The article was originally published at The Conversation.
If you use the word multiverse, your sci-fi movie will sound more respectable. Different versions of our universe are out there in the multiverse. Travel between these universes is possible with the right blend of technology, magic, and imagination.
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, we discover that there are other universes and other Earths with their own Spider-Man. There is magic in the movie.
This magic, thanks to a misfiring spell from Doctor Strange, causes some of the other Spider-Men to be transported into our universe, along with a few supervillains.
RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU...
In cinemas, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness threatens to deface reality.
Which ideas have been borrowed from science and which are pure fiction?
Is there another Earth? Could there be other people out there who look like us, on a planet that looks like ours? It is possible because we don't know how big our universe is.
We can see billions of light-years into space, but we don't know how much more space there is.
There are more chances for Another-Earth to exist if there is more space out there. Somewhere. Any possibility becomes likely with enough space and planets.
The ability to travel between the other earths is a key part of the fiction of the multiverse. Doctor Strange needs to use magic to do this.
Albert Einstein said that we can't travel through space faster than light. We don't know how to make them, the universe doesn't seem to make them naturally, and more exotic ways to travel around the universe are scientifically possible.
It is unimaginably far away, even for an astronomer.
From a scientific perspective, the multiverse is too tame. Too normal. Too familiar. Here is why.
The basic building blocks of our universe are protons and neutrons. Your body is amazing: energy-gathering, information-processing, mini-machine building, self-repairing.
Physicists have discovered that the ability of our universe to make life forms is very rare. Any old blocks will not do.
If the force that holds atomic nuclei together had been too weak, the universe wouldn't even stick together, let alone make a living cell. That could be called alive.
How did our universe come up with the right mix of ingredients? Maybe we won the lottery. Other parts of the universe may have different building blocks that are larger than what our telescopes can see.
Among a multiverse of universes with losing tickets, our universe is one of the options.
Our universe is not the only one with different fundamental ingredients. The right combination for life-forms rarely comes up when most are dead.
The Marvel multiverse rearranges the atoms and forces of our universe. That is not enough.
What was our universe like in the past? The evidence shows that the universe was smooth and hotter. This is a theory about the universe.
Was there a big bang? The universe was hot, dense, and contained in a single point. Maybe. Scientists have explored a lot of other options because we are not sure.
Cosmic inflation says that in the first fraction of a second of the universe, it expanded very quickly. It would explain why our universe expands in the way it does.
How do you make the universe grow so fast? There is a new type of energy field. It has control of the first moments of the universe, causes a rapid expansion, and then gives the reins to the more familiar forms of matter and energy.
Cosmic inflation could make a multiverse. Here is how. According to this idea, most of the space is growing. In small islands, the new energy field converts its energy into ordinary matter with high energies, releasing what we now see as a Big bang.
Each island can be thought of as a new universe with different properties if these high energies scramble and reset the basic properties of matter. We have made a multiverse.
The multiverse is in an exploratory phase. We have an idea that might explain a few things. It is worthy of our attention, but it is not science yet. We need to find more conclusive evidence.
Something left over from the multiverse generator might help. The winning numbers on the lottery ticket could be predicted by a multiverse idea.
The multiverse is a concept that we know very little about.
The article is licensed under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates and become a part of the discussion on social media. The author's views are not necessarily those of the publisher.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
