Do you think that the multiverse could be real?

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Gurgeh
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Do you think that the multiverse could be real?

Post by Gurgeh »

I wonder do you think that the multiverse is real or not? I think it is real because if there is one universe where did it come from? Did the universe come from light going through a black hole and comming out the other side or something? (I don't know about that happening) but I also think that if there is only one universe and it is expanding whati is it expanding into? Also what is the universe expanding into? I just find this interesting. It is like the multiverse theory exsist and it does not. But which is it? What do you think is it real or not?
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Re: Do you think that the multiverse could be real?

Post by Lord of the Abyss »

I think it quite likely that there's a "multiverse" of some kind. Not only do a lot of cosmological theories predict such a thing, but it seems an arrogant assumption on the order of assuming your homeland is at the center of the universe to presume that whatever process began the universe started and stopped with ours. If a process exists that can create a universe - which it obviously does - then the reasonable assumption is that it has happened many times. And if the Many Worlds Hypothesis of quantum mechanics is true, then there could be at least two different types of multiverses out there; one of alternate versions of our universe, and another of entirely different universes.
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Zablorg
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Re: Do you think that the multiverse could be real?

Post by Zablorg »

Why would anyone here who doesn't have a Master's degree in space magic know more than what you could find through Google, or be qualified to give their opinion? Also, it's silly to assume the universe is expanding "into" anything.
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Surlethe
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Re: Do you think that the multiverse could be real?

Post by Surlethe »

(I)
Earth001 wrote:I wonder do you think that the multiverse is real or not? I think it is real because if there is one universe where did it come from?
That's exactly the wrong question to ask. Take a moment and think about what your question actually means in the context of the beginning of the universe.
Did the universe come from light going through a black hole and comming out the other side or something?
"Other side"? What does that mean?
(I don't know about that happening) but I also think that if there is only one universe and it is expanding whati is it expanding into?
See first point above. Think about what your question means.

I can actually identify exactly where your thought process, on this question, is jumping the tracks. You have been raised to think of general relativity as describing space stretching like a rubber sheet. When there's a massive body, we all think of it like a bowling ball dropped onto a rubber sheet, stretching it. Then we think of a particle as a marble rolling on the bowling ball. Turns out, that's only useful as a vague illustration; if it's taken too far, you start to think of gravity as flexing space into an ambient space.

That is exactly the wrong way to think about it. Instead, you have to understand that general relativity is formulated from the perspective of somebody inside the space. What does that observer see? Not a bowling ball plunging space down into a bowl. The observer instead sees his coordinate system distorted, stretched and compressed in different directions. There's no ambient space here. Instead, the very way some observers measure space and time is distorted by the presence of mass-energy. (I say mass-energy because they're two aspects of the same thing in special relativity.)

So it goes for the expansion of space. Cosmologists formulate a general-relativistic model of space and time (c.f. the standard model of cosmology) which describes spacetime itself as expanding. Just like gravity above, as far as we're concerned, it's not expanding into anything. It's just ... expanding. Stretching out. By itself.

You have to think carefully about this kind of question to check if it's even well-posed.

I snipped the rest of your post because I'm not qualified enough to have a real opinion on the matter of multiverses. I doubt anybody who regularly posts on this board is. Actually, I would be surprised if most people who post on the forum can actually understand the question. Like I said, it's very, very easy to ask questions you don't understand.

(II)

Here's an interesting blog post about many worlds and a multiverse. According to this guy, who I guess is a cosmologist working at Los Alamos, there's a possibility that they might be the same thing.
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Re: Do you think that the multiverse could be real?

Post by Top Cap »

As with most questions of this sort the simple answer is that the possibility of other universes existing is greater than zero just by the simple fact that one already does (ours) the same answer is true for life on other planets ect ect.

Did the universe come from light going through a black hole and coming out the other side or something?
Black holes do not work like that buddy although some have theorized that wormholes could exist near the singularity.

(I don't know about that happening) but I also think that if there is only one universe and it is expanding what is it expanding into?.
Some of the illustrations shown on TV are good but deceiving due to them looking like a stretched rubber sheet rather than it being distorted, stretched and compressed in different directions.
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