Multiverse Theory?

Question

I am very interested in learning more about the multiverse theory. Did the big bang form our universe or did it form all universes? If it only formed our universe, then did it take as many big bangs as there are universes to form all of them?

Answer 1

No one really knows the answer to this, since all theories on what happened before the big bang are very speculative and unproven. But generally they do say that the big bang formed our universe only. The thought goes that there is a 'metaverse' that contains multiple universes, including ours. The big bang occurred within the metaverse and created our universe. The thought is there might be other universes also created out there by their own big bangs. These other universes might have different properties than ours, such as a different gravitational constant or a different electrical charge for electrons.

There's different theories on what could cause a big bang. One is that our universe is an out growth from another older universe. Another is that the big bang was a caused by a spontaneous quantum fluctuation. Some theories say that the metaverse is filled with 'branes' - kind of like our universe but with more or fewer dimensions. When two branes collided, the collsion created the big bang and our universe.

Bottom line is no one really knows yet.

Answer 2

I must agree with the intelligent answers from the other contributors. We can't know today and anything else than scientific observation is pure speculation.
However there is something called philosophy, which is the unproved speculation of ideas.

Think about this; the ID supporters have a point in saying that it just can't be a coincidence that the universe evolved as it did so that life can exist on earth. If we want to keep the divine aspect out of the equation we then have to admit that the universe evolution, as we can observe it in this present time-space frame, is only one of many possible ones. The question then is: Yes, but where are all those alternative universes?
Well, imagine I was a blind animal living at the bottom of some abyssal depth and you were to tell me about the vision of the galaxies and the red shift of their light as the move away from us, I couldn't understand a single word of what you were saying because I don't have any vision since I don't need one here, where light never reaches.

Maybe, likewise, there are things we don't 'see' because we don't have the 'eyes' to see it.

Answer 3

It's fun to think about those things - but none of it can be tested in any way. So it's not science. I'm not saying it's bad at all, because it's still fun. But it's pure speculation, pure fiction.

Maybe we're just programs in a big computer and we think we're living (original book "13th floor", copied in "Matrix"). Can't be tested so we'll never know. Worse, maybe you've got several levels of such program worlds, imbedded. Can't be tested either.

Maybe we're just consciences in space, and have illusions that we have bodies, that we see things, tough things, but maybe it all is a sophisticated dream. Can't be tested.

Maybe the universe has 135 dimensions, or 11, or 255, or a few million. Can't be tested.

Maybe there is an infinity of parallel universes, and each time any living being makes a choice between two options, this branches out into two more universes, one for choice "a", one for choice "b", to infinity. So maybe somewhere in one parallel universe, lives someone who is just like you, except each time there was a choice to make, they did the opposite of what you did. Can't be tested.

Maybe at the beginning of Space / Time, there was Flying Spaghetti Monster (as some scientists imagined, just for fun). Can't be tested.

Maybe you're dreaming that you're using a computer, and reading this on it, but none of this exists. Maybe I never wrote this.


So what's my point?
- it's good to have fun
- what scientists call a "theory", is something that (1) allows one to make predictions, and (2) allows one to compare these predictions to observations in the real world. For example a theory on the trajectory of a ball one throws.
- multiverse, multiple universes, and so on, none of this is testable. So it's not a theory. It's fiction, it's fun, it's imagination.

Answer 4

Do like I did regarding this fascinating concept. Get your hands on every book you can involving quantum physics, time travel theory and probability. Any thing by Stephen Hawking or Michio Kaku would be a good start.