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Originally Posted by Psieye
A friend of mine came up with one very interesting thought regarding this "quantum forking" of timelines and the Butterfly Effect: the infinity of different timelines will all converge again at the End of Time when the Universe 'dies'. To clarify, first we must make the assumption that (or more accurately, 'choose to only consider the subset of Universes which') all timelines share the same fundamental constants and laws of Physics (else we can't even begin to conceive and debate on these different Universes - gotta have some ground of familiarity afterall). If all timelines have the same Origin (Big Bang, or some other creation theory), then ultimately they'll all have the same End (whether it's entropic heat death of the Universe or Big Crunch, that doesn't matter - point is all timelines will do one or the other). Therefore while we're forking and branching out timelines all the time, somehow we have to bring them back together again. And one way of doing that is noting that not all changes produce a Butterfly Effect:
Imagine 2 different timelines where in both I put a book down to write a letter then pick it back up again. An infinity of other parallel worlds aside, if these two particular timelines only differ by exactly what position I put down my book in, then essentially they'll be identical and would have 'merged' after I pick up the book again - I won't care whether it was 1 cm to the left compared to in the other world, or that it was angled differently - I'll pick it up again regardless.
There will be a myriad of 'choices' which ultimately don't have a lasting impact. I could roll a dice and I get a 4 in one timeline and a 5 in the other timeline, but what if I was rolling the dice because I was bored and didn't care how it landed? Or what if I didn't even bother looking at the dice because I just wanted to throw something? Now mind you, something a HUGE as killing one person would bring a whole slew of changes but way in the end it'll all even out and become indifferent again (though this might take an Eternity to achieve).
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Hmm... would we actually be seeing this butterfly effect as we speak? Considering how that microscopic subatomic quantum phenomons are almost never seen in the plane of reality that we exist in? Could it be the macroscopic world in itself is a convergence of all the possible outcomes from the subatomic level of interaction?
What would happen then in the forever expanding model of the universe where there is no 'end in time'? Will we wind up with no convergence of alternate space-time?
on the phantasm
(It is little wonder why so many physicists become philosophers...)