Thesis+Based+Research+Assignment

 Theoretical physics is not covered in high school. This seems fair, given that understanding the proofs and hypotheses behind many aspects of the field are far beyond the curriculum limitations of secondary schools. However, acknowledging the existence of, and importance of various discoveries and understanding does not necessary preclude participation at the high school / early undergraduate level. After all, political issues of vast complexity are regularly debated by youth with little or no formal training. Parallel universes, aside from being an entertaining science fiction story device, are considered to be quite likely and subsequently extant. This means something to humanity. Our place in the universe is made much more insignificant or significant given the existence of a multiverse. Each new scientific understanding alters our notion of reality, and thereby how we must behave on a daily basis, and how we reconcile ourselves with our world. The driving question behind my research can be stated by asking the philosophical ramifications of the existence of parallel universes. This assumes a question which must be dealt with: do parallel universes exist? Upon answering this, one asks what evidence exists. How do we know about them? How can we find out more about them? What does this mean for how we live our lives every day? To paraphrase this last question: so what? Much of the research I conducted avoided this final question. While it is pivotal to my thesis, I found myself lacking a great deal of background knowledge. Only when I understand each part can I begin to synthesize.
 * Rationale for Research/Introduction: **

 A. Falk, Dan. //Universe on a T-Shirt////.// New York: Arcade Publishing Inc., 2002. Print. 1. Quantum mechanics: Schrödinger’s cat (superposition of alive and dead) (133) 2. String theory: best theory of quantum gravity available (150) 3. Tiny strings vibrating that make up quarks and leptons (150) 4. String theory in 11 dimensions = m-theory (membrane theory) (154) 5. P-brane (like n-gon) defines the membranes, which have p-dimensions (154) 6. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Hawking presently works on the cosmology of m-theory (156)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Research: **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">B. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Highfield, Roger. "Parallel universe proof boosts time travel hopes - Telegraph." Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph. Web. 18 Sept. 2009. < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3307757/Parallel-universe- proof-boosts-time-travel-hopes.html>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">1. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">David Wallace and Simon Saunders Oxford mathematicians prove parallel universes (para 19) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">2. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">David Deutsch: “many worlds” hypothesis of quantum mechanics (para 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">3. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Hugh Everett III: Wave function collapses to give a single outcome when position and speed are measured <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">4. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Allowing for the creation of universes based on quantum motion prevents collapses (para 9) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">5. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Every time there is an event at the quantum level - a radioactive atom decaying, for example, or a particle of light impinging on your retina - the universe is supposed to "split" into different universes.” (para 11) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">6. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The many worlds hypothesis allows for time travel without paradoxes (para 13) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">7. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Until observed, quantum particles are in superposition states (para 18) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">8. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Probability deals with the universes in which a quantum event occurs (para 21)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">C. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"Parallel Universes." //<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt;">Horizon //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. BBC Two. 14 Feb. 2002. //<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; msobidifontsize: 10.0pt;">Bbc.co.uk //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. Web. 18 Sept. 2009. < http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/parallelunitrans.shtml >. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">1. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Debate between ten and eleven dimensions (10 needed for string theory) (para 46) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">2. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“The tiny invisible strings of String Theory was supposed to be the fundamental building blocks of all the matter in the Universe, but now, with the addition of the eleventh dimension, they changed. They stretched and they combined. The astonishing conclusion was that all the matter in the Universe was connected to one vast structure: a membrane. In effect our entire Universe is a membrane. The quest to explain everything in the Universe could begin again and at its heart would be this new theory. It was dubbed Membrane Theory, or M Theory, but so enigmatic and profound did the idea seem that some thought M should stand for other things.” (para 50) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">3. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“That eleventh dimension will, at its maximum size, could be something like a trillionth of a millimetre.” (para 61) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">4. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Then some suggested it might float like a thin rubber sheet. Others that it might be more like a bubble which vibrated as it was blown aimlessly across hyperspace. If all this wasn't surreal enough, it was then proposed that there might be another membrane universe pulsating at the opposite end of the eleventh dimension. At first this idea wasn't taken very seriously, but eventually it would be re-examined for physics was about to ask whether our Universe was really alone.” (para 64) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">5. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Gravity is exceptionally weak compared to the electro-weak force and the strong nuclear force (para 68) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">6. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Gravity is leaking into our membrane from another membrane Lisa Randall (para 72) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">7. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Membranes can look different (para 75) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">8. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Big bang = two membranes clashing into each other (para 83) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">9. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Ripples in the branes result in clumps of matter after the collision causing the big bang (para 105)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">D. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics." //Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy//. Web. 05 Oct. 2009. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm- manyworlds/#3.1>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">1. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“The fundamental idea of the MWI, going back to Everett 1957, is that there are myriads of worlds in the Universe in addition to the world we are aware of. In particular, every time a quantum experiment with different outcomes with non-zero probability is performed, all outcomes are obtained, each in a different world, even if we are aware only of the world with the outcome we have seen.” (para 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">2. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Two tenants: “A mathematical theory which yields evolution in time of the quantum state of the (single) Universe. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">A prescription which sets up a correspondence between the quantum state of the Universe and our experiences.” (para 4) //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;"> 3. ////<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“ // // A world is the totality of (macroscopic) objects: stars, cities, people, grains of sand, etc. in a definite classically described state.” (para 6) // //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;"> 4. // // Saunders 1995 – relative “centered world” defined by all perceived objects; does not include quantum effects in superposition. (para 8) // //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;"> 5. // // According to MWI, each world has a unique past, but numerous futures (para 13) // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">6. //<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; msoansilanguage: EN; msobidifontstyle: italic;">“ //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">If I am going to perform a quantum experiment with two possible outcomes such that standard quantum mechanics predicts probability 1/3 for outcome A and 2/3 for outcome B, then, according to the MWI, both the world with outcome A and the world with outcome B will exist. It is senseless to ask: "What is the probability that I will get A instead of B?" because I will correspond to both "Lev"s: the one who observes A and the other one who observes B.[6 ]” (para 26) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">7. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“The probability of an outcome of a quantum experiment is proportional to the total measure of existence of all worlds with that outcome” (para 29) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">8. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“There are claims that a believer in the MWI will behave in an irrational way. One claim is based on the naive argument described in the previous section: a believer who assigns equal probabilities to all different worlds will bet equal bets for the outcomes of quantum experiments that have unequal probabilities.” (para 50) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">9. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Quantum Russian Roulette – will be dead and immensely wealthy (para 51) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">10. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“We care about all our successive worlds in proportion to their measures of existence.” (para 53) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">11. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Quantum cosmology makes it possible to discuss the whole Universe avoiding the difficulty of the standard interpretation which requires an external observer. (para 58)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">E. Smith, Quentin <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"Quantum Cosmology's Implication of Atheism." Secular Web: Atheism, Agnosticism, Naturalism, Skepticism and Secularism. Web. 05 Oct. 2009. <http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/quentin_smith/quantum.html>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">1. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">But the theist should be bothered. The Hartle-Hawking wave function psi[//hij//, phi] provides a high probability that is less than one (we will call it .95) that a universe shall begin to exist with a three dimensional space that has a certain matter field phi and metric //hij//. If God wills that a Hartle-Hawking universe shall begin to exist, the probability of its beginning to exist is not 95% but 100%, since God's willing is omnipotent…the unconditional probability derived from quantum cosmology makes this theory logically incompatible with theism. Since quantum cosmology is confirmed by the observational evidence, this incompatibility should be troubling to anybody who believes theism is a rationally acceptable world-view.” (para 19) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">2. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Furthermore, Markosian's scenario implies the 95% probability of a Hartle-Hawking universe obtains only because it is derived from supernatural considerations. According to theism, if a universe is to have any probability of existing, this probability is dependent upon God's beliefs, desires and creative acts. But the Hartle-Hawking probability is not dependent on any supernatural considerations; Hartle and Hawking do not sum over anything supernatural in their path integral derivation of the probability amplitude.” (para 22) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">3. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Time begins to exist with the big bang (para 25)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">F. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Hawking, Stephen. // A Brief History of Time //. Bantam Dell Publishing Group, 1988. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">1. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">By relativity, each observer sees time at a different pace (162) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">2. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Wave is the only evaluation of a particle that should be made, not position and velocity (189) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">3. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Suggests that the unpredictability of quantum motion is not necessarily a reality; denies the MWI (189) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">4. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Physics only says how, it is up to the philosophers to determine why (191) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">G. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Kaku, Michio. Hyperspace a scientific odyssey through parallel universes, time warps, and the tenth dimension. New York: Oxford UP, 1994. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">1. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">10-dimensional string theory: strings interact by breaking and joining (162) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">2. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">String theory is the first explanation of quantum gravity without infinities (163) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">3. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Einstein-Rosen bridge allows for travel between universes (wormhole) (219) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">4. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The number of parallel universes may in fact be infinite (253) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">5. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Wormholes connect an endless network of parallel universes (256) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">6. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Wave function of the universe takes out the issue of solipsism from Schroedinger’s cat – the issue being that an observer would be needed for the observed to be determinate (323-324) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">7. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The theological ramifications of the structure of the universe are sometimes dismissed as based on “faith” (330) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">H. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"The Elegant Universe." NOVA. PBS. Oct. 2003. Television. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">1. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Seeing the entire picture is overall the quest of physics as well as metaphysics (Part 1 paragraph 64) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">2. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Sheldon Lee Glashow – “The theory is safe, permanently safe. Is that a theory of physics or a philosophy?” – too small to observe and experiment with (Part 2 Para 113) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">3. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Take a look at the cables supporting that traffic light. From this far away I can't see that they have any thickness. Each one looks like a line—something with only a single dimension. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">But suppose we could explore one of these cables way up close, like from the point of view of an ant. Now a second dimension which wraps around the cable becomes visible. From its point of view, the ant can move forwards and backwards, and it can also move clockwise and counterclockwise. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">So dimensions can come in two varieties. They can be long and unfurled like the length of the cable, but they can also be tiny and curled up like the circular direction that wraps around it. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Kaluza and Klein made the wild suggestion that the fabric of our universe might be kind of like the surface of the cable, having both big extended dimensions, the three that we know about, but also tiny, curled up dimensions, curled up so tiny—billions of times smaller than even a single atom—that we just can't see them. And so our perception that we live in a universe with three spatial dimensions may not be correct after all. We really may live in a universe with more dimensions than meet the eye.” (123-127) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">4. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“So what would these extra dimensions look like? Kaluza and Klein proposed that if we could shrink down billions of times, we'd find one extra tiny, curled up dimension located at every point in space. And just the way an ant can explore the circular dimension that wraps around a traffic light cable, in theory an ant that is billions of times smaller could also explore this tiny, curled up, circular dimension. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">This idea that extra dimensions exist all around us lies at the heart of string theory. In fact the mathematics of string theory demand not one, but six extra dimensions, twisted and curled into complex little shapes that might look something like this.” (128-129) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">5. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">String theory and string theorists do have a real problem. How do you actually test string theory? If you can't test it in the way that we test normal theories, it's not science, it's philosophy, and that's a real problem.” (Part 3 para 180) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">6. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Fermilab working on proving string theory by observing a graviton at the moment of its disappearance (para 188) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">7. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Supersymmetry – every particle has a massive counterpart (para 191) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Thesis **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">

My stance on the topic is that parallel universes have enormous importance. Source D deals in depth with the ethical complications of the multiverse. Source E touches on theological meanings. The topic itself pertains to ontology and cosmology by its very nature, two subfields of metaphysics.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Working Thesis: The existence of parallel universes fundamentally alters ethical and metaphysical understandings by redefining both reality and the consequences thereof. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">


 * Findings & Support for Findings**

1. The MWI purports the splitting of universes after each quantum event a. Support: A1, B3, B4, B5, D1, D4, D5, D6 2. M-Theory redefines the structure of the universe a. Support: A3, A4, A5, C2, C3, C7, G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, H3, H4 3. MWI has potential ethical ramifications similar to the idea of hedonism a. Support: D8, D9, D10, E1, E2 4. String and M-Theory are considered philosophical by some rather than physical a. Support: B1, D2, F4, G6, G7, H1, H2, H5, H6 5. Parallel universes expand the boundaries of existence (ontology) and mathematics a. Support: B6, B7, B8, C4, C6, C8, C9, D3, D11, E3, F1, F2, H7


 * Process Reflection**

One of the things that jumped out at me upon completing my research is that the time frame of my topic is extremely relevant. Pieces from the early nineties do not go past ten dimensional string theories, while later articles go into M-Theory and its history. I will need to consider the timeliness of all of my sources in putting together my paper so as to ensure correct and current information. I also learned through my research that the parallel universe aspect of my project is twofold: quantum mechanics and M-theory both account for them. These are Level II and Level IV universes respectively. In my research, for one reason or another, did not touch on Level I and Level III universes. From background knowledge, I am aware of their basic ideas. In this research process, I employed the beginnings of synthesis, primarily because my topic is a fusion of physics and philosophy. As such, I searched for sources which in any way touched on the both of them. I am finding more and more that metaphysics has a great amount of relation to parallel universes, and that the ethics question involved is confined solely to the MWI. I need to improve upon my ability to research quickly. I like to read all of my sources rather than skim through them first for relevance. As such, I ended up wasting some time on a group of sources that I never used, because I kept waiting for it to become relevant to my topic. A great deal of my knowledge is incomplete when it comes to this topic, and I did not enter with much illusion on the matter. However, that I did find interesting was that my sources disagreed as to the validity of both the MWI and M-Theory. This debate is not something that I recall from the television program that I saw related to parallel universes, and the Wikipedia article on the subject (which I read before I chose the topic).


 * Connections to the Overall Project**

My findings provide a firm and understandable grounding when it comes to the two main theories that deal with parallel universes. They avoid mathematical intricacies, and are quite accessible. They will allow me to keep my content accessible during my presentation. I have decided to avoid the mathematics behind the topic because a) I do not understand it, b) it will take a great deal of time to begin understanding it, and c) my audience will be bored by it. The ethical content of source D was especially helpful to me in my project. It both provided a hypothetical that makes the MWI relevant to individuals, and shows that there is scholarly thought going into my specific fusion of fields. Now I will need to do some additional research into the formalities of ethics and metaphysics, especially as they relate to individuals and cosmological structure. This proved a valuable stepping stone in terms of background knowledge, and will be a great pool of information when it comes to the synthesis suggested by my thesis.