Stranger than fiction

Stranger than fiction

www.iol.co.za

Is the universe - correction: "our" universe - no more than a speck of cosmic dust amid an infinite number of parallel worlds?

A staple of mind-bending science fiction, the possibility of multiple universes has long intrigued hard-nosed physicists, mathematicians and cosmologists too.

We may not be able - as least not yet - to prove they exist, many serious scientists say, but there are plenty of reasons to think that parallel dimensions are more than figments of eggheaded imagination.

(visit the link for the full news article)

"The multiverse is no longer a model, it is a consequence of our models," explained Barrau

Try this on for size: a copy of you living on a planet and in a solar system like ours is reading these words just as you are. Your lives have been carbon copies up to now, but maybe he or she will keep reading even if you don't.

Please click on the link to read the complete article

www.iol.co.za
(visit the link for the full news article)

Is that why sometimes we have times when reading a book we know we have read it before even though we havent? Or even when we go someplace different we feel like we have been there before yet we never have. I have done that many times. I even knew there was a painting in a restaurant that I had never been in before, but I asked for us to be seated next to it, and it was around the corner where we couldnt see it when we came in.

Hilda

Originally posted by Enceladus


"The multiverse is no longer a model, it is a consequence of our models," explained Barrau

If I remember right string theory allows for eleven dimensions. So if that is what is being referenced to it is hardly infinite.

Originally posted by RedGolem

Originally posted by Enceladus


"The multiverse is no longer a model, it is a consequence of our models," explained Barrau

If I remember right string theory allows for eleven dimensions. So if that is what is being referenced to it is hardly infinite.

This is not about dimensions. These are parallel universes, each with their own 11 dimensions, possibly even more or less dimensions, as each universe is different. Thats why its a Multiverse and if quantum mechanics is an indicator, the Multiverse is Infinite.

Here's my theory:

That every choice in life creates a parallel universe. Think about it there could be zillions of parallel universes, all thin as paper stacked one on top another. I believe that there is life on other worlds, however the "UFOs" that are seen are not aliens, but visitors from another universe that is more advanced and has figured out a way to travel between parallel universes. I even think that maybe demons, orbs, whatever you may call them are lifeforms from other universes or energy manifestations. The possibilities are endless.

I'll stop rambling now, your thoughts.

[edit on 31/12/07 by jnwaters]

I like to think that the 'other me' is living a lavish life somewhere else, wondering what it must be like to be me... in another Universe.

( Just one of those 'Deep Thoughts' moments )

A good read about this (if a bit sensationalist) is the novel Timeline by michael crichton - I'd heard about multiverse before, but this was the book tht really brought it home to me and made it seem a definite possibility, as well as leading me to read more on the subject - which given my total lack of physics knowledge is pretty good going

yep,the big bang was part of a chain of many.im not sure i beleive in parralel universes existing within our own,but im sure this universe/dimension is but a grain amoungst the shores of celeste.

i sometimes think if there is life going on on a sub nano,femto level.
www.simetric.co.uk...
and if there looking out from their little worlds and searching for ours!

reply to post by jnwaters


So there are other universes in which we enjoy all the things we should have ordered in all those restaurants? Cool. No more worrying over tiramisu or cheesecake!

Maybe universes are like bytes of storage in your computer's live memory, all possibilities running on RAM... We're just inhabiting an infinite supercomputer.



[edit on 31-12-2007 by gottago]

Just because theres other universes doesnt mean that there are spitting images of us there doing what we are doing here.

Those universes could be made up differently, different galaxies.

And also, why would there be any reason to even think you had a 'clone' in another universe?

I think that the idea of a multiverse is nonsense.

Many non-scientists accept the idea simply because of its "imagination" potential.
Who can deny that allure of infinite universes with infinite possibilities. Most though do not realize that the concept of a multiverse is accepted by many physicists simply because it seems to solve several problems with various "pet" theories. ie, Big bang....string theory...inflationary theory...ect.

The basic problem of all these theories is that the conditions that are necessary to allow life as we know it to exist seem to be so "fine tuned". For instance, if the mass of the proton were even slightly different or if the charge of the electron was changed, we would not be here. The universe would not have formed as we know it today.

To get around the idea of a universe that seemed perfectly designed for us, and thus avoid the idea of a supernatural force, physicists glommed onto the idea of infinite universes. the idea is that ours is not so special after all.

It goes back to the monkeys banging on typewriters idea. If enough monkeys bang on type writers for long enough time, one will eventually produce the works of Shakespeare.

Thus: given enough universes, it is nothing special that one like ours where all the laws of physics are perfectly tuned to allow for life, should arise.

Lawrence Krauss, a physicist and astronomer at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said the whole multiverse idea is so speculative as to border on nonsense. It’s an outcome of an old impulse, which also gave rise to the correct notion that other planets exist, he argued: “We don’t want to be alone.”

It also caters to our desire for stability, he added: the universe changes, but “the multiverse is always the same.” And if there are many universes, you don’t have to make any predictions that will subject your pet theory to awkward tests, “because there’s always one in which the answers work out.”

As far as I am concerned I agree that the notion of a "multiverse" borders on philosophy and not real science.

the external source in my post can be found here.
www.world-science.net...

Instead of resorting to imaginary universes or infinitely splitting ones, these physicists should give up their "pet" theories that are hopelessly flawed and keep working to find one that is testable and conforms to what can be observed and verified.

It is not wrong to toss around fantastic theories that stimulate the imagination, but for people to accept these with out a shred of evidence is foolish in my opinion.

I know that decades had to pass before some of Einsteins theories could be tested & proved, that is why I don't think these theories should be ignored.
They simply need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Shades of the "MATRIX"

Originally posted by gottago
reply to post by jnwaters

 

So there are other universes in which we enjoy all the things we should have ordered in all those restaurants? Cool. No more worrying over tiramisu or cheesecake!

Maybe universes are like bytes of storage in your computer's live memory, all possibilities running on RAM... We're just inhabiting an infinite supercomputer.



[edit on 31-12-2007 by gottago]

Originally posted by jnwaters
Here's my theory:

That every choice in life creates a parallel universe. Think about it there could be zillions of parallel universes, all thin as paper stacked one on top another.

I don't think it works like that. I think that everything exists as potentiality. Once we make a choice, all the other possible choices remain just that: a potentiality in an ocean of potentialities.

And it certainly does not imply - not to my mind, anyway - that all the universes contain a conscious "I" who took a different road from this "I" - the one writing here and now.
(Besides, if those "I"s were conscious of their own existence, they wouldn't be "I" anymore, would they? They could be identical to me and to each other in every possible way - but they wouldn't be ME, this conscious "I".)

It could be, however, that one can "create" - and perhaps bring into awareness - a parallel world. If that is so, I am assuming the "observing" task essential (?) to this process, the singling out of one (or another) potential time-lines, is done by means of the "creative imagination", as the Sufi (and Henry Corbin) called it.
Who knows - such a parallel existence could even subsist in discrete fragments (i.e. not as a coherent, self-contained continuum of awareness) brought up by one's vivid visualisation of a possibility.




[edit on 2-1-2008 by Vanitas]