How to make multiple quantum universes sound believable?

[Maia]

Okay, so I'm writing a fic where the central plot point involves the main character travelling through as many different versions of events as possible in order to find the one in which his relationship with a woman actually works out (he never does find one, btw.) I'd really like to use the idea of multiple quantum universes. And no, this isn't science fiction, so it doesn't have to be extremely accurate. Nobody reading it will probably know the difference if it isn't. I'D like to have some idea of what I'm writing about, though!! How would I make this concept sound believable?

 

[theprestige]

Okay, so I'm writing a fic where the central plot point involves the main character travelling through as many different versions of events as possible in order to find the one in which his relationship with a woman actually works out (he never does find one, btw.) I'd really like to use the idea of multiple quantum universes. And no, this isn't science fiction, so it doesn't have to be extremely accurate. Nobody reading it will probably know the difference if it isn't. I'D like to have some idea of what I'm writing about, though!! How would I make this concept sound believable?

I think you just did: Loser tries all kinds of different ways to get the girl, strikes out every time. Sounds pretty believable to me.

 

[Piggy]

Okay, so I'm writing a fic where the central plot point involves the main character travelling through as many different versions of events as possible in order to find the one in which his relationship with a woman actually works out (he never does find one, btw.) I'd really like to use the idea of multiple quantum universes. And no, this isn't science fiction, so it doesn't have to be extremely accurate. Nobody reading it will probably know the difference if it isn't. I'D like to have some idea of what I'm writing about, though!! How would I make this concept sound believable?

Interesting. Tell me, what's your device for allowing this character to explore these quantum branches in the first place?

Or is that what you're asking about?

I mean, are you asking for a thumbnail of the branching universes theory so you can develop the device, or are you asking for potential literary devices that let you fold that theory into the plot?

 

[schrodingasdawg]

The many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics disallows travel between alternative realities. There's no realistic mechanism to get around this.

Of course, as a fiction writer, you have a poetic license. You could use all sciency-sounding words and include some unobtainium or whatever, but from my own limited exposure to fiction, I personally prefer stories that either chalk unrealistic scenarios up to magic or don't actually offer an explanation. In some cases, such as when trying to create a sciency-seeming atmosphere, the technobabble becomes necessary ... but your work is not science fiction, right? So I think "magic" or no explanation works fine.

 

[realpaladin]

Sliders!!!

 

[Fnord]

Okay, so I'm writing a fic where the central plot point involves the main character traveling through as many different versions of events as possible in order to find the one in which his relationship with a woman actually works out (he never does find one, btw.)

That's Science Fiction, except for the part about the protagonist's relationships never working out.

I'd really like to use the idea of multiple quantum universes. And no, this isn't science fiction, so it doesn't have to be extremely accurate.

If it's hard Science Fiction, then it has to be believably accurate, but if it's 'soft' SF or Fantasy, then pretty much anything goes.

Nobody reading it will probably know the difference if it isn't. I'D like to have some idea of what I'm writing about, though!! How would I make this concept sound believable?

First, write the story as if the protagonist were merely going from one country to another. Then, re-write the story so that it seems that he is actually in different versions of the same country.

Examples: Did the Spanish retain possession of the west coast? Did the Louisiana Purchase not happen? When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, did the Germans also bomb Manhattan?

Then try to keep the 'ordinary' principles of science consistent. Don't go off changing the basic properties and constants, or Life As We Know It may never exist in one of your alternates.

Kinda reminds me of a TV show where a photocopier machine sent a woman to a different universe every time she used it. Another application of the "Alternate Reality" trope.

 

[Piggy]

The many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics disallows travel between alternative realities. There's no realistic mechanism to get around this.

Of course, as a fiction writer, you have a poetic license. You could use all sciency-sounding words and include some unobtainium or whatever, but from my own limited exposure to fiction, I personally prefer stories that either chalk unrealistic scenarios up to magic or don't actually offer an explanation. In some cases, such as when trying to create a sciency-seeming atmosphere, the technobabble becomes necessary ... but your work is not science fiction, right? So I think "magic" or no explanation works fine.

I don't know that it's as dire as all that.

Yes, it won't actually work w/ the physics (hence my questions above). But this is fiction.

For instance, you could use psychic travel. You could lump that under "magic", but I think that would be a mistake.

The thing is, once you create a coherent fictional universe, you simply have to be true to that universe. And psychic travel is not an outlandish device.

You could, for example, have the hero discover that there is a previously undiscovered link among the universes, and develop an experimental way to exploit that link, which (of course) turns out to work.

There are all kinds of possibilities.

 

[rdaneel]

One question that pops into my mind. Is this something the protagonist is doing intentionally, or is this something that's just happening to him? If it's the latter, maybe you can just leave it unexplained, like the time travel in "Groundhog Day" is left unexplained.

 

[Piggy]

One question that pops into my mind. Is this something the protagonist is doing intentionally, or is this something that's just happening to him? If it's the latter, maybe you can just leave it unexplained, like the time travel in "Groundhog Day" is left unexplained.

Not bothering to explain is a technique that all writers need to be able to use.

I'm working on a book right now that has a dash of SF in it (as pretty much all thrillers do these days, since tech is so woven into our lives) and I have a friend I bounce ideas off of who's really into sci-fi.

But he tends to get very bogged down into the details and the how, and I often have to pull him away from that and get him to focus instead on character and plot.

If you have characters that people care about, and put them in situations that create tension, you've got a story. The rest is incidental.

It's like ice-9. Vonnegut doesn't bother to explain how it could work, he just asserts that it exists, because that's all he needs to do.

So yeah, the degree of explanation will depend on the character's relationship to the necessary technology.

 

[Soapy Sam]

You could read 1950s John Wyndham.
Start with "Random Quest"
A wiki link- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_Quest

 

[quadraginta]

Also James P. Hogan, Paths To Otherwhere. Another multi-verse novel that's only about fourteen years old or so. He s a "hard SF" writer, so it's an example of a techie approach.

The plot device isn't uncommon, I'm sure there are plenty more examples. I just happen to have re-read that one recently.

 

[Jimbo07]

If it's hard Science Fiction, then it has to be believably accurate, but if it's 'soft' SF or Fantasy, then pretty much anything goes.

Robert J. Sawyer said something to the effect that the job of the science-fiction author is not to come up with the most likely scientific explanation, but to come up with the most entertaining explanation that cannot be immediately gainsaid.

BTW, for good, contemporary, "hard" SF, read Wake by same.

 

[Myriad]

Another very useful (and often used) device is to leave it open to question whether the protagonist is actually traveling through different versions of events, or just thinks he is due to some kind of delusion. Most likely, once he enters a different universe, the only thing that isn't consistent with that universe's timeline is his own memory of things having occurred differently "elsewhere." So can anyone including him know whether those memories are actually delusions or fantasies?

(It might be possible to for him to prove otherwise, at least to himself, for instance if his memories of alternate events include him learning a new language or some other skill and he can still perform it correctly in an alternate timeline in which he never had a chance to learn it. Kind of the way Bill Murray learned to play the piano in Groundhog Day. Or if he could remember the winning lottery numbers, and those numbers usually don't change between one timeline and another.)

It also makes a big difference whether, when he shifts to a different timeline, he starts over in that timeline at some point in the past relative to his previous timeline, or if the he just switches to an alternate many-worlds universe where the past evolved differently but remains already past. If the former, it would seem that the ability to revisit the past (in any form) would tend to be more significant than the differences in the alternate timelines.

Has anyone ever written a science fiction story in which an inventor devises a means to jump to alternate many-worlds universes but only the ones that are branching off within the present moment? It would be a rather short story, as he discovers that there's no way to tell the difference or even be sure his device is working at all...

Respectfully,
Myriad (the one from 1.1.5.g(III)595a/0010001110010₇b)

 

[Maia]

Great suggestions, y'all!

I think one thing that I really want is to have some idea of what the basis of this concept might even be, simply because I do think that the work of most writers really suffers if they themselves don't have some sort of grasp of the underpinnings of what they're writing about. This doesn't necessarily have much to do with whether or not the nuts and bolts will ever be spelled out.

To help make things a bit clearer (possibly) as far as what kind of help I might need:

The main character and his long-suffering friend (who's taking Holy Orders to become a priest in the church of the FSM, which is the official state religion, btw), are sitting in a coffeeshop in a bookstore, and an author is holding a booksigning. The book just happens to be titled: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Quantum Universe Hopping (But Were Too Confused to Ask. Part of the plot, in fact, is that this little trick does work in this world, but not in the non-magical world, so it would be good to get some theories about how this might be possible. (Why yes, this IS Harry Potter fanfic, now that you ask. Yes. I've written an awful lot of it. Sometimes we have to be proud of the little things.) The protagonist decides that taking advantage of multiple realities is definitely the way to get the girl, so it's very deliberate on his part.

Now, I post fics on a shipping site, so the romantic aspect, quite honestly, is primarily what people are interested in reading, but OTOH, need to know that what I'm writing about at least has some plausibility.

 

[schrodingasdawg]

Well, to add some really silly suggestions...

Since FSM is the official religion in your story, could the universe-hopping be related to FSM? That's assuming the doctrine of the religion is actually true in the story, of course.

You say that it's a Harry Potter fanfic. So why not just cast a magic spell with some silly-sounding Latin-ish phrase?

 

[Maia]

Well, to add some really silly suggestions...

Since FSM is the official religion in your story, could the universe-hopping be related to FSM? That's assuming the doctrine of the religion is actually true in the story, of course.

You say that it's a Harry Potter fanfic. So why not just cast a magic spell with some silly-sounding Latin-ish phrase?

Yes, I think I will do that. A magic spell would likely be the crucial missing link that causes the otherwise impossible quantum universe hopping-thingie to work. But I really feel that I need to have some kind of scientific basis for how the underlying mechanism might be plausible. Right now, I have nothing beyond the vaguest possible idea. (I like the FSM tiein, though...

 

[Myriad]

Conventional quantum mechanics hold that you cannot simultaneously determine a particle's position and velocity.

Add to that: But if you do it anyhow, using magic, then you cannot be certain which quantum alternate universe you're in. In other words, you might have hopped to a different one.

Somewhere in the Ministry of Magic there must be an elaborate brass stand holding a sphere of quicksilver the size of a pea, wrapped in stasis spells to keep it absolutely motionless, while dials and verniers built into the stand allow its exact position to be measured.

Respectfully,
Myriad

 

[Beerina]

Sliders!!!

But with purpose!




As for the OP, you're basically asking for some technobabble? By the way, your story has been done before. Very funny, both.


ETA: I also read an SF-story that was basically the same one (probably a tribute type variant) that was slightly more generalized as a middle-aged, small, slender, potbellied nerd hires a "universe search" agency to find one in which he can command the ladies. As in Bedazzled, he gets multiple attempts. The SF technobabble (again, a comedy, also like Bedazzled) was the agency used computers to filter through trillions of alternate universes to search for exactly the conditions the client desired, which were usually sexual. They never went into detail about how they had access to these universes.

Unlike Bedazzled, ruled by the Devil, who twists the wishes, in this world, the agency tried its best but it never worked out anyway.

 

[The Man]

Yes, I think I will do that. A magic spell would likely be the crucial missing link that causes the otherwise impossible quantum universe hopping-thingie to work. But I really feel that I need to have some kind of scientific basis for how the underlying mechanism might be plausible. Right now, I have nothing beyond the vaguest possible idea. (I like the FSM tiein, though...

Since the premise of the story is alternate universes there is no reason that they have to start in our universe. So it could start in a universe where certain types of magic is as common as other technologies and they just happen to be the first to find the correct or critical way of exploiting it. Another twist could be where the story ends, or crates tension by separating the characters or perhaps being stuck in a universe like ours where that magic no longer works, but now they have gained enough experience in their travels to hopefully deal with that.

 

[shadron]

Also James P. Hogan, Paths To Otherwhere. Another multi-verse novel that's only about fourteen years old or so. He s a "hard SF" writer, so it's an example of a techie approach.

The plot device isn't uncommon, I'm sure there are plenty more examples. I just happen to have re-read that one recently.

By the same author, Thrice Upon a Time.