Parallel Universes

by Max Tegmarkon Fringe

Is there another copy of you reading this article, deciding to put it aside without finishing this sentence while you are reading on? A person living on a planet called Earth, with misty mountains, fertile fields, and sprawling cities, in a solar system with seven other planets? The life of this person has been identical to yours in every respect–until now, that is, when your decision to read on signals that your two lives are diverging.

You probably find this idea strange and implausible, and I must confess that this is my gut reaction, too. Yet it looks like we will just have to live with it, since the simplest and most popular cosmological model today predicts that this person actually exists in a galaxy about 1029 meters from here. This does not even assume speculative modern physics, merely that space is infinite and rather uniformly filled with matter. Your alter … read more»

Recent Free Essays (Still Available!)

Available Until
Thu 6/4

Gotham's First Family

by Mary Borsellinoon Batman

Even if you know nothing else about the Batman tale, you probably know how it began: a wealthy family, walking home from an evening out, is mugged at gunpoint. The robbery goes bad, shots are fired, the mother and father die. Only their son is left behind–the young Bruce Wayne.

This … read more»

Available Until
Wed 6/3

Case Notes: Salvatore, Stefan and Salvatore, Damon

by Heidi R. Klingon The Vampire Diaries

Note: Since the subjects are fictional characters, rather than sit down
with them separately or together, the therapist viewed twenty-two
hours of tape footage (one “season”) depicting their interactions with
one another and with others.

Stefan Salvatore

Observations
… read more»

Available Until
Tue 6/2

Everybody Lies Except for the CGI

by Craig Derksenon House

“Everybody lies” is the catch phrase of House M.D. In fact, much of the vaunted diagnostic prowess of the main character Dr. Gregory House comes from his ability to see through deceptions. However, the lies that drive the show are not random, but rather a structured set of deceptions that … read more»

Available Until
Mon 6/1

The Twithead with the Dragon Tattoo

by Charlotte Mooreon Anne McCaffrey and the Dragonriders of Pern series

Anne McCaffrey tried to kill me once.

It was my first day of active duty as a volunteer for Weyrfest, the Anne McCaffrey programming track at Dragon*Con, and I was literally running late. Barreling through the bowels of the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, I kept my head on a swivel as I … read more»