Parallel Universes

Why people suggest there might be a multiverse...

Parallel universes... probably not the sort of article you might expect to see mixed in with hints and tips on beauty, make-up and how to become a model.

But then you'd expect to see all sorts of things in the weird and whacky array of parallel universes out there!

One of the first questions you might ask when it comes to the scientific suggestion that we might live in a so-called multiverse comprised of either an infinite or very large number of universes is WHY?

It is not at all obvious that this might be the case after all. Look outside the window and you might see signs of life in this world, but there is nothing to make you suggest that there might be many other worlds out there. So why would scientists take this idea seriously above and beyond a mere suggestion?

There are various reasons, here we look at a couple of them.

Goldilocks Enigma

One reason is in response to the Goldilocks Enigma - the porridge being not too hot, not too cold but just right.

It seems that there is a lot to explain in our world in terms of why it is 'just right' for life. Science has long shown that if certain fundamental values and constants changed even by a tiny percentage, then life would not be possible in the universe. It seems like a conspiracy theory that we are here. The answer "well it just must be like this else we wouldn't be here" doesn't cut the mustard, just like if someone fired a thousand bullets at your head from a foot and missed everytime it wouldn't seem sufficient to just raise an eyebrow and say "that hardly needs explaining - you had to miss for me to be here saying this!"

One response to the Goldilocks Enigma is to go multiple, and say we are in just one of billions of universes out there - in some the constants have different values to ours, and so the reason our world is like it is gets explained away by the fact it's just one of a countless number out there.

This may seem a rather cavalier manner to answer what on the face of it is such a simple challenge, but in fact it is one of the main responses given to the problem of explaining why everything here is just right for life, showing how tricky that question actually is to answer.

Quantum Mechanics

The second reason comes from quantum mechanics, and it is one interpration of the fact that we cannot say with certainty where any particle will be precisely at one moment in time, combined with the apparent non-locality of space: the extraordinary fact that on the tiniest scales the location of a particle is governed by a probability wave. In fact, if you were to separate two entangled particles then what you did to one here would be reflected in what happened to one over there instantly - even if that one over there was in the Andromeda Galaxy.

So in a sense at any moment there is a tiny chance that a particle could be found literally anywhere, and one interpretation that comes of all this is the many worlds idea - whenever there is a choice to be made, all possible choices are taken and each creates a new universe; in other words there are countless new universes being created at every instant of time.

This may seem like an extraordinary step to take just to explain quantum mechanical behaviour, and that Occams Razor should come along and cut through it - however it is one of the most popular interpretations. This doesn't mean it's right, but it does at least give some indication as why people might believe in what on the face of it seems such an extravagant theory.

Parallel Universes

Author: Dan

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Last Updated: Feb 4th 2008

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Questions Dan has Answered:

Does medical science believe in ghosts or souls?

With regard to souls, it depends on the person - some religious persons will indeed believe in souls as of course many religions have this notion as an important tenet. With regard to ghosts, the majority of medical practitioners will not believe in them as there are profound complexities with understanding just what they are and how they work. Particles are known that can travel through material with limited interaction the issue is more around how they are formed, their agency and so on.

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