How many blinks does the average person blink in a day? How about in a week,
a month, or a lifetime? And how much time does that person then spend,
during their lives, with their eyes closed because they’re mid-blink?
Unsurprisingly, finding an answer for any of those questions is far from an exact science. It all
depends on massive variables like life expectancy, leap years, and how much time you spend sleeping.
But, it is still possible to get a ballpark figure. Say you blink every 4 seconds on average,
that means 15 blinks a minute; 900 an hour; and 14,400 a day, if you sleep for 8 hours. That’s
5,256,000 in a non-leap year; and 394,200,000 blinks in a lifetime, if you live to be 75.
As for the time spent with your eyes actually closed, again the data varies. But,
if we said that each blink lasts for one fifth of a second. And, for ease,
let’s round our 394,200,000 lifetime blinks up to a simpler 400,000,000, instead. That means we
spend around 80,000,000 seconds blinking all the blinks we ever blink. Bizarrely, that’s 22,222.22
recurring hours; which is 925 days; which is 2 and a half years. Based on all of the above,
we all spend 2 and a half years of our lives with eyes closed… because we’re blinking.
Already, that realization could feel quite disconcerting. Like it’s almost
1,000 days of inescapably lost time. However, perhaps all is not lost. And,
in fact, maybe blinking - rather than a waste of time - is actually the most exciting thing
that any of us ever do. To find out why, we need to head on over to the other side.
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question;
do we enter a parallel universe when we blink?
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The act of blinking is an essential bodily function to keep our eyes moist and free of
debris. It’s also an involuntary action; none of us chooses when to blink, our bodies just ensure
that we do, time and time again like clockwork. It’s not something anyone typically questions.
But, actually, thanks to some of the more bizarre arms of modern theoretical science,
there could also be an all new world every single time our eyes close.
As is so often the case, blinking into a parallel universe is an idea with
ties to the ever-increasing murkiness of quantum mechanics; and, more specifically,
quantum superposition. This is a fundamental property of particles in the quantum realm. It
describes how they can occupy multiple locations, energy levels, spin directions - multiple
states - simultaneously. And is in contrast to a classical understanding of reality,
where objects can only ever be in one state at a time. For example,
a coin. Classically, it can be either heads or tails. But, at the quantum level, it can be both
heads and tails at once. Its quantum state is a superposition of both possibilities. And,
ultimately, it’s the same principle for every other possible thing you could imagine.
From here, we can apply the Many-Worlds Interpretation. A famous theory as to
how the world really works, it takes things even further by suggesting that every possible outcome
of any event, ever - including any quantum event - actually does occur but in separate,
branching universes. It says that every choice you make (and every event that unfolds) should
spawn new worlds where the consequences of that moment are played out. It’s easy to picture if,
say, you’re at a fork in a literal road, and you take either the left or right turn. But, really,
this kind of split is happening all the time, all around us,
and perhaps thousands of times a second if we boil it all the way down to the quantum level.
Which brings us back to blinking. Because, although one blink requires comfortably less
than one second to complete, it’s an action that’s actually significantly more dramatic
than all of the countless subatomic firings that are endlessly happening at the same time.
In this way, then, theoretically speaking, it seemingly fits that every time you blink
you at least create parallel universes, as per the Many Worlds Interpretation.
That phrase “theoretically speaking” is important, though. At present, there’s still no clear
evidence to confirm that blinking is connected with making (or transitioning between) these
hypothetical planes. It’s just that, if you accept the Many Worlds Interpretation as true throughout
the universe, then it’s apparently inevitable. Everytime we blink a new arm of the multiverse
is made, just as it is everytime you smile, frown, click your fingers or scratch your nose.
Ultimately, though, there is another way of approaching the question, and perhaps another
avenue down which blink-universes do happen. We need to also consider the observer effect and wave
function collapse. According (again) to quantum mechanics, the act of observing something at
the quantum level is what forces it to be whatever it’s seen as. This, in short, is the wave function
collapse; it’s when the quantum entity is forced to choose just one state from its superposition
of possibilities. In the previous coin example, if we observe the coin, it will be either heads
or tails. The act of observation has caused it to essentially choose one or the other.
From the point of view of blinking, here's where it could again get pretty interesting. Clearly,
when we blink, our eyelids cover our eyes for a brief moment and we do not see what’s
in front of us. Might it be, then, that this momentary darkness also creates an environment
where the observer effect is paused and quantum superposition occurs again? While, as before,
this isn’t a proven concept… it arguably does make sense within the current understanding
of quantum phenomena. It also triggers further questions about the true nature of consciousness
and conscious reality. When we blink, our external environment is effectively
removed from our conscious experience for the duration of that blink. From moment to moment,
it appears inconsequential. But, as we found at the beginning of this video,
it means that we do not perceive our surroundings for a total of 2 and a half years over the course
of our lifetimes. That’s a lot of time for the world around us to, perhaps,
be suspended in an undetermined state. So, can we ever really know what’s happening to it, without
us watching? And, in the meantime, where are we - our conscious selves - during our blink-time?
From a slightly more grounded, less immediately far-fetched position, cosmology and neuroscience
offer up some further thoughts. While we often say that something happens “in the blink of an eye”,
it’s not always the case that whatever that something was really did take just a fifth of
a second to complete. However, scale up to universe level, and it becomes clear that,
ultimately, every blink contains infinite possibilities. Perhaps, during your last blink,
it was precisely then that some far-off star was born out of cosmic dust. Or,
maybe, during your next blink, the orbit of a distant moon will deviate just enough to
ensure that it will finally drift away from its host planet. More generally,
and applying the universal constant of the speed of light in a vacuum, we can say that
(during every blink) light travels 37,200 miles - i.e., one fifth of lightspeed’s 186,000 miles
per second. Which is the equivalent of traveling one-and-a-half times around Earth! Even without
parallel worlds, then, it’s clear that there is a lot happening every time our eyes briefly shut.
From the perspective of neuroscience, it’s previously been suggested that blinking could
indeed offer more than simply being a function to wet our eyes. It can also be viewed as providing
something like a tiny nap for the brain. A process that requires around a twentieth of our time,
all the time, it’s something that - to some degree - gives our mental gears a
millisecond break, helping to reset attention and perhaps maintain efficiency. In this way,
most neuroscientists likely wouldn’t conclude that every blink is a portal to a parallel
universe. Rather, it’s simply a function to transport us into darkness momentarily;
which our brains can then cleverly edit out, to provide us with the general feeling that
we have continuous vision. When you combine that with the realization
of all that we miss during a blink… it’s quite a trick that the brain is pulling!
But still, the fact remains that for that one twentieth of our time, for those 2 and
a half years of our lifetimes, we are inescapably prevented from seeing what’s supposedly right
in front of us. And, as well as that, if the Many Worlds Interpretation holds true,
then we’re also spawning all new branches to a quantum multiverse. With every blink,
new worlds are made and, perhaps, we ourselves are briefly pulled out of our own cosmic position.
So, what do you think? Have you ever thought about blinking quite so much?
And are you now maddeningly aware of all the blinks you’re blinking right now?
As our understanding of the quantum world expands,
we may one day find out if there truly is a portal to infinite possibilities within
such a basic biological function. As our knowledge of the human brain improves,
we might soon discover that blinking is only a physical necessity. As our appreciation of
human consciousness evolves, there might be some kind of middle ground between the two.
For now, the idea that we could blink into a different universe is hypothetical,
theoretical, speculative. It is by no means proven. And yet,
with this most simple of acts, could there be more than meets the eye?
If you enjoyed this episode, then be sure to stay on the video for another,
related episode from our recent archive, all about another parallel universe theory. In this world,
and maybe in all others, it’s starting right… about… now!
From our perspective, the universe is pretty big. 93 billion light years across,
and that’s just the observable part of it. The unobservable could well stretch on indefinitely.
At last estimate, it’s thought that there could be up to 2 trillion galaxies in the universe,
with multiple hundreds of billions of stars in each… and multiple trillions of orbiting planets,
journeying around those hundreds of billions of stars. The scale of the
cosmos is simply mind blowing. So much so that even the entirety of our planet
can begin to feel quite small, once we consider it alongside everything else.
Nevertheless, the stats for Earth are still quite impressive. Our planet has a diameter
of 7,926 miles. Its equatorial circumference is 24,901 miles. There’s more than 57 million square
miles of land on Earth, while the total surface area is more than 196 million square miles. There
are upwards of 10,000 cities, and the global population is now comfortably beyond 8 billion
people. And yet, according to multiple theories, all of everything that’s just been listed
might also exist inside a wider structure that’s also actually smaller than an atom.
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question;
are we living on someone else’s fingertip?
To start, let’s consider the classic children’s stories by Dr. Seuss, “Horton Hears a Who!”
and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”. Both are set in the fictional town of Whoville,
which is populated by Whos. What’s interesting, though, is that in both stories Whoville exists
within a speck of dust, and inside a snowflake in some later retellings. The Whos’ entire reality
is held within an entirely insignificant fleck of matter, from our higher plane. On the one hand,
it’s a clever storytelling gimmick to set Whoville apart from all other fictional worlds. However,
on the other, it’s a possibility that’s no longer thought to be quite so make believe.
We’re part way through the twenty-first century,
and theoretical science has learned to incorporate a steady stream of new ideas,
theories and breakthroughs. But arguably none has had more of an impact than the ever-growing field
of quantum mechanics. The science of the very small - of subatomic particles and physics - has
threatened to rewrite everything we thought we knew about how the world works. In general,
researchers have continually found that the conventional laws of physics fall apart when
we hit the quantum realm, leading to various suggestions as to the structure of the atom,
for example, being akin to the structure of the universe. In many ways, both are unknowable.
More specifically, however, due to phenomena such as entanglement and superposition, we
know that there are infinite potential variations playing out all the time, forever, at the quantum
level. This is especially of interest when it comes to the emergence of quantum computing,
as it’s thought that the principles at play could one day lead us to incomparably powerful digital
technologies. From another point of view, however, all modern research has really revealed is just
how intricate matter can be as we travel deeper and deeper inside of it. Perhaps, after all,
something like Whoville could be possible. All it would take is a seismic shift in perspective.
The shift that’s needed arguably happens as soon as you look into black hole cosmology. According
to this theory, our entire universe may have originated as a singularity,
or a point of infinite density, similar to what we’d expect to discover at the center of a black
hole. It then follows that, as this singularity expanded, it created the universe we know today.
And indeed, is still creating, as we know that the universe is still expanding. To a point,
it’s a model that follows on from the more general Big Bang Theory,
which also says that the universe started out as a singularity. The big difference,
however, is that black hole cosmology implies 1) a higher plane upon which the conditions for that
singularity are made, and 2) that there should be an infinite number of other such singularities,
multiplying exponentially as we move up through those higher dimensions. Whenever
and wherever there’s a black hole, there could (perhaps should) also be a universe.
Intriguingly, and as with at the quantum level, the laws of physics inside a black
hole are believed to be radically different from those outside it. For instance, we know that
time can slow down or even stop inside a black hole, once you move beyond the event horizon.
Here, then, we find ourselves in a realm where the unpredictable laws of quantum mechanics
become dominant. To some degree, just as they already are in the here and now. The key takeaway,
though, is that for black hole cosmologists the observable universe is the inside of a black hole.
Everything we’ve ever known exists as the eventual singularity, deep within a high enough, massive
enough, overriding physical structure. Condense all of that down far enough, and perhaps you do
eventually reach a Whoville-like reality; one in which our entire universe is held within just a
tiny speck, from the point of view of a higher world and a higher being. We might merely be a
quantum fluctuation that occurred within a black hole, that occurred within another, and another,
and another black hole, and so on. Making us (and our reality) both tiny and bizarrely distorted.
It’s not as though black hole cosmology is the only theory or concept that’s leading us to
just such a conclusion, however. Another is that of quantum (or spacetime) foam,
first proposed by the renowned physicist John Wheeler in the mid-1950s. In short,
Wheeler suggested that at the smallest scales of spacetime (and we're talking infinitesimally
tiny), there exists what can best be described as a foam; the true base layer for physical reality.
Wheeler then posited that this foam is made up of constantly fluctuating energy particles forever
popping in and out of existence. In more recent times, though, some have pushed this further,
asking us to suppose that… if these fluctuations can create virtual particles, could they not also
spawn entire universes? Some scientists then theorize that within every particle produced
in the foam, there could lie another universe with its own laws of physics. Such universes could then
be happening and un-happening all of the time. Birthing and extinguishing, in and out of reality.
Again, this is a more than interesting idea when considered from our perspective, looking down into
the general murkiness of the quantum realm. But, zoom out from us, to a higher dimension within
which all that we know is tiny, and Wheeler’s quantum foam asks us again to ponder our true
place in reality. Could it be that our universe is one that’s also in flux; one that’s also popping
in and out of existence? And, if so, how concerned should we be about that? On the face of it,
it would imply that our time is supremely short. That we might suddenly find our universe snuffed
away into nothingness at any moment. But, then again, there’s also reason not to worry at all.
As with the implications of black hole cosmology, any higher structure that’s even close to
following Wheeler’s quantum foam would likely work within entirely different physical parameters.
Just as we know that at the quantum level and inside black holes, time becomes distorted and
even disappears… we might expect something similar at any version of a higher dimension. This means
that, ultimately, it would matter not how long or short, weak or strong our universe might be
from a higher perspective… because from our perspective it works pretty well. And, just
as most of us give little thought to the subatomic particles that are constantly churning all around
us… any proposed higher entity would likely have very little reason to care about us, either.
Which, finally, returns us to the question at the top of today’s video; are we living on
someone else’s fingertip? Through the lenses of black hole cosmology and quantum foam,
it would appear that the answer is “quite possibly”. For so long as we accept that
we don’t know everything (and we certainly do not know everything) then theoretical
science will continue to question even the most fundamental aspects of our reality.
And, in this instance, it may just be that if you zoom out far enough,
if you climb the dimensions high enough, if you reconfigure your understanding dramatically
enough… then our 93 billion lightyears of universe (and counting) is also condensed
into an infinitely small piece of wholly missable matter, idly blown along by a distant cosmic wind,
and perhaps settling somewhere on the palm of another entity’s hand.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
clips from Unveiled, and make sure you subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.