The idea that there may be different versions of you comes from the concept of multiverses. There are many types of multiverses in physics. But at least two multiverse concepts based on generally accepted and observationally confirmed scientific theories.
4 popular multiverse concepts:
1) Brane Multiverse, based on String Theory, the math of which says that our four dimensional universe exists on a membrane or “brane” floating in a higher dimensional space.
2) Cyclic Multiverse which proposes that our universe goes through cycles of expansion and contraction. Given an infinite number of cycles, duplicate universes as ours are bound to exist.
These two multiverse ideas do not appear to be supported by observational evidence.
3) Quantum multiverse. It comes from the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics. Everytime a quantum system in superposition is observed, the world splits into one that we observe, and others that we don’t observe. According to the Many Worlds Interpretation, the wave collapse never occurs. but only appears to collapse in our universe, which is just one branch of a myriad of possible parallel universes where the wave continues unabated. This interpretation of quantum mechanics preferred by 20-30% of physicists. If true, it would mean that there would indeed be many different versions of you in these branching universes with slightly different results from quantum interactions. And over the long haul, the different interactions could result in completely different circumstances for your life.
4) Eternal cosmic inflation, which comes from the Lambda CDM model of the universe, or more informally, the Big Bang theory. It says that in the very early period of the Big Bang, for a fraction of a second, the universe expanded extremely rapidly, at an exponential rate. Even though it lasted for a fraction of a second, the universe expanded by a factor of about 10^30x. This is cosmic inflation.
Space itself expanded, or “inflated” rapidly. This explains why the universe is isotropic, meaning it looks nearly the same in all directions, why the cosmic microwave background which is the leftover radiation from the Big Bang, is distributed so evenly. The idea is that the rapid inflation would have diluted large differences to make the universe more homogeneous. And Inflation explains the origin of the large-scale structure of the universe. Quantum fluctuations in the microscopic regions where inflation was taking place, magnified to cosmic size became the seeds for the large scale structures of galaxies and clusters of galaxies we see today.
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But other non-observable predictions also arise as consequences of inflation. One is that during the early universe’s rapid inflation period, different regions of space could have inflated at different rates. Since quantum mechanics ensures that there will always be some randomness. Inflation could last a bit longer or shorter in different parts of the universe. Scientists realized that although inflation stopped in our part of the universe, it could have continued without end in other unobservable parts of the universe. Those unobservable parts that continued to expand would have formed other universes. And if this happened an infinite number of times, then there are bound to be copies of you in all different and even duplicate circumstance there. Physicist Alan Guth, who is the founding father of inflation theory said that, “most models of inflation do lead to a multiverse…”
