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Imagine one decision you've made recently.
We all make hundreds of decisions every day. Some of them much more important than others. Take for example your morning commute.
Every day you go from point A, your home, to point B, your place of employment. On the way,
you'll make numerous decisions: Should I go the speed limit or just a little over or a lot over? Should I stop for coffee:
Starbucks or Dunkin donuts? Should I clip this guy on the bike
who's clearly not in the bike lane?
You get the picture. In each of these scenarios, you make your decision and move on, and any other
possibilities become null and void. But what if you really performed all of those possible actions simultaneously. It sounds impossible,
but the general concept is a staple and what's broadly referred to as "Multiverse Theory."
The idea is that for every potential outcome for any given situation,
There is a separate and distinct universe in which that outcome did happen.
So there would be a separate universe for stopping at Starbucks on your way to work, and
another one for stopping at Dunkin Donuts, each occurring simultaneously
in their own unique timeline. If we extrapolate this to existence in general,
there's an alternate timeline in which your favorite sports team didn't lose that big game, one where the Russians beat the United States to the
moon, one where Henry Ford decided to collect stamps instead of pursue his idea of a motorized carriage.
Basically, anything that could happen does happen and things that couldn't happen
also happen, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.
The idea that there could be more universes in existence than just our own dates back to at least
1952 when Aaron Schrodinger stated that when his nobel equations seemed to describe several different histories these were not alternatives
But all really happened simultaneously
that being said it's nearly impossible to pin down a date for the inception of multiverse theory because it consists of many very different and
Often fundamentally opposing hypotheses for example the idea of parallel or alternate timelines exists not only in physics and astronomy
But also cosmology religion philosophy and psychology not to mention science fiction and Fantasy literature
But let's look at the scientific side of things what kind of support is there
for the theory of multiple universes?
Not much there has been and continues to be heated debate over whether or not multiverse theory holds water
But more than that many scientists believe that not only is the whole idea silly it could erode public
perception of real science and damage the study of fundamental physics Harsh accusations to be sure but not without cause
The basis of the Scientific method is asking a question
forming a testable hypothesis, gathering empirical data and
Evaluating the findings. the scientists opposed to the study of multiverse theory suggests that this testability is the key issue
How can any experiment rule out a theory if the theory provides for all possible outcomes?
This is a valid Concern but for the sake of this video let's explore a few different possible types of multiverse the American theoretical
physicist and string theorist Brian Greene lists nine possible variants of multiverse each with unique
Characteristics, we'll take a look at four of the more interesting ones first
There's the possibility of what's called a quilted universe this explanation only works in an infinite universe
But if we assume that our own universe is infinite
It's not an unreasonable
Hypothesis, in a quilted universe since distance and time is infinite
Every possible event within our laws of physics will happen an infinite number of times. however
the speed of light would prevent us from ever seeing the evidence of such identical sections of universe. that
seems fairly straightforward right? let's look at a slightly more complicated
variant. the Membrane or Brane hypothesis suggests that many separate universes exist in three-dimensional form within a larger
Multi-dimensional space or bulk think of it this way when you buy printer paper
You get hundreds of sheets bundled inside a wrapper the wrapper is like the bulk and the individual sheets of paper are unique universes
within this bulk the universes can drift around and interact with one another and every few trillion years or so drawn together by
gravity or other forces we can't yet comprehend. They collide with one another in a violent explosion triggering
what we know as a big bang. at
that point they could bounce off each other like billiard balls combined into a new super universe or
Perhaps most likely given our current understanding of the Big bang
spark the creation of a new universe from the violent destruction of the old ones
Then there's the theory most reminiscent of the example at the beginning of this video. The quantum universe
hypothesis. this version of the multiverse theory suggests that a new you is created every time a
Diversion event occurs such as choosing to call in sick to work
there would be one universe based on the
Consequences of going into work like normal and another new one for the events that transpire after calling in sick
this multiverse would grow exponentially and infinitely as every person on Earth makes hundreds of decisions every [day] and
Those decisions cause a new set of decisions
And so on it's a fascinating theory and one that seems to capture public interest more than others finally
There's the ultimate multiverse hypothesis this one tends to draw a lot of criticism from the scientific community
Perhaps Rightfully
So the ultimate multiverse hypothesis suggests that it would contain every mathematically possible universe under different laws of physics
[that] last part is what gets it in trouble
Not only does it consider our laws of physics the ones we assume to be universal
But [it] goes so far as to say all possible universes within all possible variants of physics. There's simply
No way to test the hypothesis which relegates it more to the realm of philosophy
Than hard science of course many scientists consider the multiverse theory as a whole to [be] more philosophical than empirical
Whether they're right, or not remains to be seen as so far
We don't have any evidence for the existence of any universe, but our own, but hey
Maybe we're in a universe where the laws of physics don't allow us to detect the billions of other universes floating all around us
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