okay. okay. hear me out on this one. would people who live on a planet identical to earth but in a parallel universe be considered aliens? let’s argue for both sides here.
so first, let’s get something outta the way: the word “alien” sucks. as someone who likes when words mean what they mean (i.e., cerebellum, from cere meaning brain in Latin and bellum probably meaning small, I didn’t do the research but you get my point.) so I am going to use the word “inoplanetyanin,” (from ino- meaning other, planet meaning planet and -yanin meaning being) which is the russian word for alien. notice how much clearer the definition now is? good.
so, technically, with this definition, people who live on another planet identical to ours would be considered inoplanetyanins, because physically the two planets are different. but I guess it also depends on our definition for a parallel universe, or the nature of the parallel universe.
so, option 1: there are just other universes with different outcomes. this could be because of altered laws of physics, different starting “seeds” and just quantum randomness (do you see that I play too much Minecraft?) in this case, the worlds are physically different like mentioned above, and because of said quantum randomness, it’s almost impossible to get a planet exactly identical to ours. and one thing causes another causes another and butterfly-effects into completely different looking creatures (fig 1.1), which I think anyone can agree are inoplanetyanins (man I love making people memorize random terminology, ahem.)
and then there’s the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which basically means that when a quantum superposition collapses, a parallel universe branches out where a different outcome is measured. for all you laypeople: basically, imagine flipping a coin, but not looking at it. to you, it could be either heads or tails (we call this a superposition.) then, when you finally look at the coin, you see it as either heads or tails. let’s say you see heads. when you see (“measure”) the outcome of heads, a parallel universe is created where you measured tails.
in this scenario, these people won’t be inoplanetyanins, because that planet literally is ours, just with a tiny tweak. that tiny tweak doesn’t change our humanity (I have successfully derailed this post.)
anyways, like use your brain, form your own opinion and comment. or don’t.
– spaghetti suriya, stress on last syllable.