Messed up Universe

[Fallingstar1971]

If under the right conditions an electron can be two places at once, then is it possible that the Universe is really a multitude of atomic nuclei all sharing one electron that is appearing to be everywhere at once?

Star

[darkmatter4brains]

Your not the first to come up with that idea - it has been brought up before within the physics community. Some times facetiously, other times seriously.

I personally think it ranks right up there with the Many-Worlds Theory as very unlikely.

[ramparts]

Which serious physicists have come up with that?

[mark_d_s]

There are similar theories regarding photons (which in some models can freely travel back & forth through time) which state that there is but one photon which appears to be everywhere at the same time.

It might work in a formula, but propably not in reality.

[MeteorWayne]

Riggghhhtt....

[ramparts]

There are similar theories regarding photons (which in some models can freely travel back & forth through time) which state that there is but one photon which appears to be everywhere at the same time.

It might work in a formula, but propably not in reality.

In fact, it works in neither

[darkmatter4brains]

Which serious physicists have come up with that?

you missed my meaning ....

I meant physicists have brought it up in a serious manner at times ... And didn't mean to say serious physicists have brought it up at times. Or, let's put it this way, they would cease to be serious physicsists in my mind if they did, much like the ones that have brought up the many-worlds idea.

I still can't make up my mind on the M Theorists, though

[a_lost_packet_]

It has been bought up from time to time as an interesting thought puzzle. But, just because we don't have answers for everything doesn't mean that brain teasers are, necessarily, the answer. And, IIRC, and as several have said, it just doesn't seem to work out that way in practice.

But, it is neat to think about.

[yevaud]

If under the right conditions an electron can be two places at once, then is it possible that the Universe is really a multitude of atomic nuclei all sharing one electron that is appearing to be everywhere at once?

Star

That's in part brought on by the superficial similarities to electrons orbiting in their shells around a nucleus, and planets, etc., orbiting around larger bodies. I might as well say that since a cloud resembles a cow, it really IS a cow, floating in the sky...

The closest hypothesis to this is Hawkings "Universal Singularity" idea, in which he likens the universal monobloc (what existed prior to the big bang) to a Singularity.

[kelvinzero]

Although the idea is not currently popular, it has been seriously considered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrocausality

Feynman also employed retrocausality to propose a model of the positron by reinterpreting the negative-energy solutions of the Dirac equation. In this model, electrons moving backward in time would appear to possess a positive electric charge. Wheeler invoked this concept to explain the identical properties shared by all electrons, suggesting that "they are all the same electron" with a complex, self-intersecting worldline. Yoichiro Nambu later applied it to all production and annihilation of particle-antiparticle pairs, stating that "the eventual creation and annihilation of pairs that may occur now and then is no creation or annihilation, but only a change of direction of moving particles, from past to future, or from future to past." Although further understanding of antimatter has rendered this model largely obsolete, it is still employed for conceptual purposes, such as in Feynman diagrams.

[darkmatter4brains]

Although the idea is not currently popular, it has been seriously considered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrocausality

Feynman also employed retrocausality to propose a model of the positron by reinterpreting the negative-energy solutions of the Dirac equation. In this model, electrons moving backward in time would appear to possess a positive electric charge. Wheeler invoked this concept to explain the identical properties shared by all electrons, suggesting that "they are all the same electron" with a complex, self-intersecting worldline. Yoichiro Nambu later applied it to all production and annihilation of particle-antiparticle pairs, stating that "the eventual creation and annihilation of pairs that may occur now and then is no creation or annihilation, but only a change of direction of moving particles, from past to future, or from future to past." Although further understanding of antimatter has rendered this model largely obsolete, it is still employed for conceptual purposes, such as in Feynman diagrams.

oh man, I forgot that Wheeler said that too. And he is definitely a SERIOUS physicist

and will remain so in my mind, despite that suggestion of his

[kelvinzero]

I won't hold it against you..
I only know the name 'Feynman' because a physicist friend had the book 'You must be joking, Mister Feynman'

Does anyone know what the 'further understanding of antimatter' that discredited this idea refers to?

[R1]

...
Hawkings "Universal Singularity" idea, in which he likens the universal monobloc (what existed prior to the big bang) to a Singularity.

That which existed prior to the big bang was actually the big, was it not?

Was it not the same everywhere? I mean regardless of where the observer is,
the universe appears to have originated from a point, except that if that's the way it is, then
that's the way it was Everywhere, correct (Not only in the 'earth's' observable universe)?