So, most everyone has heard of the theory of parallel universes (or multiverse).  There are infinite universes occupying the same space as our own where the probabilities have turned out just a bit different then ours.  The further you get away from our universe, the more different it will seem.   It has been explored in science fiction quite a bit, but I have heard of an interesting experiment that might offer some evidence to the existence of the multiverse.

You take an electron gun and fire a stream of electrons at a sensor that can detect them.  Then you put a barrier which has two slits in it, so that the electrons can only get through one of the two slits.  The electrons that come through the slits bounce off one another and cause an nice regular interference pattern on the detector.  It is a regular pattern and is reproducible as long as you have the steady stream of electrons and the same barrier with the two slits.

Now what happens if you fire only one electron at a time.  Without all of the other electrons to bounce off of, you would think that the electrons would come sailing though and hit the detector from the direction they were fired.  But they found that the electrons hit the detector in the exact same pattern as if they had been fired in a steady stream of electrons.  But if they are fired one at a time, how is this possible?  The interference pattern is the result of all the electrons interacting with each other, but if it is a single electron, what is it interacting with?

So one of the theories is that the single electron is interacting with all the other electrons in the multiverse.  Every time an electron is fired, numerous other electrons are being fired at the same time and place, but just in a different universe.  Hence, they all interact with each other, causing the interference pattern.  But we only see where the electron ended up that we fired.

Interesting theory.

Now, let's expand on this a little (be warned, here is where I get silly).  We have this multiverse, and in the vicinity of our own, there are say billions of similar universes, all with each of us duplicated in them.  The closest ones to our own are probably only different in that they have an atom or two out of place, and the further you get from our own the more you will actually see differences.  I had pancakes for breakfast this morning, and say a Dave in another universe had cereal, and other inane stuff like that.  So far, according to the experiment above, the only way to detect them is the interaction of electrons with their counterparts in parallel universes. 

Well, electrons are responsible for electrical impulses right?  And are not electrical impulses being fired off in each of our brains constantly?  So, if the electrons floating around in our heads are being affected by other electrons in the multiverse, I wonder if there might be a way to detect differences in them.

So, here's the experiment.  You get ten envelopes and ten pieces of paper.  You get someone to write a word on each piece of paper and seal them in the envelope.  Then you randomly pick one of the envelopes and open it.  Now this is where things get a little far-fetched.  Let's assume that in the multiverse, an infinite number of Dave's are opening this envelope.   Because the further you get from our universe, the more there may be differences in the reality of the universe, so other Dave's might be opening different envelopes.   And because of the supposed infinite nature of the multiverse, there are an infinite number of Dave's opening envelope one, an infinite number of Dave's opening envelope two, and so on.

Ok, you've got one of the envelopes opened and you read the word inside.  Now you concentrate on the word.  Say the word is "Tree".  You would concentrate on the word, an image in your head of a tree, or anything like that.  What I think you would be doing is stimulating the part of your brain that has stored the memory of a tree, or the word tree, or something related to a tree.  So all these thoughts would cause an increased electrical stimulus to a certain part of your brain.  I'm not sure how much you would have to focus on this word, maybe a few minutes every night before you go to bed for a month.  The desired effect would be to get the electrons in a certain part of your brain to have increased activity and because they interact with electrons in all the duplicates of yourself, it just might cause the electrons in their heads to stimulate that part of their brain.

So, we have the multiverse of Dave's and in the vicinity of our own universe, the Dave's are divided into ten groups, each thinking of a different word.  Because all the electrons are interacting with each other, maybe all of the Dave's will eventually start thinking about the other nine words that they haven't seen yet.  So what you would do, is wait however long, and then try to guess the contents of the other envelopes.  I think when you are thinking about your own envelope, you would have to associate it with the number of the envelope so that a connection is made.  Then when you had to guess the other envelopes, you would think of it's number and see what thoughts seem connected to it.

Sometimes I amaze myself on the weird things I think up when I've drank too much Coke and can't sleep at night.

Might make for an interesting story.

If I could find the time to write it.

What would be really cool is to set up a deal with another Dave in another universe where I worked on one project, and he worked on another and then we just multiverse-emailed each other the completed work.  Course, then I would miss out on the fun of doing the work myself.

One week to go until Flin Flon.

... leeeea-ving on a jet plane...