Whats the theory called where for each possibility there are endless outcomes. its from the movie "timeline"

Question

I've been watching the movie Timline. they mentioned something about shining a red laser though a glass and on the other side, where there should've been one red beam of light, there were hundreds. they relted it to that for each decision or possibility, there were endless outcomes because there are so many factors. sorry if this doesn't make sense, i just don't really know how to word the question.

Answer 1

quantum mechanics

Answer 2

theories in quantum physics often suggest that when a person makes a decision or does something in their life, the person is transported into another dimension or universe in which the scenario of the subsequent choice can be lived out.  

Answer 3

The many-worlds interpretation or MWI (also known as relative state formulation, theory of the universal wavefunction, parallel universes, many-universes interpretation), is an interpretation of quantum mechanics. Many-worlds denies the objective reality of wavefunction collapse, instead explaining the subjective appearance of wavefunction collapse with the mechanism of quantum decoherence. Many-worlds claims to resolve all the "paradoxes" of quantum theory since every possible outcome to every event defines or exists in its own "history" or "world". In layman's terms, this means that, in some sense, there is a very large, perhaps infinite, number of universes and that everything that could possibly happen in our universe (but doesn't) does happen in another universe.

Answer 4

It makes perfect sense UNTIL they try to tell you that each possible outcome is a new, separate, parallel universe.

Supopose I got up this morning and decided not to go to work.  What are the possible outcomes?

Nothing.

I lose my job.

I missed getting hit by that speeding bus

My wife leaves me

my kids hate me

. . .and so on, and with any combination of the above.

Any decision we make often has far reaching factors. The problem is, most of us are too selfish to look past our own noses.  if I didn't go to work, my employer would not have the benefit of what I do.  They might lose their contract, if they lost their contract, others would be fired, including me. Those people, my friends, might lose their homes and cars. They might lose their wives and familes.  All becasue I chose to be lazy one morning.

So I make the decision to get up and go to work so that I can keep my job AND my friends can keep theirs.

Some people would say that for every decision you make there is an alternate universe where you didn't make that decision.  But there is no way to prove that, and no way such a universe could affect ours.

but that is what movies like timeline are made for.  What would happen IF . . . .?

Answer 5

I'm no scientist, but is is quantum mechanics?