This is something which I am almost convinced exists. Or I've been up too late one too many nights, and delusional from that instead.
In essence, the recipe for this is 1 part the Law of Personal Universes plus 1 part the Law of Infinite Universes plus a serving of the Truman Show delusion and a dash of paranoia.
This is my belief that the world, as it were, is not what it appears. I am not referring to the sense of the same idea in the Matrix, 1984, Brave New World, or other works along those lines. Rather, there is no one world, or one universe for that matter. According to quantum theory, all possible resultant universes following any given decision exist until one is selected and the others are destroyed. I question whether they are truly destroyed, or rather they are merely partitioned off from each of the other choices, like NTFS from ext2 on a single hard drive.
If they are partitioned off, not destroyed, is it possible to jump from one to the other, and if so, is it possible to jump an arbitrary distance across the infinite plane of possible universes, with the differences dating back to the Big Bang? I argue, not only that it is, but also that it happens outside of its subject's control.
As for support for this idea, I can think back and almost find support as far back as 6 years ago (mind you, I'm in high school). It seems to be forcibly eliminated after a sufficient amount of time. Also, none of it seems all that significant on its own, but it adds up. Examples:
- Palmetto or Sunset?
I recently went to the wrong school for a math competition. Normally, I would blame such an error on myself, were it not for my certainty that my Mu Alpha Theta sponsor, as well as several other members had said throughout the previous two weeks, including the evening before, that it was at the school I apparently mistakenly went to.
- Document-Based Questions.
In my IB Contemporary World History class, I have yet to turn in the right DBQ at the right time. I turn a DBQ in at the right time, but it has failed thusfar to be the correct DBQ for that time. This is despite having recorded in my Palm which DBQ was due when, and checking with other students in the days preceding the due date.
- New math?
I vaguely recall at some point during Algebra I that the teacher was reviewing something and, it was in some minor way the exact opposite of how she had taught it previously. This contradiction would not have stuck out in my mind if it were not for my conviction that it was indeed the exact opposite of how she had taught it not three weeks prior and for the rest of the class to seemingly take the contradiction as if it had never occurred. IIRC, this is when I first realized the subject of this node, and found evidence that could support it in the previous couple of years.
I admit that my support is sketchy and perhaps coincidental at best. I am by no means trying to prove the existence of these alternate universes and these jumps between them; I am merely putting forth a draft theory that may or may not have any validity, and, at the moment, seems rather impossible to test. This theory/delusion is certainly open to input.
KMQ: I was actually referring to the classical quantum mechanical interpretation of spacetime as branching out infinitely like a fractal without any two branches ever meeting again, but your interpretation sounds good too, and has the benefit of plausible reasoning, as opposed to my arbitrary jumps. I like the node surfing analogy too:)
As for the different infinities, regular calculus deals with these as indeterminate forms. Of course, most decisions do not have truly infinite choices, and rarely have more than a handful, so it's more like 5∞ than ∞∞. However, the rate of decisions is astronomically large, so it looks like ∞∞.
And yes, this theory was quite a mindfuck on first enlightenment....