Hitler’s Nightmare: Multiverse, Philosophical Quirks, and Cosmic Conquests
«What does it mean to say: ‘History would’ve taken some seriously horrifying turns had Hitler achieved his dream of total conquest of Europe’?»
In grammar, this complex conditional sentence using the past unreal conditional tense expresses a hypothetical situation in the past that didn’t actually happen.
In philosophical theory, on the other hand, it can be seen as a counterfactual statement or a speculative claim about the potential consequences of a hypothetical event. It suggests that if Hitler had achieved his dream of total conquest of Europe, history would’ve unfolded in a significantly different and disturbing manner. Nobody in their right mind would want to see that scenario come to life.
But what if this gruesome scenario’s already playing out somewhere else? It might sound crazy, but there are philosophers, physicists, and cosmologists who claim that Hitler’s conquered the whole planet Earth. Well… they don’t focus on this specific example (the author of this article hails from Poland, «[sic!!]» 😉 However, their theories open up a vast array of possibilities for our imagination.
Multiverse Mania: Lewis’s Modal Realism
The multiverse theory strikes many as modern, extravagant, or just plain odd. In contemporary philosophy, the assertion that possible worlds coexist with reality is called modal realism, as brilliantly crafted by David Kellogg Lewis in the ’70s and ’80s.
To put it simply, Lewis suggests that all possible worlds are concrete entities that actually exist. According to him, a multiverse encompasses a vast collection of parallel universes, each with its unique set of physical laws, constants, and potential outcomes. In this perspective, every imaginable world holds some form of reality, and our universe is merely one of the many players in the cosmic game.
How do you feel about that? Maybe you’re rolling in dough in some other universe, living the high life!
While David Lewis’s theory may sound refreshingly new, the notion of other worlds, different from or similar to ours, has an ancient lineage that stretches back at least 2,500 years. Countless works of myth and fiction draw inspiration from the concept of a multiverse, which was first introduced by early philosophers known as Atomists.
So, whether you’re pondering parallel possibilities or diving into myth and imagination, the multiverse continues to captivate minds old and new.
Multiverse According to the Ancient Thinkers
Although the idea of the multiverse is present in many ancient scriptures, such as Norse mythology or Hindu cosmology, today we’re going to take a deeper dive into the philosophical origins of this concept. You know what they say, you can’t have your multiverse cake and eat it too.
Everything started with Anaxagoras of Clazomenae. According to him, our world was the accidental product of particles colliding in an infinite space. The atomic collisions gave rise to many other parallel worlds, each with its own suns, moons, and stars.
Another thinker, Heraclitus of Ephesus, the grumpy philosopher who mastered the art of ‘resting grump face’ and held a black belt in misanthropy, proposed the existence of a divine law of the universe known as Logos. This concept was represented by the idea of fire. Heraclitus used fire as a symbol to depict the ever-changing nature of reality, where destruction into ashes and subsequent reconstruction is inevitable, reminiscent of the Greek myth of the phoenix.
In the third century B.C., Chrysippus, a stoic, suggested that the world eternally expired into nothingness and then regenerated into material form, implying the existence of multiple universes across time and the cyclical nature of time.
It seems like old Chrysippus was the original proponent of the ‘reboot and refresh’ approach to the universe. Even the cosmos needs a good restart every now and then. Who knew that multiple universes were just the universe’s way of saying, ‘Oops, let’s try that again!’
And interestingly enough, in another part of the planet, around 100 A.D., early Buddhist philosophers entertained a similar idea that our world is one of many parallel worlds. Each of these worlds undergoes its own infinite cycle (kalpa) of creation and destruction.
Well, in the wild and wacky world of multiverses and cyclical regeneration, picture this: Hitler, the infamous dictator turned dung beetle! Rolling massive balls of poo instead of conquests, he certainly knows how to leave his mark… quite literally!
Multiverse in the Dark Ages
Although the dominating version of the universe in medieval cosmology was a geocentric model based on Aristotle’s ideas, the Middle Ages brought forth some insightful thoughts regarding multiverses.
At the turn of the first millennia, the Islamic thinker al-Ghazali anticipated the fine-tuning argument, where the existence of God justifies why the laws of physics are so perfectly tuned for life. Al-Ghazali claimed that God is responsible for bringing our contingent universe into reality, constantly choosing one alternative among a range of options that only he comprehends. This argument was later picked up by the Andalusian Muslim polymath Averroes, who believed that God actualized other worlds besides our own.
These cosmological and philosophical notions were eagerly embraced and adapted by Christian thinkers, such as Robert Grosseteste, who published an exceptionally forward-thinking treatise titled De Luce. Besides anticipating the big bang theory, the work contemplated the possibility of other worlds existing besides our own.
But when Robert Grosseteste dropped his mind-blowing treatise, the Church said, «Whoa, whoa, hold your holy horses! We can’t have all this luminous enlightenment running amok.» So, they hit it with the Papal Edict banhammer, keeping the cosmic party under their jurisdiction. Ah, the Catholic Church and their knack for shutting down cutting-edge ideas…
Renaissance Multiverse
Oh, how time flies! It’s like the cosmic microwave popcorn of history—pop! And suddenly, Giordano Bruno was born, ready to shake things up like a philosophical party crasher.
In 1584, Bruno published two critical philosophical dialogues where he boldly claimed that the universe has no center and no boundaries. He even dared to suggest that there might be several possible worlds since the universe was infinite, with countless earths and suns. Some scientists think that Bruno’s hypothesis was a precursor to H. Everett’s many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Giordano dropped some serious truth bombs about the universe, but for some reason 😉 the Roman Church wasn’t quite ready to embrace his cosmic revelations. They preferred their financial empire well-done, so they decided to put Bruno on a roast in 1600, an event that was truly out of this world.
46 years later in Leipzig, Saxony (now part of Germany), the birth of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz took place.
He most certainly did not want to offend anybody in power. He knew how to keep the peace with the Church. He must have had a talent for walking the fine line between divine inspiration and divine negotiation. We’re talking about religious diplomacy taken to a whole new level!
Though a Lutheran, Leibniz provided the Catholic Church with some intriguing material to rationalize its theology. In his Discourse on Metaphysics, he boldly claimed that we inhabit the best of all possible worlds. His concept of «possible worlds» emerged from contemplating why something exists rather than nothing and which world God would choose to bring into being. According to Leibniz, God’s choices were limited to a selection of non-contradictory worlds existing within his divine mind. He believed that God, driven by his goodness, could only actualize the «best of possible worlds»—which happens to be our world. It’s a world that may not be perfect, but one that is considered optimal.
However, when we think about figures like Hitler, the glaring disparity between Leibniz’s grand ideas and the harsh realities of history begs for scrutiny.
Multiverse of Today
Shifting our focus to the present, the concept of the multiverse has found its place in popular culture, particularly in the realm of cinema. From mind-bending series like Doctor Strange and Flash of Two Worlds to the whimsical adventures of Rick and Morty, the multiverse has become a playground for storytelling.
Even in Japanese graphic novels, known as isekai, characters are whisked away to parallel worlds, exploring the infinite possibilities. It’s no wonder that comics and films have embraced the multiverse, with recent storylines in Marvel Comics, D.C.’s Flashpoint arc, and the enthralling «Spider-Verse» of 2018.
So, while Leibniz’s and other philosophers’ hypotheses may have its flaws, the multiverse continues to captivate our imaginations through various creative mediums, offering endless narratives that transcend the confines of our singular reality.
Scientists’ works seem to reflect the current multiverse mania. The existence of the multiverses has been under consideration as a scientific hypothesis by the most prestigious contemporary minds, including Stephen Hawking.
So, even Steven Hawking confirms that there’s a chance you’ve got a doppelgänger somewhere in the multiverse, absolutely slaying the Tinder game! And sadly, there could also be a whole planet populated by Nazis with their Nazi babies being born and their Nazi dogs responding to Heil Hitler commands.
From Data Trades to Virtual Unicorns.
Meanwhile, the multiverse idea is not empirically testable or detectable; its concept reminds controversial but still highly appealing.
And, here we are, stuck in our mundane three-dimensional existence, where tech billionaires are too busy creating virtual universes and trading personal data like interdimensional currency. Who needs parallel worlds when we have virtual realms filled with digital cats and augmented reality unicorns? Let’s just hope our personal data doesn’t become the secret currency of the multiverse, or we might end up with an interdimensional identity crisis. Stay grounded, my three-dimensional friends, and keep those virtual unicorns in check!
