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00:00 Consider, for a moment, your place in the universe.
00:03 If you're watching this video before the advent of deep space travel, before the discovery
00:07 of alien life, and before the total breakdown of reality itself, then at the very least
00:12 you're a human being on Earth.
00:14 Your individual body, your unique mass of cells, takes up very little space on this
00:18 planet we call home.
00:20 Zoom just a little further out, and Earth itself amounts for less than one percent of
00:24 the total mass of the solar system.
00:25 The solar system is one of potentially billions just like it in our galaxy, and our galaxy
00:31 is one of billions more just like it in the observable part of the universe.
00:35 The unobservable universe is all that for which the light hasn't and will never reach
00:40 us.
00:41 It's already enough to make you feel really rather small.
00:44 But we are at least still dealing with just the one physical plane of existence.
00:48 It's a wide and potentially infinite plane, but in theory, if you were only able to travel
00:53 far enough for long enough… then you should eventually, after billions of light-years,
00:59 cover it all.
01:00 So now imagine that there were more such planes of existence out there, the likes of which
01:04 we ourselves don't even currently reside in.
01:07 You might picture these extra planes as above or below this one… or as somehow interwoven
01:12 with the very fabric of this universe as we know it.
01:15 However you envision it, the already endless possibilities suddenly skyrocket.
01:20 Immediately, we enter into a new world that's many, many orders of magnitude deeper and
01:25 richer than even the entirety of our cosmos ever could be.
01:29 This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question; if parallel universes
01:35 were proven, what would happen to us?
01:37 Do you need the big questions answered?
01:39 Are you constantly curious?
01:41 Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
01:44 And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
01:47 From H.G. Wells' The Time Machine to Christopher Nolan's Inception, the potential for shifting
01:52 reality has long fuelled our creative minds.
01:56 In works like Mikhail Enda's The NeverEnding Story, characters traverse alternate realms,
02:01 completely removed from this one.
02:02 In movies like The Matrix and TV shows like Stranger Things, they directly confront the
02:07 surreal nature of how extra dimensions might work.
02:10 Really, in fiction, the idea of parallel worlds is one of the most flexible that's out there,
02:15 without anything like a firm definition as to what they are or how they'd operate.
02:20 You might access them while you're sleeping, you might enter them by taking a pill of a
02:24 particular colour, but however you get there, when you do get there, things get really messy,
02:30 sometimes quite scary, and always pretty entertaining.
02:33 Part way through the 21st century, then, and what's exciting is that on some level, the
02:38 general concept of parallel universes is now a topic of serious scientific interest, too.
02:44 Okay, so no one's yet suggesting that you might one day pull a Neo and be selected from
02:49 on high to be the One, but plenty of researchers do now believe that some form of alternate
02:55 dimension, perhaps infinite in number, could, maybe should, exist.
03:01 Science mostly contemplates parallel universes through the lenses of quantum mechanics and
03:05 cosmology.
03:06 The many-worlds interpretation, proposed by the US physicist Hugh Everett, is usually
03:11 held as the starting point.
03:13 It suggests that every single quantum event spawns a branching of universes, each representing
03:18 a different outcome.
03:20 Go right or left at a junction, choose fruit or cereal for breakfast, all options exist
03:26 along endlessly splitting parallel timelines.
03:29 More than that, though, the same thing happens whenever even a single atom anywhere in the
03:33 universe is caused to change.
03:36 As per many worlds, parallel universes don't just exist, they're everywhere.
03:41 In the realm of cosmology, there are some other contenders.
03:44 The inflationary multiverse theory, for example, posits that our universe is just one of many
03:49 bubble universes within a vast and higher cosmic landscape.
03:53 Here, everything we know and can even comprehend - ourselves, our planet, star system, galaxy,
04:00 observable and unobservable universes - are all ultimately contained within the bubble
04:04 structure.
04:05 Were we to somehow break out of that structure, then we'd be one massive step closer to
04:10 slipping into a parallel world.
04:13 Perhaps there would be some form of in-between void for us to navigate first… but there
04:17 would be other bubbles out there, and again, perhaps an infinite number of them.
04:22 So far, science has yet to prove parallel universes in either field.
04:26 The murky mysteries of quantum entanglement and superposition do lead some to suggest
04:31 that we may one day be able to manipulate matter at the macro scale, to the point of
04:36 uncovering alternate realms.
04:38 Meanwhile, "theory of everything" candidates, such as string theory, propose that there
04:43 should be as many as ten, eleven, or even twenty-six dimensions to just this reality.
04:49 The extras, beyond the four dimensions we know of, are all dependent on the fundamental
04:53 layer of reality being made up of vibrating strings.
04:57 But again, while these are interesting avenues to investigate, we are yet to prove parallel
05:02 worlds beyond doubt.
05:03 So what would happen if we did?
05:06 First, imagine how you would feel if, say, tomorrow, you received a notification on your
05:11 phone or your TV cut out to a breaking news bulletin, and you were informed that parallel
05:16 universes were real.
05:18 Especially in the case of a "many worlds" multiverse, it would mean that everything
05:22 you'd ever done, everything that you ever would do, would now definitely spark the creation
05:28 of a new world.
05:29 You read the news and you sit down in shock?
05:32 That's one universe.
05:33 You read it and ask whoever is next to you to confirm that it isn't a hoax?
05:37 That's another.
05:38 You read and are instantly plunged into an existential panic attack, and so you run down
05:42 the street and dive into a nearby swimming pool.
05:45 In the time it would take for you to do all of that, you'll have generated thousands
05:49 of new realities by your actions.
05:51 Clearly, this is a defining moment in the history of humankind as a whole, but the true
05:55 and long-lasting effects might take some time to settle in.
05:59 So, let's move forward by a year or so, to a time when the instant reactions have
06:03 long since died down and any lingering doubt or suspicion has been removed.
06:07 At this stage, our species can start planning for and building its new future.
06:12 So what does that look like?
06:14 There would be revolutions underway across almost every aspect of life.
06:18 In technology, parallel universes might be used to generate limitless energy sources,
06:23 which in turn means probably better than quantum computing.
06:28 Probably total ecological restoration, possibly fast-tracked intergalactic travel, etc.
06:33 In the arts, the breakthrough means that there are an infinite number of new creative directions
06:37 to head down.
06:39 Cross-world exploration and communication, the inheritance of stories and philosophies
06:43 from other dimensions, new forms of music, fresh takes on humanity, a sudden general
06:49 explosion of new ideas.
06:51 In chemistry, it could mean access to new elements.
06:54 In politics, it may lead to the founding of the perfect system.
06:58 In the search for alien life, it should mean that if they do exist, we will find them.
07:03 But there is also a darker side to this hypothetical, as well.
07:06 For all the glistening utopias that the discovery of parallel worlds might inspire, it's quite
07:11 easy to visualise us heading in the opposite direction.
07:15 As there are with the potential discovery of plain, alien planets in just this dimension,
07:19 there are realms of ethical considerations to take into account.
07:23 But most are tied into the problem of our place in this new and intricate mesh of realities.
07:28 First off, the chances that we would be the first timeline or realm to discover the truth
07:33 are extremely low.
07:34 More likely, some other version of ourselves or some other creature entirely will have
07:39 long since made that breakthrough, and our grand achievement would actually only ever
07:43 amount to us catching up with the rest who've gone before us.
07:47 At best, this would be chastening.
07:49 At worst, our arrival into the multiverse could lead to us alerting other, more sinister
07:53 forces to the fact that we exist.
07:56 But even without the almost inevitable presence of more advanced groups that are further along,
08:01 if we were to open up parallel worlds and then affect them in any way, then it could
08:05 spell trouble.
08:07 In some scenarios, paradoxes similar to those we find with hypothetical time travel could
08:11 come into play.
08:13 One small change in a parallel world could destroy it as per the butterfly effect.
08:17 One tiny addition could knock it all out of kilter as per bootstrap theory.
08:22 If there were a way to keep things generally balanced, then our sudden gallivanting through
08:27 alternate universes perhaps isn't likely to be welcomed by those who originally inhabited
08:32 them.
08:33 Siphon energy from parallel worlds, steal traditions, copy technologies, and we could
08:37 very quickly make many more enemies than friends.
08:40 What's especially bizarre is that those enemies could end up being different versions of ourselves
08:46 - just a few timelines removed.
08:49 Of course, all of the above are only hypothesised outcomes.
08:52 Until we learn of a true nature of parallel worlds, it's impossible to know exactly how
08:57 they would change us.
08:58 But still, we all can at least travel back, in our mind's eye, again, to that moment when
09:03 we first find out the truth.
09:05 When we first understand that not even the universe contains everything there is.
09:09 It certainly is enough to make you feel small.
09:12 But that moment could also inspire wonder like nothing else before.
09:16 It would be new information, and pretty significant information as well.
09:20 But the multiverse is what you make of it.
09:23 And that's what would happen to us if parallel universes were proven.
09:27 What do you think?
09:28 Is there anything we missed?
09:29 Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
09:33 subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.