What if a Multiverse style portal opened on our world?

I'm posting this here and not under the Multiverse Topic because I'm not talking about meeting the Arcanans or Sharonans. I'm thinking about what kind of Gawdawful chaos would erupt if a portal to another Earth, somehow actually compatible with Physics-As-We-Know-It, were to pop open on this planet.

And there would be Chaos.

If such a portal opened close to an international border, especially one that was already a place of high tension (for example within 50km of the Korean DMZ), how long do you think it would take for the bullets to start flying as one party tried to secure physical control of said portal? And honestly, even if the portal was near a border between two nominally friendly neighbours (say the Canada/US border), I would rather pessimistically rate the possibility of armed conflict over control of it at better than even.

Once the question of control was settled, then we get into the questions of exploration, colonization and resource exploitation of the Earth on the other side--presuming there aren't any Homo Sapiens already present.

Who should be in charge of exploration? Civilian or Military? United Nations or solely the nation with physical control?
Should this Earth's nations be allowed to claim territory on the other side, or should any colonies be new independent nations?
Should it be mandated that only Eco-friendly technologies and practises be used?
Should conservation efforts be allowed to attempt to reintroduce species that are extinct or endangered here but not there?

For myself, I hope that we would have learned at least a few things about sustainable living over the last few decades that we would at least pause a moment to think about what we're doing before we rushed in to capitalize on the bonanza of an entire planet of virgin wilderness to exploit.


Any thoughts?

Cool, like a Stargate. Although, I'm not familiar with the Multiverse. But the Honorverse is appealing for the prolong itself.

It would probably be destroyed out of panic, paranoia and fear. The military would try and weaponize it somehow. Many people would think its arrival would signal the end of the world.

cthia wrote:Cool, like a Stargate. Although, I'm not familiar with the Multiverse. But the Honorverse is appealing for the prolong itself.

It would probably be destroyed out of panic, paranoia and fear. The military would try and weaponize it somehow. Many people would think its arrival would signal the end of the world.

The multiverse portals are very large, sometimes miles wide, freestanding portals that appear naturally and connect different versions of earth together. Nearly always opening onto uninhabited worlds. As far as I can tell they cannot be destroyed. But you are correct about the chaos its arrival would cause.

This is actually something I've thought about. My opinion is that it would result in a war, and the severity of the war would depend on where it appeared.

If it appeared anywhere that the US, Russia, China, or the EU/Britain had a lock on it would be another cold war and a lot of posturing. But if it appeared somewhere like the middle east or a smaller less stable nation all hell will break loose, with all the big players either jockeying for influence or direct control of the portal.

Another interesting thing I thought of was what would happen after the dust settled. Say the portal opened up in the US and nuclear war didn't happen how would the exploration and settlement of the new world happen, and could we ship enough people to the new planet fast enough to alleviate some of our environmental and population issues.

I think location would be the biggest thing, but I could easily see war happening regardless. I can’t imagine Russia, USA or China allowing the other 2 major powers full access if it appeared within their own borders, and given the current leadership of all 3 I could easily imagine a “If we can’t have it, neither can you” attitude. If it were in Africa I pity the people anywhere near it (which is sad, because in theory whatever nation had such a portal should easily become the richest on earth). Much the same for the Middle East. Europe is likely the only place it could appear that wouldn’t spark a major war, and that’s only if the EU made sure to allow everyone access

On the environmental front though, given the descriptions of how the atmosphere travels between the portals, it would significantly lower our atmospheric CO2 and likely make a lot of nations stop worrying about climate change. The ability to tap the various oil fields that have been depleted on our earth would also make oil dirt cheap to boot. (I could see major wars being fought in the new earths version of the Middle East over control of the untouched oil fields.) I think on the whole our environment would benefit though, because carbon intensive and environmentally destructive resource extraction techniques we currently use to get at hard to find resources would become unnecessary because it would be cheaper to extract resources from the easy to reach deposits that have long since been used up on our planet

Odium wrote:On the environmental front though, given the descriptions of how the atmosphere travels between the portals, it would significantly lower our atmospheric CO2 and likely make a lot of nations stop worrying about climate change. The ability to tap the various oil fields that have been depleted on our earth would also make oil dirt cheap to boot. (I could see major wars being fought in the new earths version of the Middle East over control of the untouched oil fields.) I think on the whole our environment would benefit though, because carbon intensive and environmentally destructive resource extraction techniques we currently use to get at hard to find resources would become unnecessary because it would be cheaper to extract resources from the easy to reach deposits that have long since been used up on our planet

Close it! Close it!

W E! I never would have considered how the environment could be affected. Instant low or high pressures. Poisoned atmosphere exchanges.

BUT!

What if the machines from "War of the World's" come thru vaporizing everything in sight?

Or creatures that make the dinosaurs pale by comparison. Godzillas, King Kongs, etc., etc.

Or, the Borg. Resistance is Futile.

If I remember the books, isn't there supposed to be multiple portals - otherwise you can't have the chains connecting multiple worlds together?

I think I remember that there are worlds which only have one portal and thus dead-ends a chain.

On another note, it's a series I want to see completed.