Is the universe all there is? Or are there multiple, even infinite universes in a vast multiverse? Today I tackle multiverse theories.
The basic idea of the multiverse is pretty self-explanatory, it’s the idea that our universe is one of many, perhaps infinite universes.
But what does that mean, multiple universes? And how do we explain it?
There’s a lot of theories out there but I’m going to break this down to three general categories, Relativistic, quantum, and simulation theories.
First, the Relativistic angle.
When I use the term relativistic, what I mean is theories that are rooted in our current understanding of the universe as guided by general relativity. which tie up some loose ends to mysteries that we don’t currently have answers to.
An obvious place to start here is the big bang theory.
Terence McKenna once said that modern science is predicated on the idea of “Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest."
As I talked about in my previous big bang video, the biggest mystery surrounding the big bang theory is how all the matter and energy in the universe could have been created out of nothing.
But that’s only a mystery if the universe is all there is.
If we live in a multiverse, then it wouldn’t have popped out of nothing. In fact, there’s a whole bunch of crap out there it could have sprung out of.
It could have been created by two different universes colliding with each other, much like the ekpyrotic theory of branes smashing together.
It could have been spun off from other universes in an explosion or a collapse.
Or there’s some deeper structure or source that materializes these universes through a release of energy like bubbles in carbonated soda.
Physicist Andrei Linde proposed that this could be the caused by a cosmic vacuum decaying into its ground state.
The quantum multiverse theory, or probabilistic theory is based on the idea that fundamental particles exist in probability states.
And as I covered in my double slit experiment video, these particles only become associated with a certain position and velocity when their probability waveform collapses.
But until that waveform collapses, it is in multiple states at the same time.
Do those states disappear when the waveform collapses? Or does it create a slightly different, parallel universe?
There are two competing theories of reality, determinism and probablism.
A deterministic universe takes place on a massive timeline, where everything that has ever happened, everything happening now, and everything that will happen is pre-determined.
Taken to an extreme, it means we have no free will.
But a probabilistic universe has multiple, maybe even infinite timelines, with every action and decision spawning a new one. Think Back to the Future here.
And last but certainly not least, the simulation theory.
Oh, our old friend the Simulation Theory. Huzzah, happy day.
If we are living in a computer simulation, then it’s not a big stretch to imagine that other computer simulations are being run as well.
Now, Nick Bostrom’s argument was that future generations may run ancestor simulations in order to figure out where things went right and wrong in society.
You could imagine with powerful enough computing - probably technologies we couldn’t even conceive of today - them being able to construct that type of probabilistic universe where every action and decision spawns off another universe.
But this could be taken even bigger. Imagine a universe simulation where you can manipulate the masses and energies of particles in different configurations and see what happens.
Because one of the mysteries of our universe is the fact that if the properties of the particles had been even just a little bit different, matter as we know it wouldn’t exist today.
Imagine a program where the fundamental forces and the fundamental particles are on sliders and you can adjust the properties and then set off a big bang to see what happens.
There could be countless universes out there with just slightly tweaked properties, creating realities that we couldn’t conceive of, universes entirely of anti-matter, where time runs backwards, across multiple dimensions.
One of the problems with multiverse theory is that it does serve as a bit of a catch-all for all the things we don’t understand about our universe. So you have to be careful not to just apply it because it’s convenient.
But, theories that solve multiple problems are often proved true. So who knows…