Stuff in [4ACV15] The Farnsworth Parabox

[on:]

Yeah, lets get this roling.

Although the only thing I found was the line in "I Dated A Robot" about there only being 1 parallel univers, a cowboy world. Now there's a couple of thousands.

Loved the universe 1729 bit though, and the hippie universe.

[Reply #1 on:]

Well since, they created all of those Universes, they woulnd't have had to exist before.

[Reply #2 on:]

It raised a few (for me) interesting ideas.
For example, how does the box work? I can think of 3 possibilties:
1) Both universes sprang into being at the moment that the professor(s) 'created' the box. The boxes each contain the other universe, and everything before that moment is merely an illusion caused by the 'memories' of the inhabitants.
2) The professor(s) made a box to put each already-existing universe in
3) The boxes are merely 'pointers' to the opposite box in the other universe.

Personally, I favor number 3. 2 and 3 would also mean that the box could be destroyed (carefully) without destroying the universe...

And here's a real puzzler:
What would have happened if the professor had flipped a coin to decide if he should create the box or not?

Another one: What would happen if someone tried to use the box for their own universe (at the end)? All I can think of is that if you stuck your hand in, you'd meet it coming the other way. Like a mirror with no glass :P

Oh, and how come leela sitting on the box didn't squash it, but fry did? Maybe the parallel universe professor builds less sturdy boxes than 'our' one?

[Reply #3 on:]

so old farsnie got proven wrong, it happens to the best scientists.

i repeat from other thread: married Leela and Fry lacked wedding bands.

[Reply #4 on:]

This episode was a physicist's nightmare. So many concepts that can make your head spin. For the sake of retaining whatever shread of sanity I have left, I won't even go near it and label it "CARTOON LOGIC: WARNING, EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS"

[Reply #5 on:]

that's because they flipped a coin to decide weither to wear them all the time or not.

[Reply #6 on:]

   

Originally posted by Teral:Although the only thing I found was the line in "I Dated A Robot" about there only being 1 parallel univers, a cowboy world. Now there's a couple of thousands.

As I mentioned in the other topic, the Professor(s) created the other universes.  The cowboy one must be the only other one that exists naturally.

   

Originally posted by Arachnid:
And here's a real puzzler:
What would have happened if the professor had flipped a coin to decide if he should create the box or not?

Ooh, good one.  They should have mentioned that.

   

Another one: What would happen if someone tried to use the box for their own universe (at the end)? All I can think of is that if you stuck your hand in, you'd meet it coming the other way. Like a mirror with no glass :P

I guess you'd just immediately fall out of the box.  There's a Doctor Who story sort of like that in which the TARDIS materializes inside itself.  They keep going into it until eventually going in leads to the outside.

Here's something interesting I just thought of: the boxes were the other universes and weren't just gateways to other universes, so not only did "Universe 1" exist in the box in the usual universe, it existed in the boxes in all the other universes they went to.  So the one universe was somehow located simultaneously in many others.

[Reply #7 on:]

 

Originally posted by Action Jacktion:
Here's something interesting I just thought of: the boxes were the other universes and weren't just gateways to other universes, so not only did "Universe 1" exist in the box in the usual universe, it existed in the boxes in all the other universes they went to.  So the one universe was somehow located simultaneously in many others.

Which is why I thought the 'pointer' theory far more likely, and that the professor was just simplifying it for the dumb staff  .
Because, if he actually created the universe when he created the box, each universe created the other, so neither universe could have existed before that point (though all the characters would still have 'memories' of it).
If any of the universes created a box to the 'main' one after that moment, I don't see how it could work at all...

Incidentally, the "professor created the universe in a box" theory makes my coin-flip question even worse: If he did that and it came out false, the parallel universe wouldn't exist, and hence the other farnsworth couldn't have created universe A, so neither universe could exist...

[Reply #8 on:]

To Arachnid's post: I actually favor number 1. I think that since Farnsworth didn't flip a coin to decide whether he should make a box means that the two Farnsworths would make the boxes at the exact same time, springing each others universes into existence. But what do I know?

[Reply #9 on:]

 

Originally posted by El Zilcho:
To Arachnid's post: I actually favor number 1. I think that since Farnsworth didn't flip a coin to decide whether he should make a box means that the two Farnsworths would make the boxes at the exact same time, springing each others universes into existence. But what do I know?

Fair enough, but what about the creation of the other universes, later? That would mean that neither of the universes existed for half the episode until they finished creating other ones, and if anyone else ever creates another box, the universe will have only started existing at that point...

But then, there's no right answer - it's all just (enjoyable) idle speculation 

[Reply #10 on:]

So then, why does it all end at one box, most noticeably labeled as box 420?

[Reply #11 on:]

the farnsworths could not have created each others universes because in order to make the boxes they would have had to already be in existence. If neither professor existed until AFTER the boxes where created then what happened WHILE the boxes where being created?
as far as i can figure, all of the universes already existed, the professers just happened to accidently box them.

[Reply #12 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
the farnsworths could not have created each others universes because in order to make the boxes they would have had to already be in existence. If neither professor existed until AFTER the boxes where created then what happened WHILE the boxes where being created?
as far as i can figure, all of the universes already existed, the professers just happened to accidently box them.

Well, the universe had to be created at some stage. Why not exactly then?

I still favor my gateway/pointer theory though 

[Reply #13 on:]

I noticed that Planet Express HQ in Universe B (the blue one) was blue in the hager inside for the first scene we saw it, but after that it changed to red on the inside.   

[Reply #14 on:]

anytime you notice anything like that a wizard did it.

[Reply #15 on:]

Okay, all this universe talk is making my brain twitch.

You could say the length of wire thing from SP3K .

[Reply #16 on:]

At the end of the episode, you notice that shaking the box caused their entire universe to tremble accordingly. The thing is, when the crew was in universe B, you never see any shaking or effects from shakes, even as Hermes takes the box into the ship and travels in immense speeds to the sun.

As for the universes themselves, I say that they already existed before Farnsworth boxed them. If we go with Arachnid's theory no.2, Farnsworth made copies of them, by means beyond me (if he can copy universes does that mean he can control them like a simulation? Maybe he's the architect of the Matrix). But theory no. 3 sounds more believeable, in that the boxes are merely gateways to the universes. Otherwise the part where the professors pull out each other's boxes would make no sense.

[Reply #17 on:]

Maybe there really are only 2 paralell universes, and that Universe A is the true universe.  Let's say maybe those boxes didn't contain universes, but p os s ible paralellalell universes....  So let's all take these lengths of wire and......

[Reply #18 on:]

I would think that the two universes creating eachother would be a paradox, hence the name of the episode.  But what do I know.

[Reply #19 on:]

Okay, I gotta' ask- er ax:
After guarding the box all night, Leela says "I need coffe," and goes over to a coffee vending machine. She's just about to insert a coin, and decides to flip it.

Where was she carrying her change?

Those spandex pants of her's seem snug enough not to have pockets, and she didn't have her purse. I know certain garmets have pouches for such convenience, but there was no indication if this either.
Yeah, yeah, it might've been 'inconvenient' to the plot to explain, and I understand this.
Still... Where?
<shakes hands in the air palms up>
 

[Reply #20 on:]

Futuristic pockets. 1ACV02 style.

And nobody ever questions Benders chest cavity...

[Reply #21 on:]

i've carried change in my bra before. and i bet i'm not the only one. Really made my highschool boyfriend happy when at a school dance i let him fish some change out to buy me a soda.

[Reply #22 on:]

Don't forget those pants are are her old FAO pants. I bet they have all sorts of hidden utility pockets for equipment, identitycards, etc. Uniforms worn by policemen and soldiers today have a multitude of easy-access pockets.

But it's rightly an issue that demand further investigation, and first-hand examination .... I'll get right on it!

Another issue, how did Fry-B get the money to buy a diamond-scrungie [?]? Fry is dirtpoor. Are we to believe this is some kind of magic dimension?

[Reply #23 on:]

Fry-1 and Leela-1 had been dating for a year when Fry-1 bought her the scrunchie, so its likely Fry-1 had just been stashing away a few dollars for all that time in anticipation of buying Leela-1 the scrunchie. Love can make people do very out of character things...

Edit - Is it just me, or was the machine that made the parallel universe boxes the same machine from "Leela's Homeworld"?

"It can do other things! Why shouldn't it?"

[Reply #24 on:]

The one you call Fry-B seemed more responsible to me.  Maybe the thought of marriage made him save what little money he had, or maybe Goldbender stole it for him.

The story of bra-change is good.

[Reply #25 on:]

Well Fry and the planet express team have been made fabulously rich at various times, not all of them with satisfactory explanations of where all the money went, so given a year he could've set aside a little bit at any one of those points. 

[Reply #26 on:]

Was it not mentioned on the season 3 DVD's that perhaps these are not parralel univeses but perpendicular. I think that the best explaination is that only the cowboy universe can be seen through normal methods and these other unverse were always there.

On the other thing about going into the box with there universe in it. I figure it wouuld be messy unless the body is out of phase with itself as it travels. Since if your arm was solid as it was returning it would go through the rest of your arm  :oach:

All in all it's a cartoon. Real logic does not apply there.

[Reply #27 on:]

Mmmm bra-change, mmmmm perpendicular universe, mmmm pistol-whip...

Maybe Fry is still a millionaire, that's how he got the diamond scrunchy.  Way back in Fishful of dollars, maybe pamela anderson flipped a coin, but in this universe she got tails and decided it wouldn't help out her career so Fry didn't end up believing mom's 3 sons and didn't give them a pin number....

Either that or diamonds are worth NOTHING in the future since the arbitrary use of monetary value is worthless to such a higher society...

Or neither of the above.............   


Oh did anybody notice that the hippie universe was labeled 420 on the box?  I liked Universe XIII...
------------------

Shuddaupa ya face!

[Reply #28 on:]

Well Dimonds actually are not worth a lot today, the price is kept up by the dimond companies, they are actually much easier to find then most jewels.

[Reply #29 on:]

 

Originally posted by Future Angel:
I noticed that Planet Express HQ in Universe B (the blue one) was blue in the hager inside for the first scene we saw it, but after that it changed to red on the inside.   

Yeah, and I noticed that even before Leela went through the box, Universe A flashed blue quickly 

[Reply #30 on:]

What's so special about 420?

[Reply #31 on:]

It's a marijuana reference.  I think it started out as the time of day (4:20) that people would smoke it, but now "420" is a general reference to the drug.

[Reply #32 on:]

Yep here is the snopes link
 http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/420.htm

[Reply #33 on:]

Then again, winna, fry wasn't so secret about that pin number...

"yeah! they stole my pin number! 1077."

[Reply #34 on:]

what was that thing Bender1 and BenderA did a reference to? Some Children of the Corn thing?
Where they linked arms and yelled "Doooooomed"
I know they all took turns yelling extended versions of 'doomed' in a prev episode, but i think this was a reference to something else.
and also if someone's an external reference genius, what was up with bender being in kif's closet in kif gets knocked up a notch, his head was in the top and his body in the bottom.

[Reply #35 on:]

Unfiltered:
Arachnid:That Prof. coin flipping the box making decision question only is weird if you buy the Universe Container Theory
News_monster: that is now my favorite out of context quote: "The story of bra-change is good."

Venus: Damn! And you're idea about Container Theory and the questions of what was happening BEFORE the boxes were made, not to mention HOW they could have been made resembles the idea of God existing before the creation of the Universe. What was happening before everything was made?

I beleive in  the Box Portal Theroy.

Except....(and wrap your minds around this one)

Portal theroy works well for travel to another U, but not after you have your U's box. I'll call this the The Malkavich Tunnel problem. Think of it as a tunnel between two rooms. If the hole leads to your U, its hard to imagine whether you'd immediatley 'meld' the parts that went in with the parts still going in, or there's a space of "between" area you'd travel through before coming back out. Maybe you'd enter a bizarre world of jarringly dissimilar perspectives. A place where everybody is there own Grandpa! Even the Women! DUN DUN DUN!

Regardless. If its just a portal and not a container then shaking would not do anything since the Box's bottom would be without real location and thus immaterialy attached to the U, Or the hole 'self-seals'. That is to say, the force an object displaces when attemping to travel through would push against itself and cancel out that force. I don't know if that would create and unbreakable box bottom. So shaking it and the U moving gives more credance to the Container Theory, Same with Fry Sitting on it. But none of that works wih how its created or the problem of two U-boxes leading the same U in close proximity.
BaShwanG!
So, none of it is logicly sensible. Its downright contradictory.

Random Wrongs: Amy 1's trek into eyeless world had lights in the building. Dumb. Plus if the concept of colors means nothing., why dye clothes?

                     
And for the kiddies: As I wrote this, the word cancel just looks wrong, like I made up the spelling. I also noticed that the word know has 2 silent letters. Behold,

[Reply #36 on:]

I know what the hold your own universe in a box looks like.  Set two mirrors opposite eachother and that's what it looks like    .....

[Reply #37 on:]

 

Originally posted by green-gesus:
Unfiltered:
Arachnid:That Prof. coin flipping the box making decision question only is weird if you buy the Universe Container Theory

Nope, it's weird no matter how you look at it, because if the other professor hadn't created the box, what would you come out of?

And the box could be a 'pointer' - whatever you do to the box happens to the universe, but the box doesn't actually contain the universe, it just has a 'reference' to it. (Programmers will know what I mean, at least  )

[Reply #38 on:]

wasn't I clear? I relized both theories would have the box as a pointer to the universe, but only the Conatainer one would have the universe actually inside the box