Do You Think There Is a Multiverse?

Question

....or is it just one universe with an infinite number of galaxies. Or is it a finite number? Tell me what you think.

Answer 1

I personally think a multiverse is entirely possible and is statistically quite probable.

One thing that has always puzzled scientists is how it can be that the universe is so perfectly tuned to support life. If the forces of gravity, for example, were even slightly weaker or stronger than they are, we would not be here. In fact, if any element of the universe or the laws of physics were even a tiny bit different, we would not be here. The universe is perfect from our point of view.

So how likely, statistically, is it that that would have happened by chance. It's actually extremely unlikely, so unlikely that it's barely worth considering as a possibility.

For some people, this suggests God, or an intelligent designer - for others this suggests a multiverse.

This is the analogy that's usually used: if you walked into a massive hypermarket looking for a suit, and there was just one left, you would be a bit surprised if it fit you perfectly. But if the hypermarket was stuffed full of suits then in all probability you'd find one in your size.

In other words, if there's just one universe it's very, very surprising that it's as perfect for us as it is, but if there are many of them then it stops being surprising at all. At least one of them is likely to "fit" us.

This doesn't completely answer the question of course. Some people have pointed out that maybe any universe, no matter what it's properties, will produce life that's compatible with it's environment. And the famous answer to the question "why is the universe the way it is" is "because we wouldn't be here to ask the question if it was different".

As far as infinite galaxies etc goes, there's nothing infinite about our universe - either in size or number of galaxies. So that's a different question altogether.

There's a lot of research at the moment into the possiblilities of an infinite number of realities, which is fascinating, but again, that's a different subject.

Answer 2

The universe cannot be infinite. We know this from observation. Matter cannot be receding faster than light, gravity travels at the sped of light, and we do not measure infinite gravity anywhere, or in any direction. If there were, we would experience infinite acceleration in that direction. Infinity is a mathematical concept, not a physical quantity.

As far as a multiverse goes, I am not inclined to believe in one. As far as I am aware, there are two reasons for assuming a multiverse. One is that some claim the physical forces do not balance properly, and that gravity must be leaking into our universe, or out of our universe, somehow. Gravity is orders and orders of magnitude less powerful than electromagnetism, for example. And yet, if it were stronger, we would see many more black holes and many fewer stars. I am not talking a few billion more or less. I am talking there would only be a few stars left, if gravity were a lot stronger. Gravity is just right for this universe.

The other reason for assuming a multiverse is that on the basis of random chance, there does not seem to have been enough time for complex life to form. Not only should it have taken much longer than it has, it should take longer than the universe is predicted to remain in existence. The comfortable solution to the dilemma of a universe that seems to have been arranged specifically for life to have come into existence quickly is to assume that there are actually far more universes than the one we can see; and that there are far more universes where life does not exist. We just happened to get lucky, we just happened to be here to see it. (That is called the anthropic principle.)

However, whenever we think of the anthropic principle, we must recall the story that was told a f a stubborn old woman who attended a lecture on astronomy and assured the lecturer afterward that the Earth was not a sphere, floating in space. She said it was flat and resting on the back of a gigantic turtle. When the lecturer asked her what the turtle was supported by, she told him that it was on the back of an even larger turtle. And when he wanted to know what that turtle was standing on, she told him, “It’s no use—it’s turtles, all the way down!”

Just as we cannot allow the foolish old woman to think that way--simply because she does not want to face the possibility that the universe is not the way she would like it to be--so we cannot allow science to assume ‘turtles all the way down’ for the sake of a theory. The anthropic principle—that the universe seems uniquely fitted to us not because it was designed for us but because we were designed for it—is designed to support a question-begging argument.

20 DEC 06, 0237 hrs, GMT.

Answer 3

There's about 100 billion galaxies.

The most likely explanation for experimental results is an almost infinite multiverse of constantly diving universes.

Read in seach of Schrodinger's cat by Gribbin or The Fabric of Reality by Deutsch to find out more about these ideas.

**Looking at the other answers makes me wonder what you meant when you asked the question. The perpendicular (because they're blatantly not parallel) universes talked about in quantum mechanics are very different from the 'other universes' spoken about through black holes or on other branes.**

Answer 4

The matter and the number of galaxies in our universe is not infinite.
About if other universes exist, it is theoretically possible, it is even probable, but it is not so easy to jump from an universe into another just to check whether it exists!
Unless some interaction exists (for instance, maybe the black holes are gateways) between them, we will never know.

Answer 5

no longer undesirable... i assume you observed that episode of Futurama, wherein Professor Farnsworth invented a container containing an entire new universe, and then they got here upon there have been a lot of those packing bins, and that they've been given lost in many universes... that replaced into humorous!!!! LOL in spite of the shown fact that, i think of it quite is a very diverse certainty -it quite is not that there are a number of universes, or maybe one... it quite is something else. we are all ONE, and we see that ONE in products in the process the Universe we live in -it relatively is, a manner of information the real certainty. confusing to describe... undemanding to verify, as quickly as you get there.

Answer 6

I think there is a very great chance that there is a Multiverse. But there is also a very great chance our Universe is the only one. It can never be proved or disproved.

Answer 7

You mean altertane dimensions/realities? Hopefully but as far as you or I know there is only one. And this universe has an infinite number of galaxies as far as I know.

Answer 8

There absolutely is a multiverse, but not in the way you are thinking. Each and every one of us lives in our own universe, so there are as many universes as there are people...:-)

Answer 9

I think that there probably are other universes/dimensions/realities, but that we can't get to them or understand them properly because we are only human. And I think it's probably best that we can't prove anything one way or the other, because if we knew everything, I think life would be pretty boring.

Answer 10

I'm 100% certain that we are are in one universe of many. However, all of my otherwise identical counterparts in the other universes scoff at my opinion and even go so far as to mock me at parties.

Just goes to show you. There are jerks everywhere.