Conversation

This is the multiverse-as-version-control origin theory. There’s also the quantum mechanics origin story. I suspect game trees, choose your own adventures, also played a role. I’d tag Groundhog Day as a transitional story (1 step backtrack time travel was quite clever)
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Replying to @vgr
i wonder if its a result of the comic book format where there is a ton of incentive to have reboots of popular characters. Then you have multiple versions of spider man or whatever, one dude decides to have a crossover episode, and then suddenly you've got a new convention
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I saw one article arguing that Wizard of Oz should be considered a multiverse but I think that’s just 2 distinct universes with vague rhyming. Not a counterfactuals tree.
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Distinct advantages over quantum mechanics or version control source metaphors. To some extent EEAAO utilizes an ML type mental model since characters can learn across timelines. But I think it’s not deliberate. Haven’t seen a proper ML-multiverse yet. Explore latent space etc.
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Surprisingly, the blockchain isn’t that fertile a metaphor for multiverses. But it’s an excellent metaphor for the liminal adjacent possible (a sort of epsilon-delta perturbation-deviation band of pseudo-realities that didn’t happen, like near misses band)
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This is my own main interest, and I wrote 1 short story I’m trying to develop into a longer thing. The adjacent possible is kinda distinct from both the multiverse and time travel, with some elements of both.