The multiverse

[SleepingStandingUp]

Whenever there's a multiverse, the same basic people still exist. But given it took very precise timing to make ME rather than SheepingLlStandingPup or some other child of my parents, it's highly unlikely isn't it. And not just me but their parents and them before then.

If we assume all realities have existed as long as ours, then pretty much as soon as man invented tools, the divergences would have begun. And the chances of the same people having sex and making the same people to go in to have sex with the same people... It just seems so unlikely I don't understand why people keep writing it like that.

Surely in a parallel universe my (this world) descendents several thousand of years ago would have made a different choice, ended up with a different partner, made different babies and I just wouldn't exist there.

The alternative is that it's all inescapable fatem. Whatever else I did, I was always meant to meet DH and procreate with him twice and make those particular three kids

But all possible parallel universes exist, including ones that only diverged moments ago. Making it entirely possible to encounter ones that are very similar to the root one.

When people talk about multiverses, it's usually paired with the idea that there are an infinite number. Some mirror ours closely, because the point of divergence happened only minutes ago. Some are as you describe, completely different. In some there is no life at all

OK so it's the point of divergence thing I'm missing in terms of their similarity to ours. So their existence hasn't been as long as ours, it was ours until I decided to swipe left or right, snog the ex's best friend or not lol

Is this not the same theory as the 'infinite number of monkeys bashing typewriters would write the entire works of Shakespeare' argument?

Always thought that was a bit stupid tbh.

Too much Spiderman, Dr Strange and Everything Everywhere All At Once for me, clearly

Presumably the distance to travel to a multiverse with a further divergence point would also be greater, making it less likely that we would encounter that particular version.

but if this is simply a storytelling device, its both for interest, expediency, and sometimes because it’s cheaper not to have to hire more actors (especially on the case of multiverse tv show episodes)

It might sound a bit daft but really it does make sense. With infinite timelines, every possibility occurs. Right down to everything being exactly the same through an entire lifetine except for you losing one strand less of hair when you comb it that one morning.

I do get why it works as a plot point both for storyline and casting. But.

I see your point about divergent points being further away so harder to reach, but then you have the paint Universe (Dr S) and the paper Universe (Everything...) so doesn't necessarily work. And if DH.2 appeared in this Universe it doesn't mean that I'd exist in his Universe, as he's the one travelling between near Universes. But it always does. I'll always be the ex or the current or something else complicated but which suggests our love is inevitable.

I just don't think infinity is ultimately very comprehensible.

I get that @TruthHertz , I think it's that they only ever seem to visit the Universes where all the same people exist, except for occasionally one person of note but not one who affects the time line yet.

Like I get that if I lived my life over and over again, there's a good chance I'd still let BF1 dump me, snog his best mate who becomes Bf2,, snog BF1 and so dump Bf2, have an unhealthy relationship with BF3, get rejected by NOTBF4 and end up with DH. But there would also be Universes where my fertility was less shit and my ability to remember to take the pill was the same so I'd have had babies def with BF2 which affects all downstream. I'd likely have not met Bf3 except in passing, probably never know Notbf4 and wouldn't have been online dating to meet DH. No one ever visits that Universe. It's always one where the only key differences are one you made in your life.

Maybe it's just an unwritten rule to not mention to someone any Universe where they don't exist.

No one ever visits that Universe. It's always one where the only key differences are one you made in your life.

This, I speculate, is because our general concept of 'a story' usually comprises a sequence of actions, which doesn't really work very well when the permutations are incidental or in a sense non reactive.

OK so I'm putting too much expectation on story writers to accurately depict the multiverse and ignoring the bias that if Chris Hemsworth hopped over from Universe 2 looking for me, it's likely he knew of me in Universe 1 in order to come looking for me.

I read a book where people travel between universes and it introduced a neat rule to get around this for the story - you could only move something to a universe where it already existed (and replace it), so you would always exist where you went, then they could take objects which would also have to still exist in that universe, ensuring you went to one where say, the complete works of Shakespeare had been written. I thought it was a cool way of explaining why they never jumped to a universe where life never made it out of the ocean.