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mhk293 mhk293
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3 years ago
Hello, so to give some background context to my question, I was playing around with thought puzzles in my head about the many-worlds interpretation of quantum and the notion that all possible variants would come about. I ended up arriving at a place where I wondered if it were possible for the many worlds interpretations to break known, confirmed biological limitations that were already set.

Just to give an example of what I mean, which happens to be somewhat ridiculous but gets the point across about what I mean about confirmed limitations, a person can’t wake up and have grown an extra four arms in a night. I wasn’t thinking quite to that extent, but the fundamentals that I was thinking about are conveyed in that point. I do mean things that couldn’t happen, not slight statistical anomalies that can potentially occur but are rare.

At first, I wondered if the many worlds interpretation was able to produce things that would be considered biologically impossible, with the reasoning being that physics is more fundamental to life than biology, and that potentially the variation within physics could make its way to influencing set biological limitations.

After reading through more, it seems that with the many worlds interpretation being just an interpretation of the known data, it wouldn’t make any predictions about this world that are different than what’s already seen, meaning that it wouldn’t be able to break any known biological limitations.

Meanwhile, all of the reading and thinking about multiverses also produced the question in my head, does any multiverse theory support any kind of notion of being able to break known biological limitations set in this world.

To provide my understanding of the differences between the types of multiverses through analogy, if you were to think of our universe as a single tree, I see the many worlds interpretation as producing many branches on that one tree, while I think of the other multiverse theories as a vast amount of different trees with each one being independent from the others. Additionally, the way how I see it, the different trees, or universes, could have no influence on each other in relation to being able to change anything like biological limitations.

With that being the case, I couldn’t think of any way how any multiverse theory could effect the biological limitations of this world, but there are so many out there, I felt like I couldn’t account for them all.

So, with all of that being said, I was wondering was there any way for the biological limitations of this world to be changed? I wrote so much about multiverses because I figured that if the limitations are set for this world, then you would need to incorporate the aspects of another world to influence the set limitations, which I think will hold, but ultimately, my question is just whether or not there would ever be any way to break the set biological limitations of this world.
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3 years ago
So, with all of that being said, I was wondering was there any way for the biological limitations of this world to be changed? I wrote so much about multiverses because I figured that if the limitations are set for this world, then you would need to incorporate the aspects of another world to influence the set limitations, which I think will hold, but ultimately, my question is just whether or not there would ever be any way to break the set biological limitations of this world.

Biological limitations are set by the organisms genome. The genome holds the instructions for making proteins, leading to its visible characteristics, while the epigenome holds the instructions for reading the genes. In reference to your example about growing four extra arms over night, that doesn't happen because we don't carry the genes that allow our bodies to do, and for the same reason we cannot regenerate our limbs. A starfish, salamander, or planarian, however, can.

I'm not theoretical physicists by any means, so half the things you spoke of don't relate to my expertise. You did mention "many worlds interpretation" several times, I had to look it up to get an idea of what it's all about. Still, I couldn't find any common ground with biology. Maybe you could explain what it is in layman terms so that we can make a connection.
mhk293 Author
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3 years ago Edited: 3 years ago, mhk293
I’m not sure how much outside reading you want to do, but it seems to me that the best way to understand the many worlds interpretation is to first get a grasp on the double slit experiment.

This is a pretty good article about it here: https://www.wired.com/2014/09/double-slit-empzeal/
It really doesn’t have to be that one though, there are articles explaining it all on the internet. It’s basically the initial thing in the weird behavior of quantum, and the thing that starts the chain reaction of weirdness in quantum, so it’s everywhere.

There certainly are plenty of layman’s terms type articles out there, and they’re not very long, so I’ll just work from as if you’ve read the basic information that they’ve presented, but if you’d rather I try to give a more brief summary, let me know, and I can give it a try.

To give an explanation of the many worlds interpretation, one of the first things to point out is that they are not entirely sure of all that is happening in the double slit experiment. There are different ways, or interpretations, to interpret the data. So, many worlds is an interpretation that spawns because of the consequences of the double slit experiment.

To get to the issue within the experiment, when the particles go through the double slit unobserved and hit the detector screen on the back wall, each individual particle makes up one part of the total interference pattern, the interference pattern being the collection of particles that are forming in these groups of bands. The thing is however, under the original Copenhagen interpretation, which band each individual particle chooses is entirely random.

To explain further, how it chooses where to go is not even a matter of hidden variables. An example of hidden variables is a flipped coin. When someone flips a coin, the person might not know where it’s going to land, but that doesn’t affect what the coin does. After it has been flipped, the variables that will determine where it will land have already been set in place. So, it’s already determined where the coin is going to land. The variables are just hidden from the person, but they are there.

This is not the case with where particles end up in terms of which band in the interference pattern they wind up in according to the standard Copenhagen interpretation. It’s supposed to be completely random.

However, there are issues with thinking that a theory in physics is random like that, and some physicists think that it’s a major problem. This is where many worlds comes in. To clarify, before the particle chooses which band, it actually has all options available to it. So, what the many worlds interpretation says is that each particle actually takes all possible paths. The consequence of this is that a new universe is supposed to be created for each new path. You see, in our universe, we would see a particle in what I’ll call band A, but it also could have chosen band B, or C etc., and the many worlds interpretation says that there is an equally real universe where that particle did choose band b, and band c, and so on. Many worlds says that all options available to the particle are chosen. There is just a distinct universe for each choice. It’s main goal is to remove the randomness. If all options are chosen, then it’s no longer a random choice.

The consequence of this is that there are many universes that are branching off from one another at all times. They are all interrelated, but they’re all also different. I’ve seen the claim that all possibilities would be realized if many worlds were true.

This is where I started to wonder about biology. To incorporate what I’ve seen so far, it appears that certain ways that biological aspects in life could be compiled would automatically come about. Still, it couldn’t break known biological limitations. For example, if life could biologically support dinosaurs still being real, than dinosaurs should still be real in one of the branches of the many worlds. Still, it seems as if the set rules for this “branch” that we currently live in won’t be able to be instantly undone. For example, I won’t wake up tomorrow with an extra four arms because that’s not supported in the variation within many worlds.

And so, this just got me wondering about other potential ways how the laws of biology in this world might be broken, or if they ever could. I figured that since the laws were set for this world, you would need to infuse some type of other world to even have a chance. Still, it’s my assumption that the laws couldn’t.

At this point, I don’t even think that any of the other multiverse theories are able to directly influence life as we live like the many worlds interpretation could, but I’m not 100% sure about that.

You said that physics wasn’t your expertise, and a lot of this relates to physics because of the other world iteration that I presented two paragraphs ago, but maybe you could help me by telling me why biologists know that no matter what, why the biological rules that are set in stone could never change.

Or, if you can think of any other way to help, I would appreciate that too. Thank you for anything that you can do.
Post Merge: 3 years ago

I figured I would post this because it might be helpful.

Just to reiterate, I’m wondering if any of these “other world” aspects have the ability to infuse themselves into our world and affect change that we would regard as impossible.

The thought that I’m going to write is looking at it from the vantage point that they can’t affect this type of change, which I do really think is accurate. Still, without knowing where to look for 100% confirmation, I’m exploring the thought process looking for that type of confirmation.

Anyway, I was thinking, the answer might lie in the fact that even though physics relates to things more fundamental, i.e. a person, a towel and many other unique things are all made up of protons, neutrons and electrons, when things begin to compile and become more complex, they begin to form their own behavior and rules, and the behavior and rules can be studied and figured out independent of certain fundamentals. Additionally, whatever rules are found, as the word implies, those rules won’t be broken.

So to summarize, my thought is that no matter what is occurring fundamentally, when things become more complex, they form their own set behavior, and the boundaries, or limitations, of this behavior can be measured, and that it can be confirmed that no matter what, the limitations won’t be broken. As a result, it can then be trusted that no matter what else is out there in life, what is known about biology will still hold.
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