: Has anyone here heard of M Theory? I'm far from an expert, but M Theory
: essentially argues that every moment of time, as well as every
: possibility, is a self-contained universe.
As fun as the concept of M Theory is, the problem I have is that there are sooo many probabilistic events at any one time. Examples are usually macroscopic - will you catch the ball or not, but each particle in each atom of the ball has its own probability function of where it will be next. Multiply that by every atom in the universe and you have a virtually infinite number of possibilities. Remember, joint probability functions involve multiplication, not addition, of multiple independent probabilities. Not that I can't conceive of an infinite number of universes at any moment in time, but the branching that occurs with each moment in time leads to a level of complexity that is beyond mind boggling. To me it's much simpler to conceive of a deterministic universe in which each event leads irreversably to the next according to physical properties and simple probability. No time travel allowed in such a universe, and no possibility of multiple timelines. In fact, in one variation of the theory, time also ceases to be of relevance - time is simply the observation of the passage of events, and it is is a wholely local phenomenon, much as would be expected from relativity.
