# What the current theory of the multiverse? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667 "2014-11-15T02:42:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kilkenny326](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/34f0e0/32.png) [@Kilkenny326](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilkenny326)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/1 "2014-11-15T02:42:15Z")
“In the past decade an extraordinary claim has captivated cosmologists: that the expanding universe we see around us is not the only one; that billions of other universes are out there, too. There is not one universe—there is a multiverse.”-- Scientific American, August, 2011 Has there been any more mathematical evidence to support or disprove this theory? The thought of this is blowing my mind! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/2 "2014-11-15T14:08:59Z")
Mathematical evidence wouldn’t be all that compelling, since we already know the math allows it. Physical evidence is what we’d want to see, and I don’ know of any. ---
**Author:** ![JWT\_Kottekoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/3 "2014-11-15T15:03:04Z")
Any sufficiently trendy cosmology is indistinguishable from religion. (with apologies to Arthur C. Clarke) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/4 "2014-11-15T15:05:53Z")
There is no “the” current theory of the multiverse: See [here.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse) There isn’t even consensus on what to call it, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/5 "2014-11-15T15:24:33Z")
Read Brian Greene’s [The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos](http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Reality-Parallel-Universes-Cosmos/dp/0307278123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416064763&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Hidden+Reality%3A+Parallel+Universes+and+the+Deep+Laws+of+the+Cosmos%2C). It’s amazingly accessible. He shows that, mathematically, there are nine possible different types of multiverses. Nor are they mutually exclusive. You can have more than one (i.e. a multiverse can spawn or spawn from a different type of multiverse). The question currently is whether we can even find any physical evidence of any of these. “Maybe” is the best answer. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/6 "2014-11-15T15:53:07Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Mathematical evidence wouldn’t be all that compelling, since we already know the math allows it. Physical evidence is what we’d want to see, and I don’ know of any. I don’t recall his name but several years ago I read an article in popular science about various young scientists. One was an Iranian (I think) immigrant who wanted to test particle actions in a collider to use that as evidence of parallel universes. I have no idea what happened to him, but seeing how it was several years ago when I read it and I can’t find anything on google I’m guessing the results weren’t good. There is also this, not sure how conclusive it is. > **[Scientists find first evidence that many universes exist](https://phys.org/news/2010-12-scientists-evidence-universes.html)** > > (PhysOrg.com) -- By looking far out into space and observing what’s going on there, scientists have been led to theorize that it all started with a Big Bang, immediately followed by a brief period of super-accelerated expansion called inflation.... > [@](#): > > In the most recent study on pre-Big Bang science posted at [arXiv.org](http://arXiv.org), a team of researchers from the UK, Canada, and the US, Stephen M. Feeney, et al, have revealed that they have discovered four statistically unlikely circular patterns in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The researchers think that these marks could be “bruises” that our universe has incurred from being bumped four times by other universes. If they turn out to be correct, it would be the first evidence that universes other than ours do exist. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/7 "2014-11-15T16:03:08Z")
That was from 2010, and I can’t find anything further about others finding these “bruises”, so we’re at a standstill there. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/8 "2014-11-15T17:02:11Z")
Here’s a recent one that they say has finite but many universes and resolves quantum randomness and may be testable: [http://www.sci-news.com/physics/science-many-interacting-worlds-parallel-universes-02249.html](http://www.sci-news.com/physics/science-many-interacting-worlds-parallel-universes-02249.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kilkenny326](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/34f0e0/32.png) [@Kilkenny326](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilkenny326)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/9 "2014-11-16T01:58:26Z")
Thank you for your responses. I’m still stunned that it’s even being considered a possibility. A few centuries ago, Earth was the center of a very small universe. Now we can’t even count on the universe being singular. Wow! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/10 "2014-11-16T02:26:20Z")
> [@JWT\_Kottekoe](#): > > Any sufficiently trendy cosmology is indistinguishable from religion. (with apologies to Arthur C. Clarke) I knew about the Multiverse before it had the temperature of the cosmic background microwave radiation. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/11 "2014-11-16T04:26:57Z")
Michael Moorcock used the word multiverse in close to its modern sense (as a totality of the all the possible alternate worlds) in “The Blood Red Game,” a story in the May 1963 _Science Fiction Adventures_. In its current physical sense, there’s a cite from _New Scientist_in 1990. ---
**Author:** ![Kilkenny326](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/34f0e0/32.png) [@Kilkenny326](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilkenny326)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/12 "2014-11-16T05:46:25Z")
The only place I had ever heard of the multiverse was science fiction. Landing on the moon was science fiction once. If there are endless numbers of each of us in an endless numbers of universes, then any fiction could be fact in some universe…damn!! That puts Micky Mouse in a whole new light. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/13 "2014-11-16T07:53:55Z")
And of course the next step is that the multiverse that surrounds us, with billions of universes, is not the only multiverse . . . but merely one in a megaverse. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/14 "2014-11-16T13:55:02Z")
The current theory of the Multiverse is that Dan DiDio had his head up his ass when he decided to scrap 75 years worth of DC comic book history and is now scrambling to find a graceful way to bring back alienated long-time fans. Something called “Convergence,” expected to hit shelves in April of 2015. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/15 "2015-01-05T03:25:42Z")
The opening sentence of the Introduction to _The Castle of Iron_ by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt: > [@](#): > > Dr. Reed Chalmers, Professor of Psychology at the General Hospital, worked out the theory of the simultaneous existence of an infinity of possible worlds. That’s talking about stories they first wrote in 1940. As science it loses a bit of luster when you find out that the way to travel between worlds is… symbolic logic. Still a nice anticipation of modern thought. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-current-theory-of-the-multiverse/704667/16 "2015-01-05T08:46:37Z")
Symbolic logic. Hmm. Beats that _Null-A_ crap from Van Vogt.