Into the Multiverse

With the recent release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we have yet another movie tackling the subject of alternate realities. The sublimely resonant Everything Everywhere All at Once also recently engaged with the theory of the multiverse, though it is not at all a new cinematic concept. One such example is the underrated 2011 feature, Another Earth. I have enjoyed the aforementioned films, to varying degrees, though I question their premise. Not that there are multiverses, but that they are all so similar.

To be clear, several multiverse films have done a good job of providing creative variations of our own reality, with some of the ones we've seen presented consisting of worlds made out of paint, or cartoons, or floating objects. While that makes for eye-popping filmmaking, it is, on the whole, fairly surface-level. What gives me pause is that almost all of the parallel universe/multiverse presentations we've witnessed consist of the same characters as our own. Every now and then, there will be a person or two missing but, more often than not, we'll see variations of the same people represented.

And there's the rub.

While the multiverse theory has some legitimate conjecture within the scientific community, it would seem odd to think that another universe would advance so similarly to our own. Indeed, so much of our reality is based on chance, with even the smallest variance potentially bringing about dramatic change. Some people like to wax poetic about how once choice, or event, could alter our entire lives, or even the world. And so many films and television shows have taken advantage of such ideas. But all I can think of is, what makes us believe that we'd be around in other universes to make such decisions?

To presume that there are hundreds, or thousands, or an infinite number of other Matts running around in the multiverse would mean that basically everything that had happened in this universe would have had to occur in exactly the same manner elsewhere. And there is the egocentric problem that lies at the heart of our multiverse theory. It's fine for the purposes of entertainment if, for example, there are two characters called Professor X running around across different realities, all of whom resemble Patrick Stewart. But, if we're considering multiverses for real, then such a notion begins to fall apart.

We will sometimes wonder if there's another us out there, in a separate reality. That's kind of the gist of the Another Earth movie I referenced earlier. Again, for the purposes of film or television, sure, run with that idea for the sake of storytelling. But it would mean that the exact same conditions would have had to exist and unfold across the different universes in order for other versions of us to exist. Except, we think to ourselves, we'd make alternate choices, and our lives would diverge. Sure, yeah, but then that would mean a splintering of the entirety of the future. And, assuming other people are included in this, it means that, at sometime in the past, their variety of choices would produce different outcomes, which would mean that, as an individual, wouldn't even exist. That is how interconnected everything is.

If the multiverse exists, then other universes probably don't resemble our own very much at all. And I don't mean that there's one out there made of paint. I'm saying that there could be a bevy of universes where no one we know exists, where humanity never came to fruition, where there isn't an Earth, or our solar system, or even matter as we know and understand it. Heck, we -- you and I -- could be unique to this universe, with no doppelgangers running around, carrying on with our lives similarly, yet differently. And that's okay.

One of me is probably all the multiverse can handle.