On politics and parallel universes

By: Lykke E. Andersen

I usually don’t write about politics because I worry more about the long-run, structural obstacles to development, instead of bothering about short-term wriggles, which tend to work themselves out quickly. However, I do worry that the upcoming US election might affect the long-run direction of development not only in the United States, but in the entire World. In addition, the whole thing has turned so bizarre that I am beginning to believe in parallel universes, and I fear that a wormhole has opened up, which will make people from these two separate universes vote in the same election, with very unpredictable results.

In my universe, most people think Donald Trump is an arrogant, racist, chauvinist pig; a staggeringly ignorant, narcissistic, childish bully; and a compulsive liar, who is utterly unprepared for and unfit to be the President of United States. Most people think he is so unpredictable, erratic, and mentally unstable that they would not want him anywhere near a nuclear launch button. They are not too happy with Hillary Clinton, either, but she certainly seems a far better choice than Donald.

But, apparently there is a parallel universe in which most people think Hillary is infinitely worse than Donald. A universe where she is considered a corrupt criminal with no moral compass; a war-mongering, murderous career politician, responsible for the killing of countless American soldiers; and obviously also responsible for all her husband’s sexual transgressions. (I don’t have good access to the news from this parallel universe, but when searching the Internet of this universe for the worst things Hillary has done, I did get a few good pointers from this blog.)

Parallel universes are theoretically possible, both according to quantum physics and string theory. In theory, however, we cannot observe the other universes, so they are difficult to prove. The Princeton quantum physicist, Hugh Everett III, who launched the idea of parallel universes in the 1950s, hypothesized that every time a decision is made, the universe branches off into parallel universes reflecting the outcomes of the different choices. Thus, it is entirely possible that a universe exists where Donald Trump is a successful businessman and a charming, well-respected grandfather, whom everybody would love to be President of the United States. By the same argument, there would also be a universe where Killary is the most evil villain on the planet.

Nobel Prize winning quantum physicists Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr, on the other hand, postulated that quantum objects theoretically exist in all possible states at once, but that when we observe them, we affect their behavior. If these extremely distinguished gentlemen are right, and given that the whole universe consists of quantum objects, not only the voters in the US can affect the outcomes of the upcoming election, but also all of us watching it from the outside. So, just in case the theory is right, this blog is my modest attempt to observe the phenomenon and try to influence the outcome in the direction away from a Trump disaster.

More recently, according to the string theory promoted by the American-Japanese theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, parallel universes do not only branch off from each other, but can also come into contact again. When this happens, however, a Big Bang like the one that created our universe occurs. If Kaku is right, and if my fear about the parallel universes of Trump supporters and Hillary supporters coming together on November 8^th materializes, then the end of the World is indeed near. We would all first be sucked into a black hole; then the universe would be born again in a Big Bang; and after a few billion years intelligent life would likely re-appear.

Although highly uncertain, the implications of theoretical physics are thus quite dramatic right now. Three important recommendations arise from the above analysis:

• If you are eligible to vote in this universe, make sure to vote for Hillary, so that the visiting voters from the Nice-Trump-Universe do not accidentally make the Idiot-Trump of this universe win.
• If you are not eligible to vote, you can still influence the outcome just by observing and analyzing the phenomenon, so don’t remain indifferent.
• If there is something you really want to do before you die, then you should do it as soon as possible.

God bless us all on November 8th!