Title,+Introduction,+Scope

__Title:__ From Universe to Multiverse: The Philosophical Rammifications of Parallel Universes

__Introduction:__ Let us suppose there is a cat in a closed box. In that box is also a vial of poison under a hammer. The hammer will fall if an atom of uranium decays. There is a 50% chance that the uranium atom will decay, dropping the hammer, crushing the vial, and killing the cat. While still in the box, is the cat alive or dead? We cannot know until we open the container and observe the feline, in which case the cat must be either among the living or deceased. But before we open the box, the cat is in a much stranger state, something literally unperceivable. Inside, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time. This seems impossible. After all, we remove the lid to find a cat that is either alive or not. How can something be alive and dead at the same time? While still in the box, the cat is in a state known as superposition, in which both states apply to it equally. The cat is both alive and dead at the same instant. We open the box to find a living cat. The fifty-fifty chance ended without the vial breaking. But what happened to the dead cat from the state of superposition? Where did it go? This famous hypothetical, first conceived by physicist Erwin Schrödinger, is one of the bases of quantum mechanics. The generally accepted answer about the fate of the dead cat is that in a parallel universe, we opened the box to find it. In fact, the quantum event of the uranium decay spawned a series of new universes, 50% of which contain a dead cat, and 50% of which contain a living cat. At every instant, an innumerable amount of parallel universes are splitting off from our own and occupying the same space that we are in now. Right now, there is almost certainly a universe with a stegosaurus standing precisely where you are. In yet another universe, there are massive trees sprouting from the space that you see as your living room. In many of these parallel universes, the earth does not even exist.

__Scope:__ Explaining the significance of my project will be among the most difficult tasks to complete. Essentially, how humanity views existence has important implications for how we act each day. For instance, if people feel that the Earth is the center of the universe, they will act accordingly. Scientific inquiry was profoundly advanced by the knowledge that the Earth is not truly the center of any known cosmic structure. As such, inquiry and ethical actions are impacted by the layperson’s understanding of what the multiverse looks like. That being said, the scope of my project will be rather non technical. It will be confined to stating facts about the multiverse and supporting them with examples and hypotheticals which lead to the philosophical aspects of my thesis.