Bioshock Infinite has been out for a few weeks now, and for those of you who haven't played it yet, you may not want to read this article because it's entirely composed of spoilers. That being said, Bioshock Infinite delves into the world of theoretical and quantum physics.
The theory I'm presenting has a lot more science than what most people are stating online, and it's from my understanding of quantum physics (having browsed thousands of articles after watching Noein in 2009).
This theory will debunk the "the Circle is Unbroken" theory that seems to be the consensus of player's interpretation of the ending.
Let's take at a look at a few of the theoretical concepts presented by the game:
Many Worlds Interpretation: it states (as simply as I can) that the universe is not definite and exists as many different versions of itself. Although things appear linear to us, that doesn't mean that there aren't other outcomes (or versions of us) in the multiverse. This will be better explained by Schrodinger's Cat. This theory was created by Hugh Everett and popularized by Bryce Seligman Dewitt (!!!).
Schrodinger's Cat: there is a cat who is in a box with poison. While it's in the box, it is both dead and alive. It's state doesn't become "reality" until it is observed. In conjunction with the Many Worlds Interpretation, there are two worlds happening simultaneously. One in which the cat is alive, and one in which the cat is dead.
Observers: By observing situations, we make them our reality, but that doesn't mean that another of us didn't observe a different situation.
Wave Function Collapse: Through observation, only one reality exists. This conflicts with Dewitt & Everett's Many Worlds Interpretation.
Causality and Retrocausality: Cause precedes effect and effect precedes cause.
That being said, when we look at Bioshock Infinite, Elizabeth and Booker are jumping between worlds. They are using the Many Worlds Interpretation, but at the same time, they are subverting it by jumping between worlds. The game, however, introduces the fact that Elizabeth and the Lutece's portals have the ability to jump between worlds and effect them.
They are not going to the past or the future, but they are going to different worlds along the universes. They're not even visiting worlds much, but rather, they're merging worlds or parts of worlds whenever you have to go through a tear. If they were only visiting another world, then there wouldn't be the problem of people remembering dying (all the random guys you kill, Chen Lin, etc.). Booker, Elizabeth, and Comstock don't merge with their alternate selves because they and their alternate selves are too far away. Booker does gain the memories of dead Booker in Vox Populi when he runs into the Vox Populi propaganda poster. His memories are triggered. Chen Lin is too far away from Elizabeth's tear, but his memories are triggered when he returns to his shop and doesn't find his tools there. During the final section of the game, you're not even in the universe you started out in (which is allegedly Universe 123 [coin flips]).
When Elizabeth goes to drown Booker, she takes him back to the moment in which Booker hasn't made a decision to be baptized. So she returns to where the universes have not split yet. By not being able to make an observed choice, there won't be a Booker and there won't be a Comstock. Instead, by observing his death at that moment, that timeline is gutted from the universe. So there is no Comstock, there is no Booker who sold Anna, and there is no game you just played.
Here is where people start saying that creates a Time Paradox because by negating the effects of the game, then Elizabeth won't be able to kill Booker at the baptism because she never got the powers in the first place, so we're back to square one: in a boat, on the way to Columbia.
They leap to the baptism where Booker is Schrodinger's Cat. He has not been observed to take or reject the baptism, so we don't know if he will stay Booker or become Comstock. The Elizabeths drown him before he can make a decision, and they observe it. What they did was cut off a branch from Booker's life.
This is explained by:
In-Game:
• Elizabeth, like the Luteces, now exist outside of time-space, so she can do whatever she wants.
• Elizabeth is a God with her powers.
Physics:
• This isn't the Elizabeth of this world because she doesn't exist.
• Wave Function Collapse - Elizabeth has collapsed all possibilities into a single outcome. According to the Many Worlds Interpretation, this is not possible. But the Many World Inerpretation is only a theory, and this game's already changed it through the Lutece machine and Elizabeth.
• Retrocausality - Elizabeth is the effect of this cause, and she comes back to change the cause.
So Booker dies, and all the Elizabeths start to fade except for the last one because we don't see it happen. We play from Booker's perspective for the entire game, so Elizabeth fading away is not observed, so she is both gone and alive. She is another Schrodinger's Cat.
Not to mention the last note for her fade out shifts keys (according to my musically inclined wife). She jumps out of the original key and goes somewhere else. It's not off-key but a change in key. Elizabeth isn't just some normal person that has to follow the laws of the universe. She bends them to her will.
The last scene, we see a Booker that calls out Anna and opens the door. It seems that this is a Booker who has either woken from a horrifying dream (the game) or is a Booker who assimilated our Booker's memories. Both explain why he's afraid that Anna's missing.
Claiming that this continues the Circle doesn't make sense because why would a Booker who's going to give her up start saying her name out of fear as if she were missing? Why would he even say "Anna? Is that you?" If you're going to give something up, you don't speak in fear. You speak with sadness.
Instead, we can assume that this is a Booker from a different universe. But how can there be another Booker you ask? They tell you throughout the game, how far would you need to go to change something? Who's to say there isn't a Booker who just decided not to go to the baptism and had a similar life like having a daughter named Anna?
In game, there's this picture.
It shows diverging paths that always return to the middle. Even if you make a different decision, it could send you back toward the allegedly linear path. In-game, no matter who you choose to throw the baseball at, it's still a similar outcome. In-game, if you choose cage or bird, it's still the same thing afterwards. No matter which door you choose at the end, it takes you to the same finale.
There are some choices that do not change the outcome of events. Whose to say that if Booker never went to the Baptism, he wouldn't have still had Anna?
So there are those other choices that stop, curtailed because we don't know what those choices lead to. Much like how Booker and Elizabeth jump between worlds, we don't know what happened to the world they were in prior. It doesn't mean the world stops, but who knows where it could go?
So if there's a Booker who didn't go to the baptism and lived, couldn't there be a Comstock that came somewhere further down the line?
In any other story, I would argue "yes." In Bioshock Infinite, no. Elizabeth clearly states that she's omniscient at the end of the game and tells you that this is the only time in which Comstock can come into existence because she's seen all the timelines. Her actions counter the final voxophones from Rosalind Lutece, who wonders if anything can change. But once again, she sees one version, and her "brother" sees that it can.
So yes, the circle is unbroken.
An easier theory
Taking all I've said earlier, when Elizabeth takes Booker back to the baptism, the Booker that receives the baptism is drowned. We all know that it's the same priest who did Comstock and Booker's baptism, and that guy has a penchant for nearly drowning people - not difficult for him to go the whole way.
This makes sense because Comstock states
"One man goes into the waters of baptism. A different man comes out, born again. But who is that man who lies submerged? Perhaps that swimmer is both sinner and saint, until he is revealed unto the eyes of man."
So that means our Booker never sold Anna. Doesn't mean he doesn't have debt even though his money was owed to Comstock to steal his daughter. :X
The Biggest Questions in Bioshock Infinite
What happened to the Elizabeth of the Vox Populi world? She's not with Comstock. Dead Booker won't let the "people in New York" get her... so where did she go?
Why don't the Luteces just fix everything? They have the ability to pull Booker out of his time period... so they could do whatever they feel. I mean, they're jumping in and out of parallel universes and different times, so why not?!
The theory I'm presenting has a lot more science than what most people are stating online, and it's from my understanding of quantum physics (having browsed thousands of articles after watching Noein in 2009).
This theory will debunk the "the Circle is Unbroken" theory that seems to be the consensus of player's interpretation of the ending.
Let's take at a look at a few of the theoretical concepts presented by the game:
Many Worlds Interpretation: it states (as simply as I can) that the universe is not definite and exists as many different versions of itself. Although things appear linear to us, that doesn't mean that there aren't other outcomes (or versions of us) in the multiverse. This will be better explained by Schrodinger's Cat. This theory was created by Hugh Everett and popularized by Bryce Seligman Dewitt (!!!).
Schrodinger's Cat: there is a cat who is in a box with poison. While it's in the box, it is both dead and alive. It's state doesn't become "reality" until it is observed. In conjunction with the Many Worlds Interpretation, there are two worlds happening simultaneously. One in which the cat is alive, and one in which the cat is dead.
Observers: By observing situations, we make them our reality, but that doesn't mean that another of us didn't observe a different situation.
Wave Function Collapse: Through observation, only one reality exists. This conflicts with Dewitt & Everett's Many Worlds Interpretation.
Causality and Retrocausality: Cause precedes effect and effect precedes cause.
The Theory
Elizabeth gained her powers from the moment her finger was cut off. One of Rosalind Lutece's voxaphones states that her powers are from leaving a piece of her finger in Booker's world.
They are not going to the past or the future, but they are going to different worlds along the universes. They're not even visiting worlds much, but rather, they're merging worlds or parts of worlds whenever you have to go through a tear. If they were only visiting another world, then there wouldn't be the problem of people remembering dying (all the random guys you kill, Chen Lin, etc.). Booker, Elizabeth, and Comstock don't merge with their alternate selves because they and their alternate selves are too far away. Booker does gain the memories of dead Booker in Vox Populi when he runs into the Vox Populi propaganda poster. His memories are triggered. Chen Lin is too far away from Elizabeth's tear, but his memories are triggered when he returns to his shop and doesn't find his tools there. During the final section of the game, you're not even in the universe you started out in (which is allegedly Universe 123 [coin flips]).
When Elizabeth goes to drown Booker, she takes him back to the moment in which Booker hasn't made a decision to be baptized. So she returns to where the universes have not split yet. By not being able to make an observed choice, there won't be a Booker and there won't be a Comstock. Instead, by observing his death at that moment, that timeline is gutted from the universe. So there is no Comstock, there is no Booker who sold Anna, and there is no game you just played.
Here is where people start saying that creates a Time Paradox because by negating the effects of the game, then Elizabeth won't be able to kill Booker at the baptism because she never got the powers in the first place, so we're back to square one: in a boat, on the way to Columbia.
Why the Time Paradox Theory in Bioshock Infinite is Wrong
They're looking at it as if time were a straight line, but through playing the game, they should realize that nothing is directly linear.
This is explained by:
In-Game:
• Elizabeth, like the Luteces, now exist outside of time-space, so she can do whatever she wants.
• Elizabeth is a God with her powers.
Physics:
• This isn't the Elizabeth of this world because she doesn't exist.
• Wave Function Collapse - Elizabeth has collapsed all possibilities into a single outcome. According to the Many Worlds Interpretation, this is not possible. But the Many World Inerpretation is only a theory, and this game's already changed it through the Lutece machine and Elizabeth.
• Retrocausality - Elizabeth is the effect of this cause, and she comes back to change the cause.
So Booker dies, and all the Elizabeths start to fade except for the last one because we don't see it happen. We play from Booker's perspective for the entire game, so Elizabeth fading away is not observed, so she is both gone and alive. She is another Schrodinger's Cat.
Not to mention the last note for her fade out shifts keys (according to my musically inclined wife). She jumps out of the original key and goes somewhere else. It's not off-key but a change in key. Elizabeth isn't just some normal person that has to follow the laws of the universe. She bends them to her will.
The last scene, we see a Booker that calls out Anna and opens the door. It seems that this is a Booker who has either woken from a horrifying dream (the game) or is a Booker who assimilated our Booker's memories. Both explain why he's afraid that Anna's missing.
Claiming that this continues the Circle doesn't make sense because why would a Booker who's going to give her up start saying her name out of fear as if she were missing? Why would he even say "Anna? Is that you?" If you're going to give something up, you don't speak in fear. You speak with sadness.
Instead, we can assume that this is a Booker from a different universe. But how can there be another Booker you ask? They tell you throughout the game, how far would you need to go to change something? Who's to say there isn't a Booker who just decided not to go to the baptism and had a similar life like having a daughter named Anna?
In game, there's this picture.
It shows diverging paths that always return to the middle. Even if you make a different decision, it could send you back toward the allegedly linear path. In-game, no matter who you choose to throw the baseball at, it's still a similar outcome. In-game, if you choose cage or bird, it's still the same thing afterwards. No matter which door you choose at the end, it takes you to the same finale.
There are some choices that do not change the outcome of events. Whose to say that if Booker never went to the Baptism, he wouldn't have still had Anna?
So there are those other choices that stop, curtailed because we don't know what those choices lead to. Much like how Booker and Elizabeth jump between worlds, we don't know what happened to the world they were in prior. It doesn't mean the world stops, but who knows where it could go?
So if there's a Booker who didn't go to the baptism and lived, couldn't there be a Comstock that came somewhere further down the line?
In any other story, I would argue "yes." In Bioshock Infinite, no. Elizabeth clearly states that she's omniscient at the end of the game and tells you that this is the only time in which Comstock can come into existence because she's seen all the timelines. Her actions counter the final voxophones from Rosalind Lutece, who wonders if anything can change. But once again, she sees one version, and her "brother" sees that it can.
So yes, the circle is unbroken.
An easier theory
Taking all I've said earlier, when Elizabeth takes Booker back to the baptism, the Booker that receives the baptism is drowned. We all know that it's the same priest who did Comstock and Booker's baptism, and that guy has a penchant for nearly drowning people - not difficult for him to go the whole way.
This makes sense because Comstock states
"One man goes into the waters of baptism. A different man comes out, born again. But who is that man who lies submerged? Perhaps that swimmer is both sinner and saint, until he is revealed unto the eyes of man."
So that means our Booker never sold Anna. Doesn't mean he doesn't have debt even though his money was owed to Comstock to steal his daughter. :X
The Biggest Questions in Bioshock Infinite
What happened to the Elizabeth of the Vox Populi world? She's not with Comstock. Dead Booker won't let the "people in New York" get her... so where did she go?
Why don't the Luteces just fix everything? They have the ability to pull Booker out of his time period... so they could do whatever they feel. I mean, they're jumping in and out of parallel universes and different times, so why not?!
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