• Space/Science
  • GeekSpeak
  • Mysteries of
    the Multiverse
  • Science Fiction
  • The Comestible Zone
  • Off-Topic
  • Community
  • Flame
  • CurrentEvents

Recent posts

Boulder will be in your news soon. podrock June 1, 2025 3:14 pm (CurrentEvents)

It's over folks RL June 1, 2025 12:38 pm (Space/Science)

Administration solves things the old fashion way BuckGalaxy June 1, 2025 11:01 am (Flame)

Issacman out as NASA Admin BuckGalaxy May 31, 2025 9:40 pm (Space/Science)

Lie, cheat and disable mechanisms... BuckGalaxy May 31, 2025 8:04 pm (Space/Science)

Big beautiful wall RobVG May 31, 2025 11:50 am (Flame)

2025 Humans to the Moon & Mars Summit May 28 and 29 BuckGalaxy May 28, 2025 2:52 pm (Space/Science)

C'mon a little closer gonna do it to you BuckGalaxy May 27, 2025 9:46 pm (Off-Topic)

Watching SpaceX Starship flight 9, 7:30pm EST BuckGalaxy May 27, 2025 3:59 pm (Space/Science)

Same old song and dance BuckGalaxy May 26, 2025 10:02 pm (Flame)

Russia and China agree to build a nuclear power plant on the moon BuckGalaxy May 26, 2025 2:03 pm (Space/Science)

Dune books 2-7 BuckGalaxy May 26, 2025 12:46 pm (Science Fiction)

Home » Space/Science

A Concept of the Multiverse . . . August 29, 2014 6:58 am DanS

Does the Multiverse Really Exist?
Proof of parallel universes radically different from our own may still lie beyond the domain of science

George F. R. Ellis | Professor of Applied Mathematics, FRS

In the past decade an extraordinary claim has captivated cosmologists: that the expanding universe we see around us is not the only one; that billions of other universes are out there, too. There is not one universe — there is a multiverse. In Scientific American articles and books such as Brian Greene’s latest, The Hidden Reality, leading scientists have spoken of a super-Copernican revolution. In this view, not only is our planet one among many, but even our entire universe is insignificant on the cosmic scale of things. It is just one of countless universes, each doing its own thing.

The word “multiverse” has different meanings. Astronomers are able to see out to a distance of about 42 billion light-years, our cosmic visual horizon. We have no reason to suspect the universe stops there. Beyond it could be many — even infinitely many — domains much like the one we see. Each has a different initial distribution of matter, but the same laws of physics operate in all. Nearly all cosmologists today (including me) accept this type of multiverse, which Max Tegmark calls “level 1.” Yet some go further. They suggest completely different kinds of universes, with different physics, different histories, maybe different numbers of spatial dimensions. Most will be sterile, although some will be teeming with life. A chief proponent of this “level 2″ multiverse is Alexander Vilenkin, who paints a dramatic picture of an infinite set of universes with an infinite number of galaxies, an infinite number of planets and an infinite number of people with your name who are reading this article.

Similar claims have been made since antiquity by many cultures. What is new is the assertion that the multiverse is a scientific theory, with all that implies about being mathematically rigorous and experimentally testable. I am skeptical about this claim. I do not believe the existence of those other universes has been proved — or ever could be. Proponents of the multiverse, as well as greatly enlarging our conception of physical reality, are implicitly redefining what is meant by “science.”

OVER THE HORIZON

Enjoy.

  • A thought. by bowser 2014-08-30 15:13:20
    • Maxwell's Demon and Schroedingers cat. by ER 2014-08-29 10:24:32
      • The puzzlement. by bowser 2014-08-29 14:21:16
        • Whaddaya mean " there is no reason for Man to know or understand that?" by ER 2014-08-30 08:57:47
          • I like the sentiment, there's some evidence for it, and I believe the reality is just the opposite. by bowser 2014-08-30 11:12:48
            • Staying alive long enough to reproduce is DNA's mission, not ours. by ER 2014-08-30 11:48:19
          • The universe is a vast library, by ER 2014-08-29 20:24:30

        Search

        The Control Panel

        • Log in
        • Register