What is multiverse foreign policy?

[FaxModem1]

Unless it's the premise of a work, a franchise that exists long enough might run into parallel realities, a showing of how the world could have gone different. But, the setting of that universe has the capability to traverse those universes. Examples include The Mirror Universe from Star Trek with their transporters, the multiple worlds where the Goa'uld win in Stargate via the Quantum Mirror and modification by stargate in later seasons, spells in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Man in the High Castle has the Nazis experimenting with this tech to invade the multiverse in the 1960s, etc.

And in works with it as the premise, such as Sliders, it's how they go from one world to another. So, what should such foreign policy be when you're dealing with an alternate, well, 'you'? For instance, what happens in Stargate when United States 'A' meets United States 'B'? What should be the course of action be there, diplomatically?

The UFP, for instance, already has a non-interference view on things outside their government. Does that count for another UFP suffering a world in which they're losing against the Borg?

Does this count as foreign policy? Does it not? Could you have governments expand via dimensions? What does this mean?

Discuss

[The Romulan Republic]

I don't see why in something like the UFPs case, they couldn't apply the same policies they do to factions in their own reality.

Well, except scale. In Trek IIRC there are suggested to be infinite alternative realities.

[Elheru Aran]

For the most part, unless interdimensional travel is easy, generally I'd say it's reasonable to maintain a hands-off policy. Particularly if the alternate-universe version of you is the bad guys...

Honestly? Given how fraught travel to alternate dimensions is usually portrayed, I see no particular reason to explore these to any great extent. It might be useful to satisfy scientific and historic curiosities, but for example, if you're losing a war and you want to get superheroes from the Marvel Dimension to help you win... eh. What does the Marvel Dimension get out of this? Will their superheroes even have superpowers here in our dimension? Would people from our dimension gain superpowers going over to their dimension?

A lot of this, when you think about it, comes down to how the multiverse works. In Stephenson's Anathem, for example, the humans were slightly different between dimensions to the point where they couldn't digest each other's food. That's a minor problem, unless you get stuck on the other side without supplies. Will the physics be the same between dimensions? Will their advanced technology work between dimensions? And so forth. There's no point importing a nuke to threaten a medieval dimension when it's just going to fizzle when you try to set it off.

[Solauren]

The UFP doesn't appear to have one. Otherwise, Sisko would be in alot of shit for his interaction with the 'Mirror Universe'.

Also, in the TNG episode where the 'plot device of the week' had Worf jumping between realities, one of the Enterprises hailed the others looking for help, due to the Borg having over-run the UFP in their home. That would imply the 'conquered' UFP didn't have one, and the didn't expect the others to have one.

Now, knowing the UFP, if they get practical Inter-reality/universe/dimensional travel, they might develop one. (Possibly if they manage to annhilate the Borg in every one they come across. If any species should be denied that kind of travel, it's the Borg. Imagine multiple realities Borg collectives going 'hey, let's merge!'

[PREDATOR490]

Cross verse interaction would logically play out like any normal interaction between parties.

The only real caveat is the the sort of uncanny valley effect when dealing with a reality that is nearly similar to your own.

From a human perspective, such an effect is going to cause massive mental fuck ups if you have people interacting with or learning about other versions of their universe due to the head spinning association issues.

The easiest example is how Evil Archer was having mental issues when learning about his alternate version in Enterprise.

The biggest issue is the association issue like Sisko and a number of series have had. Person meets someone they knew and expects an alternate version to live up to the person they knew.
This inevitably ends in drama.

From a logical perspective, policy would be to disassociate realities as much as possible to prevent mental confusion.
If you can over come the mental issue then exploring different dimensions and verses would be little different to going to different worlds.

The technology and effort could be considerably harder but the potential benefits are potentially higher.

Prime example would be an entity like the Borg or Skynet. Synchronisation between realities could literally see them double their capabilities across the board.

This also does not include the choice verse concept of universes being created where every universe played out the outcome of every decision.

From a tactical perspective, exploring different realities and verses could exponentially increase research capability due to you seeing the outcomes of those choices in real time concurrently.
If Skynet A lost to John in universe A. Transmit that information to Skynet B so it can learn and adapt.

If you start throwing time travel or non-relative development in the mix then things can get supremely fucked up.

Civilisation A that is in Year 1 meets the same civilisation in another universe that is in Year 100.
Civilisation A1 could get a massive acceleration in development due to shared knowledge.