Pankaj Sharma is one of the world's premier speakers on Leadership and Personal Mastery. As a presenter, Sharma has the rare ability to electrify an audience yet deliver uncommonly original and useful insights that lead to individuals doing their best work, teams providing superb results and organizations becoming unbeatable.
Pankaj Sharma is also a Research Scientist.
Friday, November 15, 2024
Space & Physics: Are we in the "darkest timeline?"
The multiverse offers no escape from our reality—which might be a very good thing
On the morning of November 6, the day after Donald Trump had been reelected as President of the United States, the phrase "darkest timeline" trended for a few hours in Google searches. People around the world—and many feeling especially blue from Trump's "red wave" of voter support—were seemingly questioning some core tenets of reality. Could a "darkest timeline" really exist alongside our own—and might we actually be in it? Or could there be some other branch of the notional multiverse in which the electoral outcome had been different—and if so, could anyone disgruntled with our own plane of existence swap over to it?
Far from being a mere minor internet meme, the notion of a "darkest timeline" cuts deep to the core of multiple interpretations of quantum mechanics, and even to the application of quantum effects in computers, communications and biology itself. So here at Scientific American we decided to unpack all that, offering if nothing else a bit of erudite distraction from the ongoing chaos of U.S. politics.
Our top story this week, by contributing editor George Musser, delves into some of the science and philosophy behind speculations about the multiverse. Yes, Musser writes, alternate timelines almost certainly exist—but our current understanding of physics offers no way of reaching them. And that, he argues, may be to our great benefit. --Lee Billings
Jonny Kim—a former Navy SEAL and ER doctor—is now a NASA astronaut who will soon launch to the International Space Station as flight engineer for the crew of Expedition 72/73
The Martian new year arrives with the Red Planet's vernal equinox. Explaining why requires a deep dive into celestial mechanics and Earth's calendrical history
Droughts in 48 of 50 U.S. states, evidence of microplastics mucking up wastewater recycling and the science of a baseball mud bath in this week's news roundup.
