If you haven’t heard of the Mandela Effect, chances are you’ve been sheltered from society this past year. On the off chance you actually have been on the lamb this entire year, the Mandela Effect is defined as this: a phenomenon in which massive groups of people misremember an event and share false memories.
For example, thousands of people remember the old children’s books called The Bernstein Bears. This is a false memory because the name is actually spelled The Bernstain Bears.
There are several theories about what exactly is happening. Some believe it is the mind mixing up memories or a conspiracy from the government. Others think parallel universes are crossing.
Almost unbelievably, the latter is being seriously considered by physicists, or more specifically, quantum physicists.
First things first, quantum physics is the science of small matter, the smallest anything can get. Now, we are going to get more specific.
Within the quantum physics world, there is a study called quantum mechanics. This specific study looks at the mathematical description of how subatomic particles behave. It also encompasses the quantization of energy and wave-particle duality. This science studies how the smallest particles behave just like particles but also as waves, an idea that changed science forever.
In conjunction with the Mandela effect, though, these ideals get a little clearer and easier to understand. Quantum mechanics is considered one of the hardest sciences to understand and study.
Now that a basic understanding of quantum mechanics has been laid out, we can start talking about how all of this relates to the Mandela effect. Two words: quantum computers.
Quantum computers are machines that use quantum states of subatomic particles to store information. These computers are referred to as D-Wave computers.
Geordie Rose is the Chief Technology Officer for D-Wave. He has explained that regardless of what happens, matter and energy exist and cannot be destroyed. Therefore, the only things that can change are the decisions we make. This is how he introduced parallel universes. He said that there could be a universe out there where everything subatomically is the same, but we have made different choices and taken different paths in life.
Things are about to get even trickier. One of the founders of quantum computers, David Deutsch said that quantum computers will be a technology that can accomplish tasks between parallel universes. What?!
As basic as it can possibly be made, quantum computers are theoretically supposed to be able to access parallel universes by pulling out their computing power.
All this science talk can get quite confusing and is mind blowing to truly consider. These computers are said to, one day in the future, be able to access hidden dimensions in our universe. This will give us computing powers stronger than ever before.
That is utterly insane! Even more intense to think about than all this fancy reaching-into-other-dimensions talk is the idea that all this meddling around into parallel universes is actually causing glitches in our own realities.
It has been hypothesized that the Mandela Effect is a result of the dimension-bending capabilities of these computers, that these machines are powerful enough to cause riffs in our world, and millions are taking notice.
The Mandela Effect has gone from a strange idea that many skeptics ignored to a possible explanation for how experiments with other dimensions are affecting us.
All this information can be extremely hard to swallow. Our world, nay, our universe is so complex and vast that it will take years of actual researching into quantum computers to even grasp how we can use parallel universes to further our understanding of the world around us.
While all this is going on and scientists are using their knowledge to figure all of this out, we simpletons (in comparison of course) can still freak out about how we always remembered Jiffy peanut butter when the brand is actually called Jiff. We can sit back and relax while physicists show us whole new worlds. Literally.