9.5.1 Parallel Universes
Description
This article is from the Relativity and FTL Travel FAQ, by Jason W. Hinson jason@physicsguy.com with numerous contributions by others.
9.5.1 Parallel Universes
In the first provision, one of the events in our list is not so much
prevented as it is "transferred" to or from another (parallel) universe or
reality. For example, say O has just received the information about the
victim who dies at the "*" event, and O is waiting to stop Op from firing
the FTL bullet. However, before he stops Op, he could find himself
transferred to a parallel universe. In this universe he is able to stop Op
from firing the bullet. The unsolvable paradox is resolved because the
information about the death at "*" was not from the universe in which O
stopped Op. Instead, O brought the information from a very similar parallel
universe when he came over.
As another example, the bullet which killed the victim could have
appeared from a parallel universe rather than being sent from Op in "our"
universe. In this case, it is the "other universe bullet" which kills the
victim. This bullet could seem to come from Op in our universe, though it
actually came from an Op in the parallel universe. So, O is lead to believe
that the bullet came from his own Op, and O stops Op from firing the FTL
bullet. However, he doesn't prevent the death of the victim because the
bullet which did the killing came from the "other universe Op". Again, the
paradox is resolved.
Now, in that second case, the FTL bullet wasn't just performing FTL
travel, but was involved with inter-dimensional travel. However, the second
FTL signal in which the information is sent from the third observer to O
(event number 4 in our list) was allowed. Thus, though this provision can
effect the FTL trips, it doesn't have to forbid either of them.
In the end, as long as one of the events is forced to transfer to or
from a parallel universe, there will be no unsolvable paradox (although why
or how the inter-universe transfer would occur is left unanswered). Also, we
should note that this provision could be applied with any of the FTL
concepts we have discussed in order to allow them to exist without being
self-inconsistent.
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