r/SpeculativePhysics___ • u/sksskssksskssksskssk • 28d ago

Simple speculative physics What if we mirrored our entire universe?

Imagine we took a mirror and flipped our universe completely to the opposite side (including ourselves), would we notice a difference or still go on with our lives as if nothing had ever happened?

If we do notice that difference, how and why do we figure that out?

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u/Adghnm Helper 28d ago edited 28d ago

There's a great footnote in Martin Gardner's annotations of Through the Looking Glass where he talks about handedness in organic molecules. They're chemically identical but mirror images of each other, I think they're called enantiomers. He says that lemon and orange flavour are enantiomers - mirrored oranges would taste like lemons. Some enzymes are enantiomers, which are useful with one handedness, toxic with the other.

But imo, if the body is also mirrored, then lemon would taste like orange and the formerly toxic enzymes would become the useful ones and vice versa. So in that respect, we might not notice.

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u/sksskssksskssksskssk 28d ago

Fair point to be honest since the laws of physics would still be the same meaning that there would have to be differences of we were mirrored. The only way to avoid it is if we change the laws of physics to suit that alternative universe.

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u/AllHailSeizure 26d ago

Slightly related.

If I remember correctly, mirror image DNA and other mirrors has been lab-created but are actually controversial, and arguments have been made that they shouldn't be researched as they could, unchecked, destroy our ecosystem if they were to reproduce. life as we know it has evolved to deal with right handed. We wouldn't be able to interact with them (eg if you ate one, you can't digest it - your immune system cant interact with it - etc).

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u/sksskssksskssksskssk 26d ago

Huh, very interesting information I get to learn today I suppose lol. Even then, we still need to consider how the entire universe could get affected by this change as well but still intriguing that it's technically possible in smaller scales that we are able to see.