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How should we think about the Multiverse?

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Jitro
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17 Feb 2013, 6:08 pm

I think a multiverse is a cool idea, but I don't see any scientific evidence of such at present.



Feralucce
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18 Feb 2013, 11:58 am

Fnord wrote:
Cacao wrote:
Clearly there must be another dimension. How else are we going to explain the odd phenomena in physics?

Inappropriate assumptions ... poor calibration ... observational bias ... falsified results ... desperation ...


Cacao: by researching and quantifying the results... no offense, your statement of "how else" is the same kind of thing as the religious people say when trying to explain the beginning of everything... "How else can we explain this except by god?"

Apply occam's razor.

For the record, you are muddling your terms. Dimension is a direction of movement (typically defined as being able to move perpendicular to all previous directions of movement)... What you are describing is another membrane or universe or reality... and the presence of another universe would, by our current understanding, have absolutely no effect on ours. The two are completely unable to interact, let alone travel between.


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Feralucce
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18 Feb 2013, 12:00 pm

Kurgan wrote:
Fnord wrote:
Kurgan wrote:
... there's no need for multiple universes to exist ...

... unless you make your living as a science-fiction or fantasy writer!

:wink:


If find no mention of the word "multiverse" or "omniverse" in my favourite sci-fi novels (Dune and The Time Machine). :)


Kurgan: but they are, in and of themselves, alternate realities... ones where the spice and time travel exist...


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Stargazer43
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20 Feb 2013, 1:47 am

"We" shouldn't...leave that to the theoretical physicists who actually have some idea what they're talking about lol. Note: this stuff is actually somewhat of a special interest of mine but at the same time, I fully admit that I'm completely clueless about a lot of it. Even the people who actually know what they're talking about are kind of clueless about it lol.



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20 Feb 2013, 2:57 pm

Stargazer43 wrote:
"We" shouldn't....


That was the answer I was expecting from someone. But I cannot help myself thinking about it and I swear one day my brain will grasp an extra dimensional space, and then I'd like to disappear.



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20 Feb 2013, 3:34 pm

Robdemanc wrote:
Stargazer43 wrote:
"We" shouldn't....
That was the answer I was expecting from someone. But I cannot help myself thinking about it and I swear one day my brain will grasp an extra dimensional space, and then I'd like to disappear.

We all have our fantasies.



ruveyn
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20 Feb 2013, 6:30 pm

Robdemanc wrote:
Some people presumably said something similar to Columbus in 1492.


Columbus did not travel to a different universe. At every instant he was on this planet and breathing the air.

And the finiteness and spherical shape of the earth was well knows to the Greeks, the Chinese and the Babylonians. Anyone who has seen a ship disappear over the horizon hull first knows this too.

ruveyn



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21 Feb 2013, 1:26 am

ruveyn wrote:
Robdemanc wrote:
Some people presumably said something similar to Columbus in 1492.


Columbus did not travel to a different universe. At every instant he was on this planet and breathing the air.

And the finiteness and spherical shape of the earth was well knows to the Greeks, the Chinese and the Babylonians. Anyone who has seen a ship disappear over the horizon hull first knows this too.

ruveyn


ruveyn - If "Anyone who has seen a ship disappear over the horizon hull first knows this too." were true, it would not have been thought that the world was flat.


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21 Feb 2013, 1:41 am

If a multiverse is part of our best model for understanding the universe, then fair enough. It's a part of the model. But I think it's a mistake to try to identify the "multiverse" of physics with the "possible worlds" of philosophy. Basically, as soon as someone claims that the multiverse theory in physics tells us something "profound", I get suspicious.



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21 Feb 2013, 4:53 am

Current evidence supports nothing in terms of multiple universes, but I think its safe to keep an open mind. Tomorrows evidence could throw modern science in a new direction, just as the late 19th Century discoveries put an end to the idea that we now know everything about the physical world.



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22 Feb 2013, 9:44 pm

Robdemanc wrote:
Stargazer43 wrote:
"We" shouldn't....


That was the answer I was expecting from someone. But I cannot help myself thinking about it and I swear one day my brain will grasp an extra dimensional space, and then I'd like to disappear.


the question of whether alternate universes exist or not aside, it is a fun brain exercise to try to hold the concept in your mind realisitcally

I'm fond of the idea of infinite universes where some differ only in a single subatomic particle scaling all the way to universes so different from our own that we can't even imagine the possibilities. Now I try to hold the idea of these universes stretching through spacetime dividing, merging, colliding, starting, ending. It's a bit of a rush.



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23 Feb 2013, 9:14 am

Browncoat wrote:
Robdemanc wrote:
Stargazer43 wrote:
"We" shouldn't....


That was the answer I was expecting from someone. But I cannot help myself thinking about it and I swear one day my brain will grasp an extra dimensional space, and then I'd like to disappear.


the question of whether alternate universes exist or not aside, it is a fun brain exercise to try to hold the concept in your mind realisitcally

I'm fond of the idea of infinite universes where some differ only in a single subatomic particle scaling all the way to universes so different from our own that we can't even imagine the possibilities. Now I try to hold the idea of these universes stretching through spacetime dividing, merging, colliding, starting, ending. It's a bit of a rush.


Yes it is a rush. I think what you say too, that an infinity of universes exist and if we can measure a distance between universes then those closest to us will differ only a fraction, while those far away will differ more.



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23 Feb 2013, 10:47 am

Robdemanc wrote:
Browncoat wrote:
Robdemanc wrote:
Stargazer43 wrote:
"We" shouldn't....


That was the answer I was expecting from someone. But I cannot help myself thinking about it and I swear one day my brain will grasp an extra dimensional space, and then I'd like to disappear.


the question of whether alternate universes exist or not aside, it is a fun brain exercise to try to hold the concept in your mind realisitcally

I'm fond of the idea of infinite universes where some differ only in a single subatomic particle scaling all the way to universes so different from our own that we can't even imagine the possibilities. Now I try to hold the idea of these universes stretching through spacetime dividing, merging, colliding, starting, ending. It's a bit of a rush.


Yes it is a rush. I think what you say too, that an infinity of universes exist and if we can measure a distance between universes then those closest to us will differ only a fraction, while those far away will differ more.


A fat loot of good that does. You still can't get There from Here.

ruveyn



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23 Feb 2013, 1:02 pm

Robdemanc wrote:
Browncoat wrote:
Robdemanc wrote:
Stargazer43 wrote:
"We" shouldn't....


That was the answer I was expecting from someone. But I cannot help myself thinking about it and I swear one day my brain will grasp an extra dimensional space, and then I'd like to disappear.


the question of whether alternate universes exist or not aside, it is a fun brain exercise to try to hold the concept in your mind realisitcally

I'm fond of the idea of infinite universes where some differ only in a single subatomic particle scaling all the way to universes so different from our own that we can't even imagine the possibilities. Now I try to hold the idea of these universes stretching through spacetime dividing, merging, colliding, starting, ending. It's a bit of a rush.


Yes it is a rush. I think what you say too, that an infinity of universes exist and if we can measure a distance between universes then those closest to us will differ only a fraction, while those far away will differ more.


There's no space "outside" the universe, so if there are multiple universes, it makes no sense to speak of the distance between them.



Robdemanc
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23 Feb 2013, 1:34 pm

Kurgan wrote:
Robdemanc wrote:
Browncoat wrote:
Robdemanc wrote:
Stargazer43 wrote:
"We" shouldn't....


That was the answer I was expecting from someone. But I cannot help myself thinking about it and I swear one day my brain will grasp an extra dimensional space, and then I'd like to disappear.


the question of whether alternate universes exist or not aside, it is a fun brain exercise to try to hold the concept in your mind realisitcally

I'm fond of the idea of infinite universes where some differ only in a single subatomic particle scaling all the way to universes so different from our own that we can't even imagine the possibilities. Now I try to hold the idea of these universes stretching through spacetime dividing, merging, colliding, starting, ending. It's a bit of a rush.


Yes it is a rush. I think what you say too, that an infinity of universes exist and if we can measure a distance between universes then those closest to us will differ only a fraction, while those far away will differ more.


There's no space "outside" the universe, so if there are multiple universes, it makes no sense to speak of the distance between them.


We could think of all the other universes occupying the same space as our universe. We just cannot see them. If you think of all the so called empty space in our universe then its enough room for matter that we cannot see but is seen in another universe. So it wouldn't be a case of going outside our universe.