A Physicist Explains Why Parallel Universes May Exist - NPR

[WillyT]

Not a story about Michelle Bachmann... :evilgrin:

A Physicist Explains Why Parallel Universes May Exist
NPR
January 24, 2011

<snip>

Our universe might be really, really big — but finite. Or it might be infinitely big. Both cases, says physicist Brian Greene, are possibilities, but if the latter is true, so is another posit: There are only so many ways matter can arrange itself within that infinite universe. Eventually, matter has to repeat itself and arrange itself in similar ways. So if the universe is infinitely large, it is also home to infinite parallel universes.

Does that sound confusing? Try this: Think of the universe like a deck of cards.

"Now, if you shuffle that deck, there's just so many orderings that can happen," Greene says. "If you shuffle that deck enough times, the orders will have to repeat. Similarly, with an infinite universe and only a finite number of complexions of matter, the way in which matter arranges itself has to repeat."

Greene, the author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, tackles the existence of multiple universes in his latest book, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos. Recent discoveries in physics and astronomy, he says, point to the idea that our universe may be one of many universes populating a grander multiverse.

"You almost can't avoid having some version of the multiverse in your studies if you push deeply enough in the mathematical descriptions of the physical universe," he says. "There are many of us thinking of one version of parallel universe theory or another. If it's all a lot of nonsense, then it's a lot of wasted effort going into this far-out idea. But if this idea is correct, it is a fantastic upheaval in our understanding."

<snip>

More: http://www.npr.org/2011/01/24/132932268/a-physicist-explains-why-parallel-universes-may-exist&sc=fb&cc=fp

Just something to ponder...

:hi:

[wtbymark]

1. Is this from the 'Fringe' division? n/t

[Gamow]

3. I guess 'Fringe' isn't well know enough. They referenced "The Twilight Zone" instead. nt

[Cirque du So-What]

17. Yeah...reeeeeel fringe-y

Greene was born in New York City. His father, Alan Greene, was a one-time vaudeville performer and high school dropout who later worked as a voice coach and composer.<1> After attending Stuyvesant High School,<2> where he was a classmate of fellow physicist Lisa Randall, Greene entered Harvard in 1980 to major in physics and, having completed his bachelor's degree, went on to earn his doctorate from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, graduating in 1987. While at Oxford Greene also studied piano with the concert pianist Jack Gibbons. Brian has also been a vegan since about 1997.<3>

Greene joined the physics faculty of Cornell University in 1990, and was appointed to a full professorship in 1995. The following year, he joined the staff of Columbia University as a full professor; this remains his current position. At Columbia, Greene is co-director of the University's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics (ISCAP), and is leading a research program applying superstring theory to cosmological questions. He is also one of the FQXi large grant awardees, his project title being "Arrow of Time in the Quantum Universe".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Greene

Harvard...Oxford...Columbia...Cornell...all hotbeds of woo woo science :eyes:

[Gamow]

20. "Fringe" is a TV show about a parallel universe, it wasn't an attack on Greene. nt

[Cirque du So-What]

21. Oh. Nevermind.

:blush:

Delivered in my best 'Emily Litella' voice.

[gateley]

2. I love this topic -- thanks! A recent article in The New Scientist entitled

Quantum reality: The many meanings of life, begins with this:

A CENTURY, it seems, is not enough. One
hundred years ago this year, the first world
physics conference took place in Brussels,
Belgium. The topic under discussion was
how to deal with the strange new quantum
theory and whether it would ever be
possible to marry it to our everyday
experience, leaving us with one coherent
description of the world.

Although an answer has yet to emerge, the struggle to come up with one is proving to be its own
reward. It has, for instance, given birth to the new field of quantum information that has gained
the attention of high-tech industries and government spies. It is giving us a new angle of attack
on the problem of finding the ultimate theory of physics, and it might even tell us where the
universe came from. Not bad for a pursuit that a quantum cynic - one Albert Einstein - dismissed
as a "gentle pillow" that lulls good physicists to sleep.

Unfortunately for Einstein quantum theory has turned out to be a masterpiece. No experiment
has ever disagreed with its predictions, and we can be confident that it is a good way to describe
how the universe works on the smallest scales. Which leaves us with only one problem: what
does it mean?

[hobbit709]

4. There must be leakage between them. What else can explain the loony end of the RW

[sasha031]

5. thank you for posting

I always find topics like this fascinating. :)

[RKP5637]

6. Thanks for posting this, good stuff and definitely a potential reality. I tried explaining

some of this to a conservative republican once and they just stuck their head in the sand.

[damntexdem]

7. Proof of parallel universes: Michelle Bachman.

At least I hope so.

However, the argument does make sense -- if the universe is indeed infinite.

Oh no, that could mean that there are many, many Michelle Bachmans!!! ;-)

[WillyT]

8. LOL !!!

Oh noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooes!!!

:yoiks:

:evilgrin:

:hi:

[DirkGently]

9. Makes sense. We appear to be living in Bizarro World at the moment.

[Hissyspit]

10. This would explain infinity itself.

[JuniperLea]

11. I watch every PBS show I can find on this subject!

And string theory too... and fractal geometry. Seems they all ultimately point in the same direction.

I've often wondered if some of the people who hear voices actually are hearing voices from another dimension... or when people say they've seen a ghost.

The brain's energy, the energy that fuels the human mind, is like any other energy. It never goes away; it just changes form.

[WillyT]

12. You Ever Read This ???

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Physics-Exploration-Parallels-Anniversary/dp/1570625190



Verrrry interesting.

:smoke:

:hippie:

:hi:

[JuniperLea]

13. That does sound interesting!

I'll put it on my list...

I'll be starting this one very soon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1935251740/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d4_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0JB7BC3Y79TCNCYXP2TS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846#_



Here's a great HuffPo story on it... freaks me out, man!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-lanza/5-reasons-you-wont-die_b_810936.html

[WillyT]

15. Way Cool !!!

:bounce:

:hi:

[Vinnie From Indy]

14. I read Greene's book

There are many theories that include multiverses. Brane theory and some others posit that these multiverses are VERY close to one another and that sometimes over the course of billions of years they collide and create new universes through a big bang at the intersecting point. Multiverse theory also offers some mathematical solutions to problems like explaining the mystery of dark energy and gravity.

[kenny blankenship]

16. I already know why other universes exist. The parallel dimension is a tax shelter

All quite simple if you think about it: it exists for the same general reason that little dots of sand in the Caribbean and Kuwait are considered their own countries: to give rich people of the former colonial power a place to stash their money and/or assured access to a valuable natural resource, kept safe from the taxman or from the appetites of nearby populations. This explains why the parallel universe, although considered its own self-sufficient cosmos, is scarcely any bigger than Lichtenstein. All it really needs is enough room for a post office and a few banks, most of which are papier-mache facades that were trucked in from a film studio's back lot.

[Hosnon]

18. I love Greene's writing style. I kept up with him all the way up to branes. nt.

[Liberal Veteran]

19. Can I possibly shift over to one that has no republicans?

That's all I want to know.