okay so this is an idea to explain
various strange coincidences by saying
actually there isn't just one universe
out there there's a whole bunch of
universes out there and they all have
different laws of physics
and so for example in some some
universes you might end up with laws of
physics that basically mean the universe
doesn't live for very long at all and it
just snaps into existence and snaps out
of existence again in other universes it
can expand through these processes of
cosmic inflation and so once I wind up
with a nice big universe that lives for
a long time and the idea is if you want
to ask the question you know why did we
end up with a universe which is live for
a nice long time and all those other
things is that well actually the world
loads and loads of universes got created
and there's kind of this evolutionary
process the sort of survival of the
fittest that the fittest universe
experienced and takes up more volume and
lives for longer and so therefore the
fact we live in a universe like that is
because it's just that's that's the
universe that one in this multiverse
competition that actually is you create
this whole ensemble of universes and
actually the reason why we live in one
that's so nice is just because well
that's you know because there were so
many to choose from that's the one we
were going into I end up in that seems
to have nice parallels with things like
stars and planets and galaxies and it
does my problem with it is that it's
completely untestable as far as I can
tell in that you know this idea that
that the Sun is just one star for
example it's a hypothesis and then you
learn a lot more and more about other
stars out there by observing them by
making observations of them and then
actually you find yeah it's true
actually the sun's no different from any
other stuff so that kind of principal
cosmological principle that says you
know we're nothing special we can test
physically okay the multiverse as far as
I can tell we can't test physically
because the idea that there are the
universes out there well how do we
communicate with them how do we find out
them how do we observe them we can only
observe sort of by definition in our own
universe and so at that level I don't
think it's physics
I think it's philosophy is what you're
doing there it's a philosophical way of
thinking about things because a physics
something to be physics there has to be
a testable hypothesis you have to be
able to test whether it's real or not
and and there's no experiment you can do
that will allow you to distinguish
between an idea that there are many many
universes out there or that this is the
only universe maybe you know maybe there
are very subtle measurements you can
make maybe they're easy universes in
some way interact with each other if
that's the case then suddenly it becomes
physics it ceases to be philosophy
because then there's maybe a measurement
you can make the
determined that the really other or the
universe is out there but until someone
comes up with that test and actually
tries it it really stays in the realm of
philosophy rather than physics just
because it's not physics as you
described it doesn't mean it's not
reality I think you have to well you
have to be very careful what you mean by
reality in that sense because the game
reality to me at least means that it has
some testable consequences you know
something for something to be real you
have to be able to interact with it in
some way even you know even things as
bizarre as neutrinos right they don't
interact very much with things and so
you could actually say well are they
really there or not but actually once in
a while they'll interact and so you can
say oh yeah there really is a neutrino
so for something to be real I think it
has to be interact with other things and
there has to be some observable
consequence of that interaction so you
can actually say that's a real thing
whereas the multiverse I don't think if
the reason our interaction between these
different elements of the multiverse
then it's it's not even clear to me that
the word real has any meaning to it but
doesn't isn't that like me saying a
person that you never meet in your
lifetime wandering around in China
doesn't exist because you never met them
they don't exist to you but they still
exist but I could imagine phoning them I
get you know they're experiments I could
do to confirm their existence right I
could phone them up and have a chat
great whereas in the multiverse there
isn't even an experiment I can think of
doing that would allow me to interact
but isn't that just because you're a
weak mortal Duke isn't clever enough to
think to go there or do the experiment
like it doesn't mean it's not there I
knew that I think this is a semantic
argument right I don't think I really
don't think you can it's a matter of
opinion right my personal opinion is
that the reality of things requires
there to be some test that somebody
could do in order to actually show that
there is some you know that this thing
you've hypothesized actually has some
consequences for other things and unless
you can do that I think it really is not
science in that sense yeah I accept
I accept that it's not scientifically
provable yet maybe at the moment but
it's an act I mean it's a faith right
it's a faith-based thing when it's like
God right you bye-bye sort of bye-bye
construction you can't prove or disprove
the existence of God and it's the same
as this and the reason why you can't do
that is because there is no interaction
and so yeah you know maybe God exists
maybe he or she doesn't but it's not
something that's open to scientific
discussion it's certainly something
which is open to theological and
philosophical discussion and in that
sense it's sort of a real thing to
discuss but it's not something that sort
of falls within the remit of physics but
to use your own words back at you now
maybe multiverses exists we just exactly
know but but it's not I mean and and if
we're going to have a philosophical
discussion about it I'm happy to discuss
or the existence or non-existence of
multiverse is just as I'm happy to
discuss the existence or non-existence
of God if you want to talk about physics
neither God nor multiverse it seemed to
be open to any sort of sensible
discussion as to whether or not they
exist within the realms of physics it
sort of removes God which I'd quite
happy to push him in as much of the way
I hate the idea of metaphysics coming
into physics so I'm rather attracted to
the multiverse scenario because it
pushes those two things further apart
this particular piece of Newton's apple
tree and you can see it's genuine
because it says I in on it went up into
space it went on the space shuttle
Atlantis and into the International
Space Station
dog observation