come close, in recent times

00:15a new and intriguing avenue may have opened up.

00:19This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question, does Earth exist

00:24in a parallel universe?

00:26Do you need the big questions answered? Are you constantly curious? Then why not subscribe

00:30to Unveiled for more clips like this one? And ring the bell for more thought-provoking

00:34content!

00:36The general theory of parallel universes has taken hold in science fiction thanks to the

00:40massive creative flexibility that's offered. If writers or directors want to change anything

00:45along this timeline, then parallel universes allow them to switch to another… and continue

00:50on from there. And then, of course, the various paradoxes in play can serve to shape an enthralling

00:55tale. What if the main character meets their alt-world doppelganger? What if that parallel

01:00person is also evil? What if war happens in one reality but not in the other? What happens

01:05if the evolution of life itself unfolds just ever so slightly differently? The parallel

01:11world is always a place to experiment with fresh and bizarre ideas.

01:15From a science fact point of view, however, does any of it ever check out? How accurate

01:20are the various concepts surrounding a multiverse? Does physics or theoretical physics genuinely

01:25allow for what, on the face of it, would appear to be magic? And, in particular, is the all-too-common

01:31trope of a world just like this one, but different, ever really possible?

01:36Well, an immediate, sizeable problem is that no single parallel universe theory is unanimously

01:41accepted by the general scientific community. Such notions are usually considered to be

01:46fundamentally unscientific. They cannot, so far at least, be validated via prediction,

01:52observation, or experimentation. Every imaginable parallel reality lies outside our observable

01:58universe as we currently understand it. And none is falsifiable, either. We may suspect,

02:04even strongly suspect, that there are parallel worlds out there, but we do not know. And,

02:09almost always, the suggestion of parallel places fails the famed Occam's razor as well.

02:14The philosophical principle that the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions is the one that

02:18should be preferred. Here, one singular universe is a much simpler assumption for reality,

02:24rather than a multiverse of infinitely many unobservable realms. Parallel worlds add unnecessary

02:30layers of complexity, and so the answer can never be a straight-up, yes, Earth exists

02:35in a parallel universe. Despite everything, though, multiverse theories have arisen from

02:40theoretical physics, and some do allow for second and perhaps infinite Earths, all existing

02:46beyond the cosmos as we know it. The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, as often

02:52happens, is the bar-setter, proposed in 1957 by Hugh Everett III. It suggests that every

02:58possible outcome of a quantum event is realized simultaneously. The quantum wave function

03:03contains all possible states for a system, and many-worlds is simply a way to interpret

03:09it. So, whenever any event occurs, including an event as immeasurably tiny as a single

03:14particle splitting or combining, all possible outcomes happen along separate branches of

03:19reality. All of those outcomes then equally exist in the same overarching framework, the

03:25multiverse, and it's only when we measure the outcome, or more simply observe it, that

03:30reality collapses into the single outcome and world that we observe as our everyday

03:35lives. There's often some misinterpretation here. For example, the theory can make it

03:40feel as though an entirely new universe is created every time a quantum event happens.

03:45As though there's something somewhere that's just continually chumming out all the new

03:49but slightly different stuff that's just endlessly required. This is definitely impossible,

03:54however. An entire reality's worth of matter can't just materialize instantaneously,

04:00and then again and again and again, forever. Yes, the moment of creation for this universe

04:05generally thought of as the Big Bang is something of an issue here… because the Big Bang theory

04:11does kinda suggest that in that one moment 13.8 billion years ago, a universe really

04:17did spawn from nothing. But, still, science does not generally suggest that this same

04:22event is happening over and over again, in the background of our lives forevermore. Instead,

04:28the Many Worlds Theory implies more that all the other parallel realities that aren't

04:33this one are encoded along a higher, even more fundamental structure or mechanism than

04:38just this cosmos. As such, although the branches of a tree comparison is accurate to a degree,

04:45there is never any crossover between the branches. The parallel worlds do not interact, they

04:50are not known to each other, they cannot impact one another. From a science fiction perspective,

04:55this is not ideal, and is usually ignored. The overlaps are where the story happens,

05:01so writers will deviate from many worlds to make those overlaps happen. But the feeling

05:05remains that, really, all parallel worlds, if they do exist, are wholly isolated from

05:11others. Nevertheless, and although we could never travel there, it's an idea that concludes,

05:16yes, Earth should indeed exist in a parallel universe. And many, many times over. The changes

05:23between here and there could be infinitesimally small, or they could be inexplicably massive.

05:28One doesn't have chocolate ice cream. One doesn't have any ice cream. One doesn't have

05:32human life. One doesn't have any life at all. Whatever changes do take place are all rooted

05:38in those same, endless splits and branches along the Many Worlds version of reality.

05:43Interestingly, it's something that scientists and researchers hope to better understand

05:47over the coming years, via the uptake of quantum computing and general entanglement

05:53experiments. It's again unlikely that we'll uncover irrefutable evidence of parallel worlds,

05:58but these quantum pursuits should further flesh out the theories.

06:02Many Worlds isn't the only way to look at the question of parallel Earths, however.

06:06The Holographic Principle offers another, somewhat unnerving possibility. In short,

06:11the Holographic Principle proposes that everything we know and see and feel could, indeed, be

06:17a hologram. It's a thought that originated through observations of black holes and of

06:21Hawking radiation. It's held that black holes are capable of performing an at one

06:26time seemingly impossible feat, in sorting information on their surface as opposed to

06:31their interior, in 2D rather than 3D. And so, if such a bizarre set-up can be achieved,

06:38then could it also be happening elsewhere, and along higher levels of reality?

06:43The Holographic Model of the universe broadly suggests that Earth, everything that's on

06:48it, and perhaps even every observable thing that surrounds it, is a projection. In most

06:53respects, this makes life no more or less real for us, but it does rewrite all the rules

06:59and claims as to why we're here and what our purpose is. And, boiling all of reality

07:04down to what's effectively a line of information that's beamed onto a canvas, it might be

07:09assumed that such an Earth could be made or rendered time and time again. Picture the

07:13base point as something like a movie projector, and now imagine that there's a miles-long

07:18row of such projectors, all beaming out the same movie. In this admittedly highly speculative

07:24set-up, the answer would again be yes, Earth should exist in a parallel universe. Similarly,

07:30though, good luck trying to travel to your life as played on one of the other screens.

07:35It isn't likely to be possible. Ultimately, the question has two answers. We do not have,

07:41and probably never will have, an inarguable means of demonstrating that other Earths exist,

07:47identical to ours, in parallel worlds. On the other hand, if you subscribe to the many-worlds

07:52interpretation or the holographic principle, if you believe that we live in a multiverse

07:57in general rather than a simple universe, then an identical Earth is often inevitable.

08:02What do you think is happening over there at this moment? How is that other unknowable

08:06place different, and how is it the same? Is there someone else who's busily watching

08:11their fill of reality-shifting YouTube videos? For now, whether we're all alone or one

08:17of many, whether we're physically grounded or metaphysically projected, we are here on

08:22this Earth, and we should probably be making the most of it. The proverbial grass could

08:27well be greener on any other theoretical replicant or quantum-facilitated neighbor

08:33that might be dwelling out there somewhere, over an impenetrable horizon. But still, life

08:39here might be something that a hypothetical sister planet could also envy. There are reasons

08:45to be cheerful, and hopefully to avoid an existential crisis.

08:58What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these

09:03other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you subscribe and ring the bell for our latest

09:07content.

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