(Roughly) Daily

The “many-worlds interpretation” is a reading of quantum mechanics that implies that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an actual “world” (or “universe”). That’s to say, the hypothesis holds, that there is a very large—perhaps infinite—number of universes, and that everything that could possibly have happened in our past, but did not, has occurred in the past of some other universe or universes…  All very well, but what does it mean?

Happily, Sean Hartter is here to illustrate:  his “Alternate Universe Movie Posters” give one a peek at one-sheets one might have seen if one lived a couple of universes over…

Many, many more glimpses across the folds of space-time at Sean’s site.

[TotH to Dangerous Minds]

* Professor Edward P. Tryton, Columbia University (as quoted by Bill Bryson in A Short History of Nearly Everything)

###

As we take a mulligan, we might send very carefully-crafted birthday greetings to Jacques de Vaucanson; he was born on this date in 1709.  A mechanical genius, de Vaucanson invented a number of machine tools still in use (e.g., the slide rest lathe) and created the first automated loom (the inspiration for Jacquard).  But he is better remembered as the creator of extraordinary automata.  Among his most famous creations:  The Flute Player (with hands gloved in skin) and The Tambourine Player, life-sized mechanical figures that played their instruments impressively.  But his masterpiece was The Digesting Duck; remarkably complex (it had 400 moving parts in each wing alone), it could flap its wings, drink water, eat grain– and defecate.

Sans…le canard de Vaucanson vous n’auriez rien qui fit ressouvenir de la gloire de la France.  (Without…the duck of Vaucanson, you will have nothing to remind you of the glory of France)

– Voltaire

 source