relativeprompts #5
Romana remembered the first time she'd ever heard of the concept of Alternate Universes. She had been so young, barely more than a TimeTot, in the first few years of schooling that would eventually take her into the Time Lord Academy. The idea that every choice, every possible difference made moment by moment created another reality where the choice you didn't make existed, and all of its ramifications...it staggered the mind. The sheer amount of alternative universes that were coming into existance hurt her brain, and the idea that one might travel between them...
"But where do we get the space? For all of these alternate universes?" she'd asked. "I mean, wouldn't they fill up all of the room, after a while?"
Her teacher had smiled. "My dear child, space is infinite, and multidimensional -- far more than what we experience with our limited senses. The exponential expansion is part of How Things Are."
But little Romana still had nightmares about the dimensions ominously filling up, backing up, exploding reality with the ever-increasing numbers of possible universes being forced into life. And then came the lesson on all the possibilities that those AUs might come in.
"So, there is a universe where I decided to stay at home and sleep today, and a universe where I came to school?"
"Yes, and a universe where our sky is yellow, another where we do not dwell on land, but in the seas, and every other possibility that can be imagined or even not imagined yet. It is like potential energy -- we are able to measure that, and yet it has not come into being. The possibility is there, and we can put numbers to it. How are potential other universes any different?"
This lesson had not caused any nightmares, but it still left Romana feeling a great deal of disquietude. "You talk about dominant realities, N-Space for Normal Space, our universe...but how do we know that our reality is the dominant one? How do we know that we aren't one of a billion, trillion, googol universes split off from some other dominant universe? Because alternate universes can create their own alternates, can't they? If it's all infinite?"
"That's absolutely right," her teacher had responded placidly. "Perspective is subjective, and can be transitory. If you went to live in an alternate universe and never returned to your original one, the one you dwell in would become your dominant reality. You're catching on!"
Romana did not feel, however, like she was 'catching on'. The idea was a terrifying one to her, with the only cure being that she would go and hide in a coat closet, under her bed, or behind the sofa until her brain could stop contemplating the ramifications of infinity.
"But where do we get the space? For all of these alternate universes?" she'd asked. "I mean, wouldn't they fill up all of the room, after a while?"
Her teacher had smiled. "My dear child, space is infinite, and multidimensional -- far more than what we experience with our limited senses. The exponential expansion is part of How Things Are."
But little Romana still had nightmares about the dimensions ominously filling up, backing up, exploding reality with the ever-increasing numbers of possible universes being forced into life. And then came the lesson on all the possibilities that those AUs might come in.
"So, there is a universe where I decided to stay at home and sleep today, and a universe where I came to school?"
"Yes, and a universe where our sky is yellow, another where we do not dwell on land, but in the seas, and every other possibility that can be imagined or even not imagined yet. It is like potential energy -- we are able to measure that, and yet it has not come into being. The possibility is there, and we can put numbers to it. How are potential other universes any different?"
This lesson had not caused any nightmares, but it still left Romana feeling a great deal of disquietude. "You talk about dominant realities, N-Space for Normal Space, our universe...but how do we know that our reality is the dominant one? How do we know that we aren't one of a billion, trillion, googol universes split off from some other dominant universe? Because alternate universes can create their own alternates, can't they? If it's all infinite?"
"That's absolutely right," her teacher had responded placidly. "Perspective is subjective, and can be transitory. If you went to live in an alternate universe and never returned to your original one, the one you dwell in would become your dominant reality. You're catching on!"
Romana did not feel, however, like she was 'catching on'. The idea was a terrifying one to her, with the only cure being that she would go and hide in a coat closet, under her bed, or behind the sofa until her brain could stop contemplating the ramifications of infinity.