The multiverse in a nutshell

STEVE ASH

The Multiverse in a Nutshell

Steve Ash is a professional writer, freelance tutor and lecturer in further education, he graduated as a mature student in 2001 with a BA honours degree in Philosophy from Kings College London, and obtained his !c in the Philosophy and "istory of !cience from the L!# in 200$% "e has maintained a life long interest in Philosophy and Alternati&e 'hought, as well as a lo&e of !cience (iction and speculati&e writing of all )inds, as well as being an amateur writer in this field himself with a couple of published wor)s and many more in preparation%

Preface
'his essay is a multi*le&el introduction to the sub+ect of the ulti&erse, and its basis in contemporary Physics, from the perspecti&e of the Philosophy of !cience ,with a nod to the influence of !cience (iction along the way-% 'he main body of the te.t is a brief and relati&ely simple introduction to the topic and contains a concise description of the basic ideas, along with some of their important philosophical conse/uences% 'hose re/uiring a more technical e.position are referred to the many footnotes which e.pand on the ideas in more precise scientific terms e.plained as simply a possible% 'hose see)ing an in depth or ad&anced treatment of the sub+ect are referred to further reading material at the end of the essay% 'he launch of this essay was lin)ed to a seminar gi&en at the Atomic Bar) !cience (iction and (antasy (ilm Club e&ent in London on 0ecember 1 th 2012%

Introduction
'he earliest use of the term ulti&erse can be traced to 2illiam 3ames in 1415, who used to refer to the total potential of the Cosmos, or in other words e&ery possible configuration of e.istence, a totality that is now sometimes also referred to as the 6mni&erse% !ince then the term has de&eloped se&eral meanings in a &ariety of paradigms, from obtuse Logic to 7ew Age ysticism, causing some confusion% 8n general the term refers to a di&erse collection of self*contained 2orlds, in some conceptual relation to each other, which may or may not interact% A concept not without logical problems% 8t has been applied to realms of abstract Philosophy, in which all logically or mathematically Possible 2orlds are said to necessarily e.ist ,1-, and to more concrete perspecti&es from Contemporary Physics and Cosmology% But it is the latter which 8 shall be e.ploring here from the perspecti&e of the Philosophy of !cience% 'hough in practice it is sometimes difficult to separate the two as we shall disco&er% 8n tal)ing about the ulti&erse as it is understood in odern Physics we are really tal)ing any 2orlds

about two different things, the first relates to the 9elati&e !tate or

8nterpretation of :uantum Physics, as promoted by "ugh #&erett, Bryce 0e2itt and most recently 0a&id 0eutsch; and the second relates to Cosmology and the structure of our con&entional !pace*time, in the light of 8nflation and *'heory% 8 shall treat these separately% 'hough there are also more recent attempts to combine them%

The Birth of the Multiverse

!cience (iction has produced many stories of Parallel <ni&erses, the first of these can be dated to 112$ when " = 2ells wrote Men Like Gods, inspired by scientific speculation on #instein>s notion of 'ime as the (ourth 0imension, combined with a further >(*0imension>, allowing the possibility of multiple histories and >Parallel <ni&erses>% 2ells> seminal no&el described tra&elling through a !pace*time anomaly to a futuristic >!ister <ni&erse> in which an anarchic <topian society has been achie&ed, and uses it to ma)e se&eral obser&ations on politics and science ,including a prediction of the in&ention of the 8nternet as a social medium-% 2ells suggests there may be thousands of such uni&erses laid out li)e >pages in a boo)> ,strangely prefiguring *'heory as we shall disco&er later-% urray Leinster later introduced the notion of e.changes between multiple Parallel <ni&erses in his 11$? tale Sidewise in Time, and technological tra&el, through >Para*time> by a &ague >field manipulation>, was first e.plored in " B Piper>s stories in the late ?0s . 7one of these were really supported by science howe&er, as no (ifth 0imension was seriously postulated at this time ,other than &ia the mathematical abstractions of C " "inton in the 1440s-% 8t was not until 11$4 when 3ac) 2illiamson wrote his Legions of Time stories that :uantum echanics was employed as an e.planation for such Parallel 2orlds% 'hese tales e.ploited the idea of :uantum >&irtual reality> ,the obser&ation that >ghostly> particles can appear and disappear randomly, e.isting for fractions of a second as >unreal> &irtual particles, in some e.periments and interact with real particles, as well as each other, and the related idea that the short alternati&e paths of a single particle could be treated as e/ually real in such a &irtual sense- and described parallel >ghost worlds>, whose time tra&elling inhabitants fought each other to ma)e their world the actual concrete reality@ Later in 11?1 9obert "einlein was influenced in a more serious way by &arious ideas in both =eneral 9elati&ity and :uantum 'heory to propose in his story lsewhen, in which Parallel <ni&erses could be encountered by hypnotic shifts in consciousness% !cientists found these stories amusing but dismissed them as nonsense% "owe&er both these stories were republished in the early 1150s and soon after a similar but more scientifically acceptable world &iew emerged on the scene%

The !uantum Multiverse

The "elative State Multiverse # The Man$ %orlds Inter&retation of !uantum Ph$sics '()*+ 8t was an attempted interpretation of the biAarre conse/uences of :uantum that first led the Philosopher of !cience and Physicist, > ulti&erse> in 2orlds echanics ,2any

a. 3ammer, to apply the term

odern Physics% "e deployed this in a 11B? article to describe the

odel of "ugh #&erett and Bryce 0e2itt% 'he term caught on and has been used any 2orlds model was de&ised in the late 50s by Physicist and echanics% #&erett was wor)ing for the

e&er since ,though today some prefer the word 6mni&erse to distinguish it from other ulti&erse theories-% 'he athematician "ugh #&erett for his Ph%0% thesis under Prof 3ohn 2heeler, though he more accurately called it 9elati&e !tate :uantum Pentagon at the time on top secret 7uclear deployment pro+ects and only briefly engaged with the world of 'heoretical Physics% "is super&isor 2heeler is more famous today for his de&elopment of the idea of Blac) "oles and 2ormholes, and particularly his 6bser&er Created <ni&erse &iews on : , now )nown as the Participatory Anthropic Principle, along with his related 8nformation theory ,>8t from Bit>- ,2b-% But #&erett too) an opposing &iew to this arguing, for a strict Physical 9ealism in which Consciousness had no role whatsoe&er% !imilarly frustrated by 7iels Bohr>s Copenhagen 8nterpretation of : ,nothing can be said of an ob+ect between obser&ations- ,$- #&erett sought a more concrete alternati&e% 'oday there are lots of alternati&es to the Copenhagen 8nterpretation ,e&en ma&eric) denials of : itself-, but in the conte.t of the ulti&erse 8>m only going to focus on the 9elati&e !tate odel #&erett de&ised as his response to both Bohr and 2heeler% #&erett re+ected the Participatory Anthropic Principle in Physics, maintaining the strict 9ealist &iew, that 9eality and Consciousness were totally separate and could ne&er interact, something he saw as fundamental to any rational empirical !cience% "e also re+ected the slightly different idea that nothing was real until it was measured by an obser&er, as seemed to be implied by the Copenhagen 8nterpretation% #&erett>s solution was to declare all tal) of the collapse of the 2a&e (unction to be nonsensical as it was in fact a mathematical description of reality, the same as any scientific formulation, and not a probability function at all% 'hat is all the possible states after a measurement, described in the function, were e/ually real and concrete, but e.isted in other <ni&erses to ours@ 'he e/uation was thus a true description of the ulti&erse, which from the perspecti&e of an

obser&er in any local <ni&erse only appeared to be a >probability description>% 2hen a measurement was made the obser&er had caused a split in the <ni&erse ,including themsel&es- in which only one of the possibilities becomes actual for them in their particular <ni&erse% 'hough other obser&ers may e.perience another alternati&e <ni&erse% ost radically these other obser&ers logically include other &ersions of the obser&er that ha&e split off into the other <ni&erses% !pace*time, with all its contents, has literally split into two branches, spreading out into something #&erett called !uperpace% 'he branches most similar to our branch being closer in !uperspace and those that ha&e branched away into something &ery different ,say a world ruled by intelligent e&ol&ed dinosaurs- are &ery distant in !uperspace% 8mportantly this process is an entirely mechanical one based on a physical measurement operation and Consciousness is not in&ol&ed in it in any sense% 8n practise we share the same <ni&erse because we are interconnected both by physical causation and language ,those disconnected would not share it-% !ome !cience (iction writers would ta)e up this idea and suggest that wormholes could be constructed between these parallel uni&erses, something #&erett re+ected as a possibility, while others would mi. #&erett>s idea with 2heeler>s and declare that Consciousness caused the split, and thus bringing in all sorts of psychic and magical aspects to gates between worlds% #arlier in 11$? the =othic imagination of " P Lo&ecraft the <ni&erse itself became a conscious being ,and a collecti&e consciousness of all sentient life-, much li)e it would for 2heeler decades later, but not as some rational >computer>, as the terrible, amoral Cog*!othoth, a daemonic being who opened and closed passages between other 2orlds, creati&ely or destructi&ely% 'his was a magical ulti&erse that was also manipulatable by alien technology, for the first time blurring science and magic, aliens and gods, planets and hea&ens% 'his initiated another aspect of !cience (iction and (antasy writing in the same niche that do&etailed nicely with But all this was imaginati&e speculation not bac)ed by any e&idence% read !cience (iction% 2hat #&erett was really doing here was creating a 'heory of 9elati&ity for :uantum echanics, +ust as #instein had for 7ewtonian echanics, in which obser&ers do not necessarily occupy the same absolute !pace*time framewor), but rather e.ist in a relati&e one based on their own situated perspecti&e% 8n deploying #&erett>s thesis we can thus tal) about the whole <ni&erse again as a ulti&erse, and include the obser&ers inside a purely ulti&erse stories% uch of it was

nonsense, but some of the more thoughtful possibilities would inspire later physicists who

physical process, rather than outside it as god*li)e 2a&e (unction collapsers% 'his would ma)e the idea increasingly popular with materialist physicists annoyed by the fantastical misapplication of :uantum Physics, a process continued later by the emerging 7ew Age mo&ement% But the Philosophical /uestion here is does it ma)e senseD ost physicists at first thought not, but faced with the e&en more biAarre conse/uences of other attempted interpretations ha&e increasingly accepted it as the most rational solution% But then most physicists are not grounded in a deeper tradition of philosophical thought% #&erett became absorbed in his secret wor) for the Pentagon and died in 1141 of a heart attac) ,ironically after years of claiming cholesterol was only dangerous according to bad science- But another Physicist, Bryce 0e2itt, initially a sceptic of the 9elati&e !tate hypothesis, came to accept it and too) it on as his own, renaming it the any*2orlds hypothesis in 11E4 ,a time enthusiastic for the weird and alternati&e-% 0ewitt was also a better spin doctor than #&erett, and after writing a technical scientific boo) on the hypothesis in 11B$, which hardly anyone read, from 11BE onwards began writing about it in the >true science> pages of !cience (iction +ournals li)e Analog% 'his in turn inspired !cience (iction writers who were already interested in the topic and probably had an increasing influence on rising young physicists% A curious dialectic between science fiction and science fact% any people were unhappy with the 9elati&e !tate ulti&erse as it claimed all interactions

between branching realities was impossible as !uperspace was impassable and wormholes only applied to normal !pace*time ,a contentious &iew today-% 8t was pointed out that &irtual >ghost> particles, the multiple states of ob+ects in superposition, did in fact interact under certain conditions, so in the any*2orlds model interaction must be possible% 'his led to some suggesting that !uperspace was really +ust another dimension of ordinary !pace*time, a fifth dimension, much li)e the other spatial dimensions, left Fright, upFdown, forwardFbac), or the temporal dimension of pastFfuture, e.cept this dimension was not easily tra&ersable by person, particle or energy% Potential e&ents simply spread out into it and thus became dis+unct in separate realities e&ery time a choice was made% 'hough under certain conditions interaction across this dimension was possible as the barrier became permeable% An e.tra attraction to this &iew was that (ree 2ill suddenly reentered deterministic science% 'his did not pro&e popular though due to the uncertainty on what this dimension actually was and its inability to be described mathematically in e.isting descriptions of !pace*time% But again !cience (iction too) up the idea, often

representing mo&ement into another hidden dimension as li)e passing through a barrier in a familiar dimension, li)e a wall, or more metaphorically a mirror, into somewhere else% #&en less popular was another suggestion that it wasn>t the <ni&erse that di&ided, or became compartmentalised in a new dimension, it was the obser&er>s become aware of a different part of the e.perience them as our reality% alternati&ely we tune in our consciousness to different aspects of the +umbo% But an idea not too different would soon catch on% Physicist and Philosopher 0a&id 0eutsch of 6.ford <ni&ersity de&eloped a new &ersion of the any*2orlds "ypothesis in 111B that mi.es &arious thoughts on the ulti&erse and :uantum echanics into a new logically consistent paradigm% !imply put he claims that ind% 'hat is we ulti&erse and thus ulti&erse when we ma)e an obser&ation% 6r

ost physicists re+ected this idea as non*physical mumbo

the 2a&e (unction really is about the probability of our )nowledge of particular physical states being true, as Bohr had initially suggested, but at the same time actually describes all those states as e/ually real in a ulti&erse, as #&erett insisted% 'his is because he belie&es, li)e 2heeler, information is a reality shaping factor in physical systems% 6ur )nowledge of reality actually shapes reality he suggests, because nothing e.ists until we )now about it% An information state being a real &ariable of a system as much as its physical states% 'hus people with different information on a system may manifest it differently% 'his is really another &ersion of 2heeler>s 6bser&er Created <ni&erse, translated from perception to cognition% And +ust as 2heeler is open to charges of 8dealism so is 0eutsch, without a physical mechanism to describe what is actually happening% 0eutsch belie&es he can sidestep this difficult tas) empirically howe&er, by building a :uantum Computer based on these principles and pro&ing them true when it wor)s% !uch a computer would sol&e comple. e/uations rapidly by performing different computations in the same circuits at the same time@ 6f course 0eutsch>s e.planation of what happened would not be the only one% any 2orlds theory has many conceptual problems howe&er% 6ne is the problem of e&ery act we perform being realised somewhere% !o no matter how well beha&ed we are in this <ni&erse we will be badly beha&ed in some other <ni&erse% A problem for ethical philosophy% 8t also raises problems of personal identity% 2hat is the relationship between us and our doppelgGngers in other uni&ersesD Are we the same person or different people% According to (unctionalist theories of ind, if two minds are identical ,hold the same memories, habits and sensory data- they constitute the same person ,enabling the idea of

transferring minds between people or into machines-% !o in Parallel 2orlds where our doppelgGngers are identical, but some different situation e.ists on ars say, we are the same person% A )ind of multiple personality in different bodies, or rather the same personality in different bodies% And if so how different does our doppelgGnger ha&e to be to become another person rather than a different &ersion of usD !cience (iction has a field day with ideas li)e this@ An e&en bigger problem, and one that will return later, is the problem of 8nfinity% 'here is no logical reason to assume that there are an infinite number of alternati&e worlds, but there maybe, and e&en if there isn>t the number of them will be so &ast and indefinite as to ha&e the same problem as an infinite number of worlds% 'he most common is that somewhere, in another <ni&erse in this case, there will be a mon)ey sitting at a typewriter who by sheer chance produces the complete wor)s of !ha)espeare randomly ,the chance of this is e.tremely unli)ely, maybe one in a billion trillion, but it is li)ely there are more alternati&e worlds than this, and in an infinite number it must happen an infinite number of times, and so may happen in our <ni&erse-% But there are many possible parado.es of this type and all of them are hard to ta)e seriously% Another more speculati&e parado., based on the (unctionalist model of ind, is that if there are an infinite number of our doppelgGngers, it becomes impossible to die% Because as soon as we die here we presumably become one of our still li&ing sel&es in another <ni&erse, and as these are an infinite number, or at least a &ast one, we would effecti&ely li&e fore&er ,a modern film The ,ne, a )ind of Kung (u atri. rip off, in&ol&ing Parallel <ni&erses instead of !imulated <ni&erses, proposed an absurd plot similar to this, which combined the idea of ulti&ersal sel&es as multiple personalities of the same person, with the Chinese notion of a Life (orce called Chi, which in its Cuan mode is the total life force of a particular being, to initiate a chain of alternati&e self murders in order to concentrate Chi in the sur&i&or@- Li)e many people 8 ta)e these parado.es as reductio ad absurdum of the idea of infinite Possible 2orlds, and so re+ect any idea in&ol&ing 8nfinity or near*infinity ,and certainly not Cantor>s schiAoid maths of >multiple 8nfinities> and >8nfinity plus one> as increasingly used by some theories- % (or these reasons 8 re+ect the any*2orlds model% ost physicists also re+ect the idea of a

physical infinity, regarding it as an imaginary product or component of abstract mathematics, and so introduce a process called 7ormalisation, a fiddle factor to remo&e infinities were they occur in mathematical descriptions and predictions% !ome Platonic pro 8nfinity physicists re+ect 7ormalisation as a biased inter&ention in >true maths>, howe&er it

has led to many inno&ations such as !upersymmetry and !tring 'heory% 8 thin) #&erett did ha&e some good point howe&er, but 8 don>t thin) we ha&e to postulate multiple physical parallel worlds as corresponding to alternati&e states coded in the 2a&e (unction, or e&en &irtual ghost worlds% 2e can +ust as easily say the 2a&e (unction describes a deeper hypostatic uni&erse of pure potential, in which all possible states e.ist in a para*consistent potentia at the same time% An underlying primal Kaos in which our <ni&erse is only the manifestation of this that we e.perience as the physical world% Perhaps our perception, )nowledge or language language really is responsible for selecting our reality from this Potentia, as the aforementioned physicists belie&e, but without the non*selected possibilities actually being real in any separately consistent way% After all who is measuring themD Consistency may +ust be the fetish of the orthodo. Logician% Alternati&ely some physicists deny that the obser&er has any affect and the interaction is holistic and mechanical ,% 'hus &irtual interaction may not be with other <ni&erses but rather with the fluctuations from this underlying Potentia or Hoid ,which as unmanifest may be the only thing that is really 8nfinite-% 'his is much li)e the established idea in :uantum (ield 'heory, that particles and energy can arise spontaneously from the :uantum Hacuum ,the lowest energetic state of any physical field seen as a &oid bubbling with potential energy-% 'his foundational :uantum 9eality also becomes useful in other theories% 8 thin) this )ind of :uantum while others may disagree% ulti&erse, or 6mni&erse, can thus be dismissed,

It -ame .rom Another /imension.

Another )ind of ulti&erse is fre/uently deployed in !cience (iction% 6ne in which the protagonists sometimes tra&el into another <ni&erse, sometimes misleadingly called >another 0imension> ,a dimension is +ust an e.tensi&e magnitude or a direction, though could be the direction into a world based on another set of dimensions-% !uch a world is typically alien to ours, rather than +ust an alternati&e &ersion of it% 6r con&ersely a being from such a world enters our world% !uch an idea was once the pro&ince of fol)lore, with its land of faerie, and of religion with its hea&en and hells% 'he first secular &ersion of it was perhaps written in 1EEE by the poetess and philosopher argaret Ca&endish, the 0uchess of 7ewcastle, whose no&el The Bla0ing %orld described a traditional (aerie land with scientific plausibility, reached &ia magnetic gates at the 7orth Pole and inhabited by man*animal hybrids of all )inds, as well as fol)lore entities ,the idea was adopted by Alan oore in his League of Gentleman series-% 'he concept of such a world e&ol&ed with scientific )nowledge in later fiction% 'ypically this world might also ha&e different laws of nature, or different geometries, or perhaps a greater or lesser number of dimensions than ours ,and if greater be inhabited by superior beings with a greater e.perience and )nowledge of reality, or perhaps creatures totally alien to us and our laws of nature-% 8deas e.ploited to their full e.tent by " P Lo&ecraft, most o&ertly in his .rom Be$ond ,1120-, but subtly in many more of his wor)s% Alternati&ely such uni&erses might actually be similar to our own and perhaps e&en identical ,another form of Alternati&e <ni&erse-% !uch stuff is the sub+ect of many !cience (iction stories and films of course, and sometimes e&en speculati&e fact% (ortean researcher 3ohn Keel, whose in&estigati&e boo) the >factitious> film The Mothman Pro&hecies was adapted from, belie&ed this to be the case and the real scientific e.planation for many supernatural and mysterious occurrences% !uch ideas are re+ected by mainstream science, but how many of these ideas could be scientifically trueD

The -osmological Multiverse 'Alan Guth, earl$ 1234s and &rior+

8f we can dismiss the possibility of a physical 6mni&erse, and replace it with a :uantum Potential <ni&erse, or some other &ersion of :uantum 'heory, we still ha&e to face the possibility of a Cosmological ulti&erse, a set of alternati&e <ni&erses e.isting in ordinary !pace*'ime% And 8 say face because this still poses considerable philosophical problems% 8n fact e&en if we can>t dismiss the 6mni&erse we still ha&e to face this, because the two aren>t mutually e.clusi&e, though together certainly comple.ify the problem@ 'o understand the nature of the Cosmological ulti&erse we ha&e to start at the beginning

of the <ni&erse% 'his bit is a little technical but bare with me and it will all be clear% 2e need to understand the physics before it can be /uestioned philosophically% 'he former picture of the beginning of the <ni&erse was of the so called Big Bang, in which some e.plosi&e primal e&ent thrust !pace*time, and all its contents, into an energetic cosmic e.pansion ,in this theory the <ni&erse and all its matter and energy pre*e.ist as some primal concentrate that e.plodes outwards-% 2e )now something li)e this happened from obser&ations of the red shift on distant receding gala.ies and the presence of a uniform bac)ground radiation ,all alternati&es li)e "oyle>s eternal !teady !tate <ni&erse ha&e failed, and more radical alternati&es li)e Barbour>s 'imeless <ni&erse contain far too many conceptual problems-% But unfortunately it was soon realised that this was a false picture, as a <ni&erse thus produced would be highly irregular and chaotic, as would any structure after an e.plosion% 8n reality the uni&erse is highly regular and relati&ely homogeneous in its content, and has an essentially flat e.tension of space% "ow this could ha&e occurred gi&en the reality of the Big Bang was something of a mystery for decades% 8nflation Cosmology% !imply put this posits that at some time prior to the Big Bang the <ni&erse consisted of an empty bubble of !pace*time the siAe of a subatomic particle% 'his bubble effecti&ely emerges from 7othing% 'he reason for this is rather comple. but is based on the :uantum <ncertainty Principle which allows superpositional energy states to e.ist in a Hacuum ,$d-% 'hese can manifest as real energy states for brief periods of time, the lower the energy the longer the time, the higher the energy the shorter the time% 2ith infinite energy e.isting for Aero time and Aero energy the fundamental eternal energy state of the Hacuum% 'he Bubble of !pace*time can be considered one of the energy states that spontaneously any comple. solutions ha&e been posited to e.plain this mystery, but the most comprehensi&e has been

manifest as the =ra&itational (ield or cur&ature of the Bubble and the Hacuum energy that emerges in the empty Bubble% 2e might e.pect these Bubbles to be also transient, and many are, but if the =ra&itational energy which is negati&e in nature e.actly balances the Hacuum energy which is positi&e the two will cancel out and the sum of the Bubbles energy will be Aero ,?-% 2hich in principle means it can e.ist for e&er@ !uch a Bubble could contain the total positi&e energy of the )nown <ni&erse if it was balanced by the massi&e =ra&itational force of a super dense Bubble of tightly cur&ed !pace*time% And this is e.actly what is belie&ed to happen with our <ni&erse% 8n practise howe&er it is naturally transient because the intense =ra&ity (ield crushes it into !ingularity li)e that of Blac) "ole and /uic)ly out of e.istence% "owe&er there is a rare e.ception to that process ,5'he e.ception to this annihilation is that if an anti*gra&itation force were applied to the Bubble before it was collapsed it would remain intact, and if it was a strong enough force the Bubble would inflate e.ponentially until it was large enough to be stable% AmaAingly this is e.actly what many physicists belie&e happened when a mysterious field called an 8nflaton (ield, powered by a mysterious force called 0ar) #nergy, spontaneously appeared within the Bubble +ust before it collapsed% 'his (ield anti*gra&itates far more strongly than =ra&ity causing the Bubble to e.pand e.ponentially faster than the speed of light% 'his rapid inflation transforms the Bubble to the siAe of the current &isible <ni&erse in a fraction of a second, at which scale it is no longer super dense and will not collapse% 'he 8nflation phase is then thought to stop as the 8nflaton (ield dissipates and the <ni&erse continues to e.pand carried on by its momentum% At least until =ra&ity slows it down or e&en stops or re&erses it, depending on the initial amount of 0ar) #nergy and the amount of mass in the <ni&erse ,both of which are un)nown /uantities-% 'he Big Bang in this scenario is the initial release of energy produced by the decay of the 8nflaton (ield which produces all the energy and matter in the uni&erse, though this decay is slow and the 8nflation carries on till our &isible <ni&erse is produced % 'he e.act mechanism for this is contro&ersial and all the candidates are &ery comple., but 8 won>t e.pose you to more technicalities on this as you don>t really need to )now this ,E'he )ey point is this 8nflation e.plains why the <ni&erse is so regular and flat% 'he initial Bubble was itself highly regular and uniform and has been rapidly e.panded and stretched out creating the <ni&erse>s regular features% 'his process is now widely regarded as the only way to e.plain this situation%

But what does all this ha&e to do with the

ulti&erseD 'he fact is there is no logical reason

why this Bubble should be the only one formed, and therefore the only <ni&erse that emerges at this hypothetical beginning of time% But one problem with this is they are going to be a &ast distance away from us, the Bubbles are rare and highly separated, simply because Bubble collisions are a real threat to the early <ni&erse, and thus ha&e ne&er happened or we wouldn>t be here% 'he intense gra&ity wa&es produced by them will destroy any smoothing effect produced by 8nflation% But as our obser&able <ni&erse is relati&ely regular ,B- it must ha&e e.panded to this siAe before any collisions occurred% 'his being possible if the initial Hacuum contained a low energy field +ust strong enough to produce a few Bubbles, and the 8nflaton (ield decayed slowly enough to apply for sufficient time to rapidly to e.pand the Bubbles% 'hus the region of !pace*time beyond our Cosmological "oriAon ,the region light has returned from and consists of the outer boundary of our Hisible <ni&erse- may be full of colliding Bubble <ni&erse% 8n fact odd energy patches in the bac)ground radiation at this distance may indicate this was going on at some stage, and may still be, and a massi&e gra&itational pull in the region of the constellation of Cygnus, that seems to be pulling clusters of =ala.ies towards this "oriAon may be e&idence of a nearby Bubble <ni&erse% 8f so this outer region will be &ery chaotic and for that reason an estimation of the amount of mass in the <ni&erse may be impossible by e.trapolation from the Hisible <ni&erse ,we are fairly sure that the e.tent of our #.panded <ni&erse is 10 e. 2$ times that of the Hisible <ni&erse but ha&e no ideas what e.ists there-% Alternati&ely the other Bubble <ni&erses may be much further away as to ne&er collide and our 6uter <ni&erse be much li)e the Hisible <ni&erse ,curiously 7ewton imagined our <ni&erse to be an ordered sphere surrounded by a realm of physical chaos, though for other reasons% Perhaps he was simply rationalising an insightful &ision-% <nfortunately as these <ni&erses are totally out of our reach we could ne&er reach them to find out if they were inhabited or not% But they may ser&e another purpose% 6ne of the great mysteries of our <ni&erse is the =oldiloc)s #nigma or (ine 'uning PuAAle ,4-% 2ith out going into detail this is the odd fact that many of the constants of the laws of nature as well as some the physical features of the <ni&erse, both global and local, seem finely tuned for our e.istence and the e.istence of matter at all% 8f they were slightly different by tiny fraction we would not e.ist% 'his has led some to assume we are actually li&ing in a >0esigner <ni&erse>, whether in the form of an artificial construction li)e the atri. or in a 0i&inely created world% "owe&er if there are a number of possible <ni&erses, each with slightly different laws and structure, then our <ni&erse may simply be a statistical flu)e%

8nflationary

ulti&erses are prone to a &ery serious problem howe&er% Cosmic 8nflation

needs &ery precise initial conditions of a low &acuum energy, and a perfect 8nflaton (ield that must not be too strong or too wea)% 'hese are &ery rare conditions and as has been pointed out tend to undermine the benefit the theory has for the =oldiloc)s #nigma% =i&en the re/uired initial low energy state ,to pre&ent too many bubbles forming and banging in to each other- its seems unli)ely enough bubbles formed at beginning of the <ni&erse to e.plain this rarity statistically so it remains a long shot% Another issue that bede&illed the theory was that li)e all 8nflation theories it assumed the e.pansion of the <ni&erse was slowing under the influence of =ra&ity, but it has been subse/uently found to be speeding up% Again this was e.plained by yet another mysterious force field of 0ar) #nergy that emerged in relati&ely recent times, Cosmologically spea)ing, and was a &ery wea) &ersion of the initial 8nflation ,it was at this time that the term 0ar) #nergy was coined-% 7o can yet fit this new field into the picture% !ome thin) it might be lin)ed to the 2ea) (orce split off others to a new stage of 8nflation not possible in this theory% 'he multiple un)nowns and the increasing add*ons, reminiscent of the contri&ed epicycles of the old "eliocentric Cosmos, has increasingly disinclined many scientists to this theory%

-haotic Inflation 'Andrei Linde, mid 1234s+

"owe&er in the early 1140s a new &ersion of the theory was de&ised called Chaotic 8nflation with surprising results% 8n this &ersion of the theory the process that produces the bubbles needs no special conditions at all, it is simply a random :uantum fluctuation that can happen at any time, but is closely associated with an 8nflation phase% 'his had a slightly lower yield of bubbles my itself, but the real change came with another idea% 8t was calculated that although 8nflation came to a halt early on in the <ni&erse, due to :uantum fluctuations this was not the case e&erywhere, a microscopic area of !pace*time may continue to 8nflate% But because this 8nflates at many times the speed of light it becomes huge &ery rapidly and before it ends will be the largest part of the <ni&erse% 'hough after most of it does end another microscopic area of !pace*time in it will still be 8nflating and again becomes the largest part of the <ni&erse and so on fore&er% 'his was called #ternal 8nflation as it meant the <ni&erse ne&er stops 8nflating and +ust gets bigger and bigger faster than light speed% !upporters of Cosmic 8nflation soon realised this also applied to their theory too But the surprising difference for Chaotic 8nflation was that in these 8nflationary regions ,outside our stable <ni&erse- new bubbles were constantly forming and as with all the other bubbles +ust beyond our Cosmological "oriAon, formed in the same way in both theories, all these had different Laws of 7ature furthering the (ine*

tuning thesis% 8n fact #ternal 8nflation ma)es both the Cosmic 8nflating <ni&erse and the Chaotic 8nflating <ni&erse 8nfinitely large in general% a)ing it possible that some <ni&erses coming out of the Chaotic process with different Laws of 7ature might undergo Cosmic 8nflation has an infinite number of bubbles will be forming% 6ur <ni&erse could thus ha&e 8nflated Cosmically or Chaotically as it is more li)ely to ha&e been one of the infinite number of bubble forming out of another <ni&erse than the original Bubble ,assuming the notion of an original Bubble ma)es sense in an 8nfinite <ni&erse-% 'he 9ussian de&eloper of the theory of Chaotic 8nflation, Andrei Linde, refers to this as the Kandins)y <ni&erse, after the 9ussian artist% But this of course +ust returns us to all those the parado.es of 8nfinity mentioned earlier, which 8 thin) wea)en the theory, worse if the any*2orlds 6mni&erse theory was true it means there are an infinite number of us in Parallel <ni&erses and another infinite number of us in <ni&erses beyond the boundaries of our <ni&erse, and 8nfinity was to much@ Cosmologist a. 'egmar), a Platonist who belie&es all mathematically consistent theories are necessarily true, claims this to be a fact% But he also includes another feature of the Chaotic 8nflation 'heory that some of the Baby <ni&erses may brea) away from the fabric of our ulti&erse completely and start the process all o&er again ,some belie&e the same thing can happen in Blac) "oles too, e&en in a Cosmic 8nflatory <ni&erse, gi&ing rise to the so*called (ecund <ni&erse 'heory-% 'he idea of Baby <ni&erses splitting off from our can e.ist, a status that no longer holds true here, but the what can be outside of the ulti&erse ,or any ulti&erse- is

philosophically problematic howe&er% 'echnically the <ni&erse was once all that e.ists or ulti&erse inherits this status% !o ulti&erse but 7othing% 'his closely related to another problem%

8t is often said that !pace*time cur&es, but what does it cur&e into if !pace*time contains e&erything and is not itself contained in anythingD !ome claim it cur&es into itself in a compactifying )ind of way, others that it doesn>t really cur&e at all, and the term is +ust a metaphor for some mathematically possible transformation beyond our normal cognition, much li)e electron spin ,electrons don>t actually spin li)e tops@- But some thin) !pace*time does cur&e into something it e.ists in% #ither another dimension or some )ind of outer &oid% 'his e.ternal region would be the same place that the Baby <ni&erses bud off into, and if they do this seems to confirm it e.istence% 2hat would this outer Aone be li)eD Perhaps it is the "yperspace of !cience (iction ,some physicists ha&e appropriated the term for itfirst coined by writer 3ohn Campbell in his 11$1 no&el Islands in S&ace, and used by him,

and many others since, as a )ind of inter*dimensional short*cut and alternati&e to a wormhole for long distance space tra&el% 'hus would imply an e.tra dimension or dimensions and our !pace*time would thus be contained in a larger <ni&erse% 6thers thin) it is simply a &oid of nothingness and so perhaps :uantum Potentia itself% 8f so it may be impossible to e.ist in and so tra&el through, other than tra&elling through it &ia a wormhole to another ulti&erse% #ither of these possibilities is interesting as the alternati&e <ni&erses would not be a fi.ed distance from us in !pace*time as our Bubble <ni&erses were ,?E Billion Light Cears away at least-, they would be literally floating ne.t door in "yperspace at some &ariable and perhaps short distance, and so theoretically contactable, or at no distance at all on the other side of 7othing@ But if so where are all the touristsD 8ncidentally the problem with 8nfinity may be o&ercome in Chaotic the ulti&erse too% 8n the

Chaotic 8nflation model the emerging Bubble <ni&erses may ma)e biAarre shapes out of ulti&erse ,ma)ing it loo) suspiciously rather li)e Cog*!othoth in fact, who Lo&ecraft described as a confused mass of bubbles and tentacles, co&ered in a mass of eyes@-% 8n which case it may and e&en twist round in on itself, effecti&ely becoming a closed ring and stopping it becoming infinite% 8t could thus inflate fore&er but remain the same finite siAe@ Also in other &ariant of the theory, "ybrid 8nflation, a second super strong =ra&ity*li)e field is postulated that stops the 8nflation #pochs and dampens down #ternal 8nflation% 'his might e&en stop #ternal 8nflation completely and ma)e the possible% A serious philosophical issue with theories li)e Chaotic 8nflation is that all the action is going on outside our <ni&erse so in principle can ne&er be &erified or falsified% Li)ewise as rapid 8nflation obliterates all information about the early <ni&erse this is difficult to test as well ,though some types of 8nflation are theoretically reproducible in a Collider-% (or some !cientists this ma)es them not scientific theories at all but pseudo*science and so rather more li)e empty 'heological arguments% 8t does seem howe&er that Chaotic 8nflation and its ulti&erse based statistical solution to ulti&erse finite and therefore

the =oldiloc)s #nigma is still the best on offer% Alternati&e serial statistical arguments, based on the Cyclic <ni&erse theory, currently seem unable to wor), due to problems with infinities or entropy, or simply their ongoing failure to be gi&en a complete mathematically description ,1-% !ome e&en thin) the "yperspace between ulti&erses, or the 8nflating !pace within them, between the local <ni&erses, is the physical counterpart to #&erett>s

hypothetical !uperspace and the two lots of Alternati&e <ni&erses are actually the same% But this seems unli)ely and e&en the distorted (ortunately a recent alternati&e is ulti&erse seems another long shot% *'heory, which has e&en more interesting properties%

M5Theor$ ' dward %itten, mid 24s+

*'heory is seen by many as the "oly =rail of Physics, one of the only two theories li)ely to combine :uantum 'heory and =eneral 9elati&ity 'heory, the only other realistic solution being !uantum Loo& Gravit$ ,some Physicists wor) on radical alternati&es but so far this has been unproducti&e, and neither : or =9' ha&e failed in a prediction in almost one hundred years-% But as the former wor)s down from 9elati&ity 'heory to a modified :uantum 'heory and the latter wor)s up from :uantum 'heory to a modified 9elati&ity 'heory they are e.pected to con&erge at some mutually transforming point% *'heory is thus &ery popular at the moment though nowhere near as theoretically well de&eloped as 8nflation, nor e.perimentally &erified in any way, or e&en bac)ed by e&idence% But it still remains a mathematically sound and powerfully e.planatory description, though an incomplete one and only be a possible future alternati&e% 0eri&ati&e of !tring 'heory ,the idea that all particles are &ibrations produced by tiny one dimensional strings ,10-*'heory describes the <ni&erse as a $0 Brane in the fourth dimension of 'ime ,actually 100, but the other E force dimensions are compactly rolled upin an 11th space*li)e dimension along with other Branes ,some perhaps of more than 10 dimensions-% 'his is represented geometrically as a flat &ibrating finite are stac)ed a large but finite number of other embrane on which embranes% 'he space between them being eta&erse rather than a

called the Bul), which roughly corresponds to the !cience (iction notion of "yperspace ,space outside space-% 'he hole assemblage is )nown as a ulti&erse to a&oid confusion% An important difference is that the distance between the <ni&erses here is in Planc) scale, smaller than an atom, rather than tens of billions of Light Cears, in all intents they could be said to o&erlap with our 2orld% Although often represented as two membranes facing each other this is really +ust representational, a group of spheres would gi&e a better picture, with their si. spatial points of contact% 'he reason the eta&erse is re/uired is to e.plain the wea)ness of =ra&ity relati&e to the other forces of nature ,10 e. 25 wea)er-% 8t is thought that most forces are represented by open strings that are bound to the membrane where as =ra&itational force is represented by a closed string that is free to mo&e between Branes, distributing its influence between the two ,in some &ersions =ra&ity is much stronger on a neighbouring Brane called the =ra&ity Brane than it is in our <ni&erse% 'he calculations of *'heory also e.actly match obser&ations made in Particle Physics% <nfortunately results from the Large "adron Collider ha&e eliminated the possibility of a large e.tended dimension li)e the Bul),

howe&er this may +ust mean it is incredibly small% 8n terms of Cosmology there are roughly three different models that use *'heory%

6ne is a &ersion of 8nflation theory in which 8nflation is dri&en by the energy released into the Bul) by the collision of two high dimensional Branes, one of matter the other of anti* matter% 'hese will release energy in pulses as each dimension is annihilated, though :uantum fluctuations can stop the brea)down at any point% 'he energy will be absorbed by low dimensional 0*Branes which inflate% "igh dimensional Branes occupy more space and ha&e a higher chance of colliding in this way, which is unli)ely for low dimensional 0* Branes% 'his has the effect of an initially small number of closely pac)ed large uni&erses becoming a large number of relati&ely spaced out small uni&erses% 'he problem here is how these uni&erses come about% !ome thin) /uantum fluctuations in the Branes may cause them to split in two and replicate li)e amoebas, but this still need a primary comple. Brane to start% 'his led to the idea of the Cyclic Brane theory% "ere a pair of 0 Branes are lin)ed together by a spring li)e energy field, related to 0ar) #nergy ,but a )ind that contracts the Bul) rather than 8nflates !pace*time-% 'his causes the Branes to bang into each other li)e a pair of cymbals, then bounce bac) o&er periods on trillions of years% An earlier non*cyclic &ersion thought this would create 8nflation in the Branes but this was pro&ed false ,11-% 8t is now thought that the <ni&erse remains relati&ely constant after each bang and that the initial Branes are already flat and regular ,other than a few :uantum fluctuations gi&ing the necessary &ariation-, with all the constants in place, and that they are not disrupted much each time% 'he precise conditions of the Brane are guaranteed by the siAe of the eta&erse and number of Brane pairs, and the initial point is a&oided by setting the description as an eternal cycle in an infinite uni&erse% =ra&ity is also regarded as a source of infinite energy &ia :uantum <ncertainty thus a&oiding the problem of a gradual dampening of the bangs li)e a ball bouncing% But of course this +ust brings the old problem of 8nfinity bac)% A more popular &ersion deploys the idea of :uantum fluctuations in a primal Brane, perhaps a &ery simple one spontaneously produced, that generate a massi&e but finite number of baby Branes which grow into <ni&erse% 'his approach is called the Cosmic Landscape and it has been estimated that there could be 10 e. 500 types of <ni&erses that are deri&ed from this@ #nough to not only generate (ine 'uning but also to generate e&ery possible &ersion of human history, returning us to the Parallel <ni&erse hypothesis we started with% 8n fact it in&entors hope to combine it with #&erett>s any 2orlds 8nterpretation in some way ,though 8 thin) that>s mista)en as we aren>t dealing with infinite worlds-% 8t is also not clear if the :uantum fluctuations cause the Brane

to seed new Branes or +ust different regions of a single Brane, or some combination of the two% 0espite the growing popularity of this theory it still has no e&idence in support of howe&er and may be utterly false ,though e.periments are under way to find traces of polarised bac)ground radiation belie&ed associated with colliding Branes-% 'he interesting conse/uence of this theory is that not only alternati&e <ni&erses with more or less dimensions becomes possible ,in 8nflationary ulti&erses each <ni&erse is generally thought to ha&e the same number of dimensions, e&en though the geometry, laws and constants may be different- but also tra&el between them if possible becomes easier because the physical distance between them is actually on the subatomic scale% ma)ing them essentially here and now but in some odd dimensional direction@ 8t is thought that tra&el between Branes may be possible, e&en though we could not e.ist in them, as =ra&itons mo&e between them all the time% Perhaps by some form of =ra&iton teleportation, though such potential technology is thought to re/uire a recei&er ,contra !tar 're)-, ore li)ely by a =ra&itational 2ormhole, that could be achie&ed with &ery little energy input% Perhaps e&en some artificial =ra&itational Bubble could en&elope a &ehicle as a slide between the planes of the Branes ,much li)e the final scene in the film 2001, which also depicted budding fractals li)e those of Chaotic 8nflation, and scintillating colours typical of the )ind of shifting energy patterns as <ni&erse would appear from the outside% And all this o&er twenty years before these ideas were formulated-% *'heory is also reminiscent of " = 2ells> >pages> of !ister <ni&erses that we began with% 8t is also strangely reminiscent of the 'heosophical !ocieties esoteric layering of higher Planes stac)ed li)e floors in a s)yscraper ,though usually only se&en, if >sub*planes> are discounted-% 2itten curiously said stand for atri. 'heory or % 'heosophist we wonderD *'heory stood for ystery 'heory, but could easily agic 'heory% 2as he a reader of " = 2ells or a secret

Startling Alternatives
6ne curious element of the neither 8nflation and ulti&erse theory is what are the alternati&es if it fails, that is if *'heory wor)D Because then there are &ery interesting

conse/uences% 'his is unli)ely 8 thin), but certainly possible% 6f course if there is only one non*cyclic <ni&erse we ha&e to find an alternati&e e.planation of its uniformity, flatness and the fine*tuning problem% And while there may be ways of twea)ing theory to get rid of some of these, the =oldiloc)s #nigma would still be a more intransigent problem% 'he only surmised solution so far is an e.treme one% 8t may be that our e.istence in the far future actually sets the conditions of the emergence of the <ni&erse and its laws, either by some re&erse time effect ,perhaps the legendary faster than light tachyons or some non*local :uantum effect- or by a closed time loop% 8n other words there is an 6mega Point in the future where our collecti&e consciousness has some effect bac) into the past ,2heeler>s !trong Participatory Anthropic Principle-, or where we e&en de&elop some )ind of physical technological means for manipulating the primal <ni&erse@ !uch an idea though is really beyond the bounds of currently pro&able Physics, though certain fringe ideas, such as the 6bser&er #ffect, 9e&erse 'ime (lows and mechanical 'ime plausible% 8f that idea fails there is another e&en more startling possibility% =i&en a uni/ue physical <ni&erse of &ast siAe, it remains highly li)ely that an ad&anced alien race will attempt to create simulated <ni&erse in some supercomputer, in which people could e.ist if >plugged in>, much li)e the film the Matri6% 8n fact this would happen many times in the <ni&erse o&er its history% 2hat>s more there maybe atri.es within atri.es% =i&en that although there ulti&erse, would be far less !imulated <ni&erses than there are Alternati&e <ni&erses in a any type-% 'herefore statistically we would then far more li)ely in the physical <ni&erse% A achines, ma)e it +ust about

there would be many more of them than the single Physical <ni&erse ,which could be of atri. than in a atri. that could ha&e all its features preprogrammed and no longer

be an enigma@ 6n the other hand many are sceptical of this, suggesting due to the amount of information re/uired and :uantum <ncertainty this could ne&er actually be achie&ed, a computer might ha&e to be bigger than the )nown <ni&erse to contain all the possibilities, howe&er if :uantum Computing is de&eloped who )nows what )ind of rough !imulation could be set up, it needn>t be an e.act copy +ust an appro.imation ,of course if :uantum Computing wor)ed we wor)ed we may be in a ulti&erse and the argument for !imulation atri.>, fall flat@- % Also if that was so others claim that there will be ine&itable >glitches in the

and these might e&entually undermine the whole !imulation% Another tell tale sign, according to 3ohn =ribbin, would be if we measured Pi &ery accurately at some point in the future and found it ended ,a real measurement should produce an infinite &alue of Pi he thin)s, while a !imulation would ha&e to appro.imate it-% (urther more why would anyone bother to !imulate a <ni&erse this big, especially one with apparent acti&ity beyond the Cosmological "oriAonD 0espite this some people claim to ha&e had e.periences con&incing them this was true, most famously Philip K 0ic), author of the simulated world no&els <bi) and Halis, the alternati&e histories such as 'he "igh 'ower and (low based on his personal &isions of a computerised ulti&erse@ an in the y 'ears the Policeman !aid, who claimed these stories were partly

A slightly different &ersion of this sees the constructed 2orld not as a !imulation but rather a engineering product% =i&en the possibility that mini <ni&erses might be born inside Blac) "oles, and our current ideas of Blac) "ole construction, it may one day be possible to engineer a <ni&erse inside a Blac) "ole and run it as an e.periment% But what would be the purpose of such a pro+ectD 2hile inherently possible 8 thin) some )ind of eta&erse are really the more li)ely ontology, but who can be sureD ulti&erse or

-onclusions
2e ha&e e.plored many different )inds of Physical ulti&erse in this essay, :uantum Alternati&e 9ealities, 0istant Bubble <ni&erses, (ree (loating Baby <ni&erses, 2orlds in Blac) "oles, 6ther <ni&erses on Parallel Branes, Participatory <ni&erses, !imulated <ni&erses and Constructed 2orlds, plus others we ha&en>t mentioned, such as 6ther ulti&erses made from Anti* atter or hidden !hadow <ni&erses of 0ar) atter within our <ni&erse, or e&en #.tra*0imensional anne.es, all probably unobtainable to us% 'he interesting thing is that all of these are untested so far and some may be untestable, for e.ample those beyond our Cosmological "oriAon or beyond out Physical <ni&erse all together% any scientists and philosophers of science thus regard these as pseudo* science concepts as useless as the theology of imaginary deities% 8 don>t /uite agree as 8 thin) e&en pseudo*science has it uses ,when Karl Popper formally defined the term he pointed out it was not a dismissi&e or derogatory concept, but rather it simply demarcated the boundaries of authentic !cience, outside of which was not +ust nonsense but all sorts of &alid alternati&e world &iews-% But 8 do thin) that the alternati&es ser&e as 3ust*!o stories, whose proof is in their e.planatory power, which is actually not proof at all% 8n ma)ing any choice we might +ust as well embrace the &isions of " P Lo&ecraft and praise Cog*!othoth as the Li&ing <ni&erse@

7otes
,1- 8n pure philosophy, drawing on the belief that the >real is the rational>, the ulti&erse

can signify the idea that all logically possible worlds, or situations, actually e.ists somewhere, e&en though not necessarily e.isting as the world we e.perience% An idea formalised in Logic as odal 9ealism% An idea that can be e.tended to include all types of athematics as the Platonic belief that e&ery alternati&e Logic% A position ta)en to its e.treme by the logician Lewis Carroll in his Alice boo)s% A similar idea is )nown in mathematically consistent description of e.istence, of which there can be many in mutual contradiction, is e/ually real and describes some separate domain of a multiple reality% But all this re/uires a strong faith in 9eason as the foundation of 9eality, a position that can lead to all sorts of mind boggling parado.es% 8n complete opposition to this the ulti&erse or 6mni&erse can be said to include the un)nown, or e&en the un)nowable or irrational, something sometimes referred to as the Ieno&erse% But this doesn>t e.actly help us understand what it is% A far more manageable tas) is simply to rely on our senses and an empirical study of possibility and reach a scientific understanding of the empirical% ,2- :uantum echanics arose from obser&ational measurement under e.perimental ulti&erse% But this in itself leads us along many paths, most of which can not be constrained to the purely

conditions of subatomic phenomena at the beginning of the 20 th century% 8t threw Classical Physics into chaos after a number of biAarre phenomena were obser&ed% Particles could appear and disappear randomly, ta)e different random paths simultaneously, could sometimes beha&e li)e wa&es and sometimes li)e particles, as also could all wa&e phenomena, and crucially could not ha&e their position )nown with certainty if their momentum was measured, or their position if their momentum was measured, and similarly for &arious other pair of factors, such as time and energy ,where duration and energy could not be simultaneously measured-% 'his fact was formalised as "eisenberg>s <ncertainty Principle% 8t was soon established that this failure of certainty was not some e.perimental effect ,i%e% the photons from a measuring de&ice were not bouncing off a particle and changing its state and thus creating uncertainty in some mechanical way- the uncertainty seemed to be an actual uncertainty inherent in 7ature for some ine.plicable reason% 8t followed that under certain conditions the position, momentum, duration, energy, spin or any other physical property of an ob+ect could not be )nown% ore strangely when un)nown it seemed to ha&e a range of these physical properties at the same time, and a

particle with different possible positions due its random path between A and B for instance could interact with itself as if all the possibilities were actually there as >&irtual particles> ,as demonstrated in the famous double slit 8nterference e.periment-@ At least this was the case between measurements, for as soon as one was made e&erything was seen to be classical and normal% 'his was demonstrated by the logical history of a particle as it passed through the &arious conditions in its path ,or paths- between measurements ,for e.ample a particle faced with two possible routes through or around an obstacle could randomly ta)e either, but would be seen in the route where a measuring de&ice was placed, and with no measuring de&ice &irtual particles in both paths seem to interact and modify each other e&en when only one particle was present@-% Position is the easiest property to imagine in this conte.t but it applies to all properties in sometimes mind boggling ways% 8t seemed chaos reigned when no one was loo)ing and when they did some order was restored% #&en stranger all this was shown to be non*local, meaning if paired properties were un)nown ,positi&e and negati&e polarities, up and down spin of a particle, or any mutually related pair- when one of the pair was measured the other component instantly became that one>s classical opposite, e&en if they had been separated by many light years of space or by time itself, and the result depends on how you choose to measure it@-% 8f no other change is made to the condition of a property and it is no longer obser&ed it will return to its uncertain state again% 8f a change is made to it by some outside influence it adopt it new state permanently% 7o one can really understand what is going on here, the physicist 9ichard (eynman is often /uoted as saying >if you thin) you understand :uantum echanics you don>t@> But mathematical descriptions of what may happen ha&e been selected by e.periment and trial and error, and found to be 100J accurate, but no one )nows why or what they actually represent% 'he most important are the 2a&e (unction, a description of e&ery possible state or property of a physical ob+ect or system, which wor)s best as a mathematical description formerly de&ised to describe physical wa&es ,other forms are more li)e tables called a description of the atrices-, and easurement 6peration, in which the rele&ant pairs of properties

,such as position and momentum- described in the 2a&e (unction are lin)ed together as if they were parts of a rigid ob+ect, using a formula pre&iously used to map geometry% 'he actual results obtained will be random but some are more li)ely than others in terms of their odds ,it is more li)ely the photon from a pro+ector to a screen will tra&el in a straight line and less li)ely it will tra&el &ia the different part of the 2a&e (unction-% oon but both are possible and described in ost physicists +ust accept the formuli ha&e statistical

predicti&e powers and don>t as) why% 6thers attempt to e.plain it% =enerally the 2a&e

(unction is regarded as a mathematical structure based on probable states represented as graph*li)e cur&e, others thin) it is a real wa&e of some )ind% An e.ample used by science writer 3ohn =ribbin is an unobser&ed electron in a closed bo.% 8t appears to &irtually >e.ist> in e&ery possible location in the bo. at the same time as described by a 2a&e (unction until the bo. is opened when it will appear in a random position influenced only by statistical laws ,in this case e&en odds anywhere-% 2hen the lid is replaced it will e.ist in all possible positions again, but statistically related to the last place it was seen in% #&en if a physical barrier is put in the bo. and it is seen on one side of it when opened it may appear on the other side of the barrier when closed and opened again ,with lower odds of it appearing on the same side-% 'he only e.ception is if the bo. is di&ided as it is obser&ed ,a change by an outside influence- then closed and the two hal&es mo&ed apart% 'hen the electron must appear in that separate half it was obser&ed in but >e.ists> in all possible positions in that half@ !uch :uantum 2eirdness was formerly combined to the microscopic world by statistical limits% 8t only applied to subatomic particles and so as a macroscopic system is composed of billions of particles a few may beha&e weirdly ,perhaps affecting a finely balanced comple. system- but most will beha&e >normally>, thus in general on a large scale e&erything is classical% 'his is still belie&ed by some physicists but recent e.periments are showing >:uantum 2eirdness> affects larger and large ob+ects, and most recently a tiny, barely &isible crystal has been put into superposition and demonstrated to be in multiple contradictory states% 8n principle all ob+ects and systems of any scale can be put into superposition, e&en the <ni&erse itself, but why this is not obser&ed remains a mystery and another source of weirdness% ,2b- 2heeler belie&ed that our reality was created through information, which was a foundational part of the <ni&erse, as important, if not more so, as was matter and energy% "e is often portrayed as an 8dealist, but did not really elaborate as to whether his position was an 8dealist one ,only ideas e.ist and matter is an illusion- or a "ylomorphic one ,ideas or forms shape matter-% 'his information was supposedly present in the <ni&erse as digital coding, a grid li)e structure of on Foff states switched by obser&ers% 8n his own wordsK LIt from 8it. ,therwise &ut, ever$ (it(9ever$ &article, ever$ field of force, even the s&ace5 time continuum itself9derives its function, its meaning, its ver$ e6istence entirel$9even if in some conte6ts indirectl$9from the a&&aratus5elicited answers to $es5or5no :uestions,

8inar$ choices, 8its. (It from 8it( s$m8oli0es the idea that ever$ item of the &h$sical world has at 8ottom9a ver$ dee& 8ottom, in most instances9an immaterial source and e6&lanation; that which we call realit$ arises in the last anal$sis from the &osing of $es<no :uestions and the registering of e:ui&ment5evoked res&onses; in short, that all things &h$sical are information5theoretic in origin and that this is a &artici&ator$ universe.= 8n other words when an electron is obser&ed to spin >up> instead of not spin >up>, or is at point ICM or not point ICM it can be &iewed as containing, or e&en being, a switch with a 1 or 0 &alue, in which the obser&er is an agent in deciding the &alue% All the switches together comprise an >intelligent computer> which is basically the model of an interaction of ind of the <ni&erse which maintains its consistency and coherence% !ome de&eloped this into a more organic inds, while others reduced it further to argue that we are % ,$- 'echnically Bohr>s Copenhagen 8nterpretation of : ,112B- is non*committal% 8t describes the 2a&e (unction as a Probability 2a&e that is an abstract predicti&e tool and not a physical wa&e, but it is ambi&alent on whether the Probability concerned it !ub+ecti&e Probability ,the probability of a belief about an actual state being true- or 6b+ecti&e Probability ,the probability of some potential state of affairs actually becoming true-% !o our uncertainty might be one of our )nowledge of where the particle actually is, or an intrinsic uncertainty in the actual position of the particle% Physicists adopting a Copenhagen approach are still di&ided on this distinction ,or don>t thin) it matters-% 8n practice Bohr himself, and most of his followers, fa&oured the latter on their e.perience of e.perimental data ,primarily the double slit e.periment of 1101, where single particles beha&ed li)e particles when measured as such but as wa&es when not-% 'hey claimed an unobser&ed particle e.isted e&erywhere ,and so nowhere- at the same time, until we made a measurement, and to tal) of its state outside of a measurement act was meaningless ,Bohr had been a logical positi&ist, regarding all non*scientific statements as meaningless-% 'his was because they insisted it didn>t e.ist in any con&entional sense outside of the moment of measurement ,or the moment of interaction-, but rather had some >ghost*li)e> status in all its possible states, enabling the rare self interaction of those possible states% 8t was as if reality was not composed of ob+ects in relation to each other but rather of relations that generated ob+ects% 8n practice science only described the measured states and created a >fictional history> from +oining those measured states together% (or all intents and purposes this >fictional history> was true, as it had an actual actually in a simulated >"olodec)> or > atri.>%

effect in the 2orld% But tal)ing metaphysically about what actually e.isted beyond our interaction with it, or tal)ing about the <ni&erse as a whole abstractly, without any instrumental measurements being made in a laboratory, was dismissed as nonsense and a waste of time by Bohr% 8n contrast other Physicists ha&e regarded the Probability 2a&e as an ob+ecti&e model of what they said actually e.isted, a physical wa&eform as probability density, composed of a ghostly cloud of a &irtual particle,s- in all itsFtheir possible states% 8n both cases an obser&ation causes the wa&e to collapse into a particular state, either in abstract terms or concrete ones% ,$b- #&erett belie&ed a true mathematical description necessarily corresponded to a determinate state of the 2orld, that e.isted independent of any measurement or obser&ation, essentially a Platonic &iew of reality albeit entirely physical% But his published argument against these positions starts with the related logical problems of >who is obser&ing the obser&erD> when they commit the apparently classical act of measuring a :uantum !uperposition, and thus >collapsing a 2a&e (unction>, and >who is obser&ing the <ni&erse as a wholeD> A perspecti&e re/uired by Cosmologists wor)ing with 9elati&ity 'heory, which Bohr had re+ected as nonsense, declaring the only thing scientists can tal) about is the result of an e.periment in the lab and specific local phenomena as measured% ,$c- 0ecoherence 'heory in particular relies on the idea of Consistent "istories% 'his is here ta)e to mean that a easurement is not an 6bser&ation it is a Causal connection and that a system of causal connections must ha&e a logically consistent structure% !o when a measurement is made of some isolate atomic process it becomes connected through the apparatus to the wider uni&erse of the obser&er and must conform with it for as long as it remains connected% 'he <ni&erse here is a collection of dots and the easurement +ust +oins the dots to ma)e a picture in accord with a pattern already held in the grid% 6ther patterns may e.ist for other obser&ers though as the theory agrees with #&erett to that e.tent% 8t also presumes that no obser&er is re/uired as classical reactions must be occurring unobser&ed all the time ,contra Bohr-, and so the interaction is enough to draw the &ague state into the greater pattern% 'his is somewhat Platonic howe&er, as it assumes consistent order is a feature of the 2orld, rather than of the human mind% 7either does it e.plain the origin of the first seeding pattern% 8t may still be that our collecti&e mindsets, and e&en consensual assumptions, are what define the patterns that form in the dots%

#&en indi&iduation itself could be a concept within an unidi&iduated consciousness% ,$d- :uantum 'heory postulates that all matter is particulate ,ultimately to :uar)s and #lectrons and their mutations- as is all energy ,ultimately to Photons and other Bosonsbut at the same time part of a continuum ,a field of energy-% 'his can also be e.tended to !pace*time itself &ia the :uantiAation of =ra&ity into =ra&itons which interact with >/uanta of !pace*time>% !uch /uanta do not flit around li)e other particles, they presumably ha&e nothing to flit about in ,contentiously- but rather form a seething chaotic mass which 3ohn 2heeler called :uantum (oam% 2ithin this region Hirtual /uanta of !pace*time rub shoulders with more concrete /uanta, whate&er that means at this le&el% 'he energy that allows this is supposedly ta)en from the potential energy of the =ra&ity (ield, said to be infinite% 'he e.act mechanism has yet to be disco&ered perhaps &irtual =ra&itons popping out of 8nfinity briefly become > atricons> and >Chronons>D Perhaps the ultimate :uantum Potentia is the causeD 7o one yet )nows% ,?- (or #.ample K 'wo positi&ely charged bodies in interaction re/uire an energy input to push them together and the repulsi&e positi&e electric field grows stronger in this process by the same factor, while an interaction between positi&ely and negati&ely charged bodies produces the )inetic energy of their attraction, and each field becomes stronger in this process creating an acceleration, but the sum of the fields, the total field, becomes wea)er, because the rising positi&e and negati&e fields will be cancelling each other out towards a Aero charge by the same amount as the energy created% 8n contrast two massi&e bodies in interaction produce the )inetic energy of their attraction and each field will similarly get stronger, but so will the sum of both fields because there>s no polarity% 'herefore the =ra&ity (ield is negati&e and the #lectric (ield positi&e in their total energy% ,5- 8n more detail the process is based on an understanding of the <ncertainty Principle that states that because the amount of energy in a micro system ,in the form of . numbers of photons say- is undefined before a measurement is made ,and Aero is a defined /uantity- e&en a Hacuum can contain all possible energy states from Aero to the entire energy of our uni&erse in :uantum potentia% Any of which can spontaneously become manifest in the form of . number of &irtual particles that e.ist in a definite state for an instant, their length of e.istence being dependent on the amount of energy manifest% 'iny amounts can last briefly but longer than large amounts can, which &anish in an instant, and infinite amounts ha&ing no measurable time to e.ist at all% 'he base eternal state

remains Aero energy% A trade off of energy and time% 'his is also true for !pace*time itself which in :uantum 'heory at the smallest scale is thought to be a chaotic sea of /uanta in superposition, that combine at a larger scale into the fabric of !pace*time% 'herefore /uanta of !pace*time can spontaneously manifest as a random bubble of !pace*time from this superpositional chaotic foam at any time% 'his empty !pace*time bubble will also consist of energy both in the form of its cur&ature, or gra&itational field, and the potential energy inherent in the Hacuum created% 8t thus might also be only e.pected to e.ist in this energised state for only an instant before &anishing% But something strange happens% Because =ra&itational energy is negati&e and other forms of energy are positi&e the two cancel each other out lea&ing a Aero energy state ,2-% !o that we could get the spontaneous permanent generation from 7othing of a super dense empty Bubble of !pace*time, with a massi&e =ra&itational field, that manifests as much Hacuum energy as is present in our entire <ni&erse% 8f these are so balanced as to cancel each other out to Aero energy% 'his will happen spontaneously in a few of the Bubbles that briefly appear from 7othing% 2hich in this case means it can e.ist in principle fore&er and ne&er &anish@ <nfortunately in practice e&en this is transitory as the massi&e =ra&itational force will simply instantly crush it out of e.istence forming a singularity li)e that in a Blac) "ole% "owe&er if this =ra&itational force was cancelled this would not happen%

,E- 'he most li)ely mechanism of 8nflation is &ia a Scalar .ield ,though this in itself is only a classification of a (ield 'ype-% 'his is a (ield with a gradient of energy, comprising of a low energy core and a high energy boundary, which creates a 7egati&e Pressure or 'ension, much li)e a coiled spring, which causes it to e.pand rapidly with a counter gra&itational force% 'his massi&ely 8nflates the early <ni&erse but e&entually decays away releasing a lot of energy in a slow burn as it does so% #.actly what this !calar (ield is remains un)nown% 6ne early theory regarded it as the "iggs Boson (ield, but this has been pro&ed wrong% 8t is now generally regarded in Cosmic 8nflation 'heory to be a side effect of the brea)down of the <nified (ield of the <ni&erse into #lectro*2ea) (orce and the !trong 7uclear (orce as appears to occur at the same time in <nified (ield 'heory% Prior to this the =rand <nified (ield had bro)en down into a negati&e =ra&ity (ield and this positi&e <nified (ield ,perhaps with the emergence of the meta*stable Bubble-% 'his only occurs as the &ery high temperatures of the Primal <ni&erse cool slightly >condensing out> the components of the (ield% 8n more detail this !calar (ield is often described as being the result of a (alse Hacuum decaying into a 'rue Hacuum, meaning a Hacuum containing &irtual energy ,created in this high energy state- discharges into a pure empty Hacuum ,or

near empty-%

ore precisely it does so from the inside out creating a gradient !calar (ield%

'he precise mechanism howe&er remains un)nown% 8n contrast Chaotic 8nflation 'heory regards the same Hacuum process as a spontaneous :uantum fluctuation in the Hacuum state that occurs spontaneously under un)nown conditions and is probably random% 'his means it can happen in any Hacuum anywhere at any time not +ust at the beginning of the <ni&erse% A ma+or problem with the Cosmic 8nflation 'heory is it cannot be &erified or falsified, because the rapid 8nflation destroys all the content of the early <ni&erse, including information, thinning it all out to nothing, into which the Big Bang bursts% 2e ha&e )now )nowledge of it and rely on mathematically consistent descriptions of what may or may not ha&e happened% Arguably this is not !cience at all% 8n contrast Chaotic 8nflation could be produced in the laboratory% But has not yet been and it too remains a theorem% ,B- 'he slight irregularities that allow the clumping of matter into gala.ies and stars instead of an e/uilibrium of e&enly spread matter and an entropic "eat 0eath is belie&ed to be due to the 8nflaton (ield being not strong enough to obliterate all the tiny irregularities in the Bubble caused by :uantum fluctuations in its boundary as it e.pands% 8f there was too much 0ar) #nergy produced the <ni&erse would ha&e undergone "eat 0eath in seconds% >eat /eath occurs when the <ni&erse reaches 'hermodynamic #/uilibrium, as the matter and energy of the <ni&erse becomes so spread out and thinned that energy becomes locally rarer and e&entually una&ailable% 2hile our =ala.y ,combined with Andromeda- and our !olar !ystem will remain clumped together, due to =ra&itational attraction, it will become an island in apparently empty space and will gradually cool to Absolute Mero, with energetic reactions becoming more and more sluggish and e&entually stopping all together% 'he <ni&erse gets colder and sleepier, and without a prior contraction dies or as some predict becomes the )ind of Hacuum that new <ni&erses can emerge from ,as computation uses less energy some futurologists e.pect life to continue cybernetically towards the end of the <ni&erse% !cale will be important too, tiny nano*scale machines need less energy, while gala.y siAed computational de&ices har&est the spread out energy better-% Another )ind of "eat 0eath occurs with contraction% As matter and energy compact and =ra&itational entropy increases ,its the opposite on aterial entropy- the <ni&erse becomes hotter and more e.plosi&e, But more dangerously Blac) "oles proliferate and get bigger and bigger and closer and closer, e&entually merging into one huge !ingularity which de&ours the <ni&erse ,unless a Big Bounce occurs-% !ome belie&e 'ime will re&erse with contraction, but this is speculation as the true nature of the Arrow of 'ime remains

un)nown%

,4- Prof

artin 9ees formulates the fine*tuning of the <ni&erse in terms of the following si.

dimensionless constants each of which need to be precise by a tiny fractionK 7 N ratio of the strengths of gra&ity to that of electromagnetism% #psilon ,O- N strength of the force binding nucleons into nuclei% 6mega ,P- N relati&e importance of gra&ity and e.pansion energy in the <ni&erse% Lambda ,Q- N cosmological constant ,&acuum energy limits-% : N ratio of the gra&itational energy re/uired to pull a large gala.y apart to the energy% e/ui&alent of its mass ,re/uired for gala.ies to form-% 0 N number of spatial dimensions in !pace*time ,more or less than three is a no no-%

8f the Coupling Constant was 2J different matter would not e.ist as we )now it% !ome argue these constants are not as finely tuned as many people thin), but e&en if that was so there are other coincidental physical features that are strangely benign to us, such as the nature and position of the asteroid belt in relation to 3upiter ,regulating asteroid bombardment- and the siAe of the oon ,affecting the seasons-, which seem a necessary re/uirement for life on #arth and presumably on other Planets too% ,1- -$clic Theories ha&e a &ery poor record% 'he original Big Bang ? Big -runch model in which the <ni&erse has enough mass to re&erse it e.pansion &ia =ra&itational attraction and contract towards a Big Crunch from which a new Big Bang might emerge was ne&er pro&able due to the un)nowable amount of after a relati&ely small number of cycles ass in the <ni&erse% But it was shown that on each cycle the entropy of each subse/uent <ni&erse increases leading to a "eat 0eath

6f more recent alternati&es both Penrose>s -onformal -$clic -osmolog$ ,in which an infinite e.pansion dri&en by a no&el treatment of =ra&ity turns into the infinite !ingularity of the ne.t <ni&erse- and Phantom #nergy models ,in which a speculati&e form of 0ar) #nergy e.pands the <ni&erse to an infinite siAe in a finite time, and possibly launches a

new <ni&erse from a torn fragment- both play 8nfinite <ni&erses and all the problems this entails% !uantum Loo& Gravit$ is thought to be promising new model which can allow a Big Bounce it also unifies :uantum 'heory and 9elati&ity 'heory as the name suggests% "owe&er it has not yet shown to be mathematically consistent% 'he only other theory to do this is M5Theor$, which wor)s in a slightly different way% 2here as :L= starts with 9elati&ity 'heory and tries to e.tend this to the :uantum le&el as tiny *'heory starts at the :uantum le&el and &ia concepts of the =ra&iton builds up a picture of 9elati&ity 'heory% 8n many of its &ersions it also allows Cyclic <ni&erses as well, though through what is essentially "yperspace rather than ordinary !pace*time% abo&e% Another outside chance may be found in the Torsion modification of "elativit$ Theor$% 8 ha&e to confess the maths of this are a little beyond me, but basically it twea)s 9elati&ity theory by introducing the =ra&itational effects of particle spin into =eneral 9elati&ity in such a way that most of the current problems are said to disappear due to an additional e.pansion that pre&ents stable !ingularities and remo&es the need for 8nflation% 2ith no !ingularity present it does seem to ma)e a Big Bounce possible% "owe&er it has not yet been fully formalised mathematically neither is it yet compatible with :uantum echanics so for this reason is not a &ery popular theory% 8t also appears to indicate our <ni&erse e.ists inside a Blac) "ole in another <ni&erse, which few ta)e seriously, yet is not impossible@ ,10- !trings are one dimensional ob+ects technically )nown as 1*Branes, they &ibrate in 10 different dimensions but were found not to be able to mo&e in the 11 th dimension ,deri&ed from !upergra&ity, !upersymmetry applied to =ra&ity- as the ends of the !tring were lin)ed to a $*Brane surface ,typically a 0*Brane structure- a membrane of three dimensions of which the !trings are actually components ,they are generically referred to as P*Branes, where P is the number of dimensions-% "owe&er closed !trings that generate =ra&itons can be e.changed between Branes, but most of their influence will lea) off into the Bul) between Branes and onto other Branes in which =ra&ity is often stronger ,if this is true then some =ra&itons should lea) bac) at the :uantum le&el and this is currently being in&estigated-% 'he simplified !tring model was largely made possible by !uper*symmetry ,which pairs particles into harmonic relations allowing them to be regarded as *'heory is dealt with separately

fre/uencies-% Cet despite it simplicity !tring 'heory was found to ha&e many possible formulations, e&entually reducible to fi&e, but no less% 2itten mathematically pro&ed that these were all different perspecti&es on possible situations in *'heory%

,11- 'he process of Brane collision did not create enough energy for 8nflation% Another alternati&e regarded the uniform nature of the <ni&erse as not due to 8nflation but a milder e.pansion that was cumulati&e o&er se&eral subse/uent <ni&erses with ours some way down the line% But unfortunately the maths for this doesn>t appear to pan out%

.urther "eading
Books 8n !earch of the ulti&erse, 3ohn =ribbin ,a &ery accessible introduction to the H theory8n !earch of !chrRdingerSs Cat, 3ohn =ribbin ,a &ery accessible introduction to : 'he <ni&erse 'hat 0isco&ered 8tself, 3ohn 0 Barrow ,a comprehensi&e introduction'he Boo) of <ni&erses, 3ohn 0 Barrow ,on scientific models of the Cosmos from all ages'he Boo) of 8nfinity, 3ohn 0 Barrow ,e&erything written on 8nfinity in a finite boo)<ni&erse or ulti&erseD #dited by Bernard Carr ,the physics community sound offHichio Ka)u ,great pop physics*'heoryany 2orlds in 6neK 'he !earch for 6ther <ni&erses, Ale. Hilen)in ,good intro to Parallel 2orldsK 'he !cience of Alternati&e <ni&erses, 'he #legant <ni&erse, Brian =reene ,an accessible introduction to !trings and 'he !chrRdingerSs Cat 'rilogy, 9obert Anton 2ilson ,popular :

'he 9oad to 9eality, 9oger Penrose ,huge readable tome on ad&anced le&el physicscouched in a !( no&el6n the Plurality of 2orlds, 0a&id Lewis ,for ad&anced readers of logic and modal realism%e8&ages httpKFFen%wi)ipedia%orgFwi)iF ulti&erse httpKFFen%wi)ipedia%orgFwi)iF ulti&erseTJ24religionJ21 httpKFFen%wi)ipedia%orgFwi)iFParallelTuni&erseTJ24fictionJ21 httpKFFlpsc%in2p$%frFbarrauFaurelienFCC0ec <L'8H%pdf httpKFFwww%bbc%co%u)FscienceFhoriAonF2001Fparallelunitrans%shtml httpKFFthoughtcast%orgFscienceFthe*end*of*our*uni&erse*among*other*timely*topicsF httpKFFwww%idsia%chFU+uergenFcomputeruni&erse%html httpKFFphilosophynow%orgFissuesF41F'heT ulti&erseTConundrum httpKFFf/.i%orgFdataFarticlesFPhilosophyTofTtheT ulti&erse%pdf httpKFFwww%uncommondescent%comFcosmologyFphilosopher*of*physics*if*there*are*no* multi&erses*an*intelligent*designer*is*not*the*only*optionF httpKFFwww%bbc%co%u)FprogrammesFb004AB?? =oogle Boo)s K <ni&erse or ulti&erse, Bernard Carr

httpKFFboo)s%google%co%u)Fboo)sD idN<T3m20'TAHACVlpgNPABBVotsN3a)#pA2pKwVd/NBernardJ20CarrJ2CJ20ed% J20,200B-J20<ni&erseJ20orJ20 ulti&erseJ$(VpgNPA2?W&NonepageV/NBernard J20Carr,J20ed%J20,200B-J20<ni&erseJ20orJ20 ulti&erseDVfNfalse