The Super Mario Multiverse

Quantum mechanics got you down? Let Mario guide you through one of physics' most tantalizing theories: parallel universes.

By Abby Seiff Posted 03.18.2008 at 1:58 pm 11 Comments

You're unique. Aren't you? One of the more creative hypotheses surrounding quantum mechanics posits the exact opposite. Though we can readily see only one world, quantum mechanics says that when we’re not observing the particles that make up that world, those particles exist in multiple places at once. There are many theories that attempt to grasp what this means, but one of the most tantalizing is Hugh Everett's multiverse concept.

According to Everett, each time any particle interacts with the rest of the world, it splits into other versions of itself—each one following a different path of potentiality. Every one of those "versions" exists simultaneously in its own parallel universe. In this John Pavlus edit of a postsilence video, the 134 overlaid playthroughs represent the manifold possibilities Mario encounters as he progresses through his world. When Mario jumps on a pipe, for instance, he can be attacked by a Piranha Plant immediately, mid-air, or not at all. So when Mario splits each of those "others" is following that possible path concurrently. Of course, for those of us living outside Super Mario World, there's no way to observe these infinite parallel universes. As the video notes, there have been mathematical proofs; but they confirm only that the hypothesis is consistent with what we do observe. In other words, the theory very much remains a theory.

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11 Comments

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peterchupp

03/18/08 at 2:40 pm

This is sure something that I would never know. I am completely stunned!

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Ewok

03/18/08 at 4:56 pm

This is truely facinating, I was once thinking about the same thing, and how cool it would be if just say one of these parallel universes were to overlap.
Imagine a ZILLION of myselves in other universes, heck one could even me typing this same thing O_o

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Darthdan431

03/18/08 at 8:45 pm

I've understood this for a while. i find it is fascinating. I have tried to explain it to my friends, but Mario just puts it into perspective that if nintendo involved, I'm not (totally) insane. :)

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Christopher Mims

03/21/08 at 11:29 am

That pavlus is some kind of genius. More please.

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mcc

03/22/08 at 6:07 pm

Hi,

I created the original version of this video, and although I don't mind you using it, I wish you had at least let me know you were going to repost it. If nothing else I could have given you a higher-quality source video to work from. The FLV re-rip you seem to be using has very poor video quality.

Incidentally the software I used to make this video is freely available (although a lot of people have had trouble getting it to run). If you are interested you can find it at:

http://msm.grumpybumpers.com/?p=20

- mcc / postsilence

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cordayo

03/23/08 at 5:02 am

Im confused. I understand the multiverse concept, but if none of the atoms and those things change then shouldnt we be the same exact person? If thats true,we wouldnt do every possible action. We would do the same thing we would do in our universe right?

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lordofall

03/24/08 at 6:14 pm

No in the multiverse concept the probability wave of the atom is what is what each alternate history represents, therefore before the collapse, even without a change there is still a haze of hundreds of possibilities each which would result in a different action. For example an atom has a 90% probability of being in your room and a 10% probability of being in the Andromeda galaxy, then either 10% of the universes have it in the Andromeda galaxy or when you analyze it 10 universes are created and 1 of them has that atom in the Andromeda galaxy.

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socratesrock

03/29/08 at 8:17 am

I find the video at the link below to be very helpful in providing a way to imagine how the different parallel universes for our own universe, and the "omniverse" of multiverses created by other universes with different basic physical laws, could all be just as real as the version of the universe I am within at this very moment. This video gives me a logically consistent way to stack all of those ideas on top of each other:

http://www.tenthdimension.com/medialinks.php

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BakedScrod

06/12/08 at 12:39 pm

It explains why God is so unconcerned when you die; there's a gabillion of you from His viewpoint and most of you are all right. When you die, your soul recalls all your lives and you see His point. Or maybe it's the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I dunno.

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Christopher001

from Hunter River, PEI

07/12/08 at 7:55 am

For a decent example of multiverse watch the old Jet Li movie "The One" It provides a decent explantion of a multiverse concept though it does get a little sci-fi for the state of the movie. The movie is quite old but all you limewire fans could probaly find it.

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bbowers

05/06/10 at 9:01 pm

interesting way of demonstrating a complicated concept.

Beecher Bowers
www.beecherbowers.com