Multiverse Theory
The Multiverse is the notion that our universe is but one of an infinite number of other universes. When you actually think about it, it makes complete sense. We have always been egocentric, we first thought that our planet was the only planet, then we learned that Earth is just one planet out of trillions of other planets. We then thought our solar system was the only solar system and that there was only one Sun, and then we learned that every spec of light we see in the sky is the light from countless other stars. Then when the peripherals of the Milky Way Galaxy were discovered we thought we had discovered it all again, only to learn that our galaxy consisting of 200 billion suns is only 1 out of approximately 200 billion other galaxies, each containing their own hundreds of billions of stars and planetary systems. So historically speaking, it isn't that far fetched to think that our universe is just 1 out of countless other universes. This is what the math and evidence has been supporting over the last several decades.
Now when you contemplate a multiverse of infinite universes being born and destroyed in a never-ending cycle it carries many implications which sound exceedingly creepy and strange and go completely against our everyday intuitions, yet if the multiverse is true, then the implications are as well. For example, if an infinite multiverse is true, then it would also mean that there are universes where there is an exact copy of us, where everything happened almost identical as it did in our universe, except you're the President. Every single possibility you can think of would exist in an infinite multiverse. Every decision you've ever made there's another universe where you made the opposite decision. There's a universe where the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs missed Earth and dinosaurs are still ruling and humans never evolved. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination here. Not only would there be other universes that resemble our own, but there would also be universes with completely differing natures than our own. For instance, there could be a universe where the laws of physics are different than our own, there could be universes made up entirely of energy and no particles ever formed, there could be universes with whole different forces unknown to our present universe.
Theorizing about the multiverse is one thing, proving it is a whole other thing. Just from the nature of what is being studied here it is an exceptionally difficult task to try and prove another universe.. because we are limited to the universe we are currently in. There are however thousands of scientists working to do just that, we may not be able to directly observe another universe (..yet) but we are seeing indicators and scientific predictions made by multiverse theorists have been coming true in recent years. A major prediction made by multiverse theorists would be that somewhere in our universe we should find a large empty spot where no galaxies formed, this was discovered in recent years http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/11550868/Giant-mysterious-empty-hole-found-in-universe.html - Multiverse theorists purport that this cold spot in the universe is sort of like the birthmark of our universe and a direct imprint of a secondary universe that we were either attached to or birthed from when hyperinflation occurred during the big bang.
Support for the Multiverse has also been growing by quantum physicists in recent years. For those of you who don't know how quantum computing works, the gist of it is that quantum computers are able to do billions of calculations simultaneously and then converge on one answer, where as traditional computers take time to compute through each process. We still don't have a full grasp of how this works or why it happens but quantum theorists at MIT are suggesting that the only explanation is the Multiverse, where each calculation by the quantum source happens in parallel universes and then converges back onto this universe where we get the answer.
Sounds pretty crazy doesn't it? Yet this is what the world's leading scientists are telling us is most likely based on where the evidence and mathematics are pointing towards. Nature continually surpasses all of our wildest dreams and imaginations, it is more interesting and awe-inspiring than anything humans have come up with in our strangest science fiction fantasies. I hope that in the upcoming years we continue to find clues which map our origins and shed light on the perplexity of our existence.
16 Comments • Newest first
@nindow you can always dream, and so can I.
@bearsandlions: the little people crap ruined that quote *sigh*
[quote=xreniya]tell me again when it applies to me
and nature will never surpass our imagination
i heard somewhere that someone once theorized:
1. consciousness is information processing
2. somewhere down the line humans will be able to simulate the past in the way we have simulations
3. simulated universes will outnumber real universes
4. we are more likely to be simulated[/quote]
"nature will never surpass our imagination"
I disagree, technically it already has. Our imagination is limited by what we can think of based on what we know. Nature is so full of unknowns that we don't even know what we don't know, there's no known cap to it.
And yeah the simulated universe is a popular theory, it's an unsettling notion but very plausible.
tell me again when it applies to me
and nature will never surpass our imagination
i heard somewhere that someone once theorized:
1. consciousness is information processing
2. somewhere down the line humans will be able to simulate the past in the way we have simulations
3. simulated universes will outnumber real universes
4. we are more likely to be simulated
that also means in a parallel universe, im actually happy.
[quote=mantis561]Haruki Murakami? Isn't he the guy who said with light there is always shadow or something like that?[/quote]
yeah
"Where there is light, there must be shadow, where there is shadow there must be light. There is no shadow without light and no light without shadow.... We do not know if the so-called Little People are good or evil. This is, in a sense, something that surpasses our understanding and our definitions. We have lived with them since long, long ago-- from a time before good and evil even existed, when people's minds were still benighted"
[quote=bearsandlions]have you read 1Q84 by haruki murakami?
interesting to think about a multiverse like that
for anyone who hasn't, it's basically about a girl and a guy who only ever met once in a highschool class when they were young, but are fated to meet again in another time where they both became tangled in a cult-based conspiracy due to particular decisions they made in their lives
it's somewhat like the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya in terms of themes and tropes, but the plot structure is relatively more complex and the characters / motif relatively more adult in nature
often i think about what the people i know could hypothetically exist as in another universe, but most of them probably lead double or multiple lives in this reality as it is, ahaha[/quote]
Haruki Murakami? Isn't he the guy who said with light there is always shadow or something like that?
There are an infinite amount of numbers between 1 and 2 yet none of them are 3.
[quote=bloodisshed]i heard string theory required extra diensions for consistency. maybe string theory and the multiverse theory are related in one way or another.[/quote]
Yup, string theory and multiverse support one another.
You misspelled "Hypothesis"
have you read 1Q84 by haruki murakami?
interesting to think about a multiverse like that
for anyone who hasn't, it's basically about a girl and a guy who only ever met once in a highschool class when they were young, but are fated to meet again in another time where they both became tangled in a cult-based conspiracy due to particular decisions they made in their lives
it's somewhat like the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya in terms of themes and tropes, but the plot structure is relatively more complex and the characters / motif relatively more adult in nature
often i think about what the people i know could hypothetically exist as in another universe, but most of them probably lead double or multiple lives in this reality as it is, ahaha
I love listening to Quantum Mechanics talking about "Branes" and "M-theory", and arguing about whether there are really 10 dimensions or 11.
(Like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.)
It always sounds like they're channeling Lewis Carrol and making up "Jaberwocky" on the spot, like a scientific Rap Battle in real-time.
They're so serious, but they always sound like they're on a really groovy LSD trip as they make up theory after competing theory about whether the "Multiverse" is "frothy" or "bubbly" or flat "branes" doing a bump and grind against each other and Big Banging new universes into existence all the time.
I also love the names they give their pet particles- Fermions, Quarks (strange, charmed, top, bottom), Leptons, Bosons, sLeptons, sQuarks, Hadrons, Baryons, Mesons and more.
It's like they're creating subatomic Pokemon... gotta catch 'em all..!
Oh wait... now it's 26 dimensions.
[quote=antisora99]I wish I wasn't so lazy so I could actually read all of this[/quote]
it's quicker than you think
I wish I wasn't so lazy so I could actually read all of this
i heard string theory required extra diensions for consistency. maybe string theory and the multiverse theory are related in one way or another.
yeah pretty sp00ky