I am, right now, sitting at my desk in Hyderabad writing this article. At the same time I am in Goa, drinking beer on the Baga beach. At the same time I'm aboard a Jet Airways flight, on my way to meet a client in Delhi. At the same time I am in a hospital in Bombay, dying of cerebral malaria. At the same time... Hey, what the hell's going on here? Nothing. It's just something that some of today's most respected physicists are discussing very seriously: the possibility of parallel universes. According to these physicists, our universe is not alone. There are a whole lot of parallel universes out there, each one every bit as real as one you perceive around you right now. And in each one, you are there (yes, you), except that in each different universe you are playing out a slightly different role... depending on the specific path that the electrons in your brain may have followed in the past. There is an infinite number of such universes. And, correspondingly, there is an infinite number of different yous. Yes, all this boggles the mind. Particularly since it is not just the work of some kooky sci-fi author, but, as I said, some of the world's most respected physicists. It all started out in the 1920s, when Niels Bohr, the Nobel Prize winning physicist, concluded that every particle in the universe is described by a mathematical formula called the "Wave Function". This formula provides the probability that any given particle is present in any given place. A particle, according to Bohr, can be in many different places at the same time -- literally here, there and everywhere. And what forces the particle into any given place is merely the fact that the physicist happens to be observing it at that point. Or, in scientific terms, the very act of observing the particle causes it to "collapse" into one particular state out of all the many states available to it. Or, to put it in the most basic possible language, the particle does not exist until the observer looks at it. If all this sounds weird to you, hang on to your hat. You ain't heard nothin' yet. In the late '50s a British physicist named Hugh Everett put forward a different -- and even stranger -- explanation. According to him, any given particle is, in fact, here, there and everywhere... but it is in those places not in our current universe, but in different universes. In other words, our universe is not alone. As time moves on, all possible universes implicit in all quantum equations describing every single particle in this universe are born. Each one of them then splits... and so the process goes on, to the point of infinity. Everett's theory was widely accepted as being more elegant than Bohr's. First, because it eliminated the privileged role of the observer. And second, because it eliminated the entire troublesome question of how exactly the observer causes the Wave Function to collapse, thereby forcing the particle into any given state. But the problem was, for many years, physicists couldn't figure out how the hell to judge between these two theories empirically. Today, however, an American physicist, Don Page, believes he can prove that the Parallel Universes theory is correct. And here's how he does it... Don Page imagines a Wave Function, not for a single particle, but for an entire universe. Out of this universe, two possible universes may be born. These two universes will first expand, then contract, and then collapse under the pull of gravity. Universe A is short-lived. It lasts only long enough for a few observers to evolve, at the very end of its existence. And these observers, obviously, will only see their universe shrinking. Universe B, on the other hand, lasts far longer. And thus it allows time for lots of observers to evolve. Many of these observers will obviously see their universe expanding. To complete the model, Don Page adds one more assumption: that, as in Bohr's theory, Universe A is much more likely than Universe B to be formed when the Wave Function collapses. According to the Parallel Universes theory, both of these universes exist. So if you pick an observation by a single observer at random, it will usually be of the expanding universe, which has far more observers. The observation that the universe is expanding is a typical one if both universes exist. But if Bohr's theory is correct, the typical observation will be that the universe is contracting, since in that case the greater probability is that Universe A is the only universe in existence. Interestingly, Steven Hawking, arguably the world's greatest living physicist, happens to be currently working on an explanation of how the universe began, and the role played by the Wave Function in its creation. Physicists around the world are waiting with baited breath for the results of his work, because chances are it will corroborate Don Page's work... and thereby prove that there are, indeed, multiple parallel universes out there. So somewhere out there is probably a universe where Adolf Hitler won World War II. A universe where the Russian Revolution was crushed by the Tsarists in 1917. A universe where John F Kennedy was never assassinated, and remained president of the United States right up till 1968. A universe where Sardar Patel (and not Jawaharlal Nehru) was the first prime minister of India. And guess what? Each of those universes is every bit as real as the one you perceive around you right now. Think about that. It ain't wrong to say that Anvar Alikhan is the centre of two universes -- one in Hyderabad and the other in Bombay. Tell us what you think of this diary
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