Do ATL's really exist?

[Mr. G]

Do you feel that Alternate Timelines Really exist? Or are they just a product of our imagination?

[Grey Wolf]

Do you feel that Alternate Timelines Really exist? Or are they just a product of our imagination?

Well, I voted for 'can't say' because I like to be able to back up an answer with some argument and have none

But I feel no reason why they may not exist, so I feel its a 50-50 toss up

Grey Wolf

[Xen]

I think they do, when ever I write something, anything, I see it as though Im giving life to a world, or a galaxy. The people become real, the emotions become real. I guess its kind of like the Never Ending story, as long as you create it, its real. So yes, I say theyre real, out there somewhere.




PS this kind of reminds me of the episode of Futurama where there was an alternate dimension that everytime you flipped a coin in one dimension it would be the opposite in the other, so there was always a different fate.

[Hymie Goldberg]

Somewhere in time, Hitler and Gandhi are kicking back smoking a blunt together.

[DuQuense]

Not only do they exsist, but under conditions of stress, :( Telephatic Communication is possible, during Dream states, between Alter egos. :)

[Otis Tarda]

For me, the're real in the same way as multi-dimensional hyper-squares. Mathematican consider them to be "real", can analize their features - although the don't represent any object from known universe :)

[aktarian]

PS this kind of reminds me of the episode of Futurama where there was an alternate dimension that everytime you flipped a coin in one dimension it would be the opposite in the other, so there was always a different fate.

That's one of most common theories. When event has more than one result all happen, one in ach world. there is infinite worlds. Most are similar (POD is so small it has no efects), some are different.

[zoomar]

I voted for "don't know" because I know some interpretations of quantum mechanics would say they exist conceptually. I probably go about my daily life, including thinking about ATLs, with the premise that we are only engaged in science fiction and speculation.


Xen said:
"I think they do, when ever I write something, anything, I see it as though Im giving life to a world, or a galaxy. The people become real, the emotions become real. I guess its kind of like the Never Ending story, as long as you create it, its real. So yes, I say theyre real, out there somewhere."

-this kind of scares me. I too feel these worlds take on a certain reality of their own when I "create" them. But does this mean that when I create a fictional ATL with the Third Reich victorious or slavery continuing in the USA/CSA to the modern day, I have somehow called into being real people to be gassed and enslaved? I hope to God the answer is no, or I'll only be dreaming up nothing but boring goody-two-shoes histories where everybody loves and respects each other!

[NHBL]

There was an article in Scientific American concerning this very subject within the past year or so. I'm not sure which issue, I saw it in the library and didn't note the date. The author concluded that there would be atlernate timelines elsewher, if you looked far enough--and I'm talking distances that even Captain Picard would consider amazing.
I lack the expeertise to critique the atricle fairly, but I thought I'd mention it.

[tom]

Interesting that NOBODY flatly says "NO!"

[NapoleonXIV]

The issue of Scientific American is May of 2003. It seems that the 'scientific concensus' is at least as accepted as Global Warming

"But does this mean that when I create a fictional ATL with the Third Reich victorious or slavery continuing in the USA/CSA to the modern day, I have somehow called into being real people to be gassed and enslaved?"

Just as logically you're just psychically becoming aware of something already there, or it might even be just a vivid imagination. I'd hate to think that our entire universe is due to some pandimensional entitie's bad burrito. :D

[Max Sinister]

If the Multiverse theory is correct, there certainly exist some ATLs. Whether there are among them some ATLs which we thought up, is another question.

Elsehow, they don't exist in the way we, or the sun, or your cars, exist - they also don't exist in a way true statements like "2 + 2 = 4" or "The lowest possible temperature in our universe is -273,16 °C" exist, but only, well, as our thoughts exist. Pure information.

[tom]

My understanding of the "everything you imagine exists" idea is not that you psychically perceive it, or that you create it, but that EVERY imaginable world exists, so if you imagine it, it already existed.

[Straha]

in that case I can think of some TLs I 'd rather be living in than OTL ;)

[Norman]

I vote a strong and definite maybe!

I have philosophical beliefs largely based upon my somewhat spotty understanding of cosmology and the big bang, but to find out the truth I would have to survive the end of this universe and the beginning of the next. Not very likely.

[Color-Copycat]

Welcome to the board, Will :). It's generally considered poor etiquette to post replies in discussion threads that have been dormant for more than a year. Just a friendly reminder, as people have been kicked from the board for such "necromancing" in the past.

[phx1138]

this kind of reminds me of the episode of Futurama where there was an alternate dimension that everytime you flipped a coin in one dimension it would be the opposite in the other, so there was always a different fate.
Which is what quantum mechanics suggests is the reality...