The number of possible universes that could exist, based on the prevailing theory, was calculated by two physicists in 2009.
Their answer was 101010,000,000, which is a 1 followed by a billion zeros.
I didn't write about it because it was not news. More and more potential universes were being tossed around, based on other theories.
Astronomers could not comprehend the idea of one universe. That idea isn't big enough to fill theorists' dreams. There are as many possible universes as a mind can conjure, spun out of imagination, despair, hope, heroic mathematical extrapolation and that ol' what-if spirit to answer questions that most of us didn't know we had. The multiverse is here.
There is no evidence that other universes exist, and no idea of how to detect them. The idea has become a cliché in science fiction and popular culture. The heroes of a new film are usually in and out of strange space-time on some quest or another.
Evelyn Wang is a middle-age Chinese immigrant who runs a laundromat and has issues with her taxes, her traditionally forbidding father and her lesbian daughter. Evelyn has been chosen to save the realm of universes from a destructive demon because she is a loser. She needs to connect with her daughter, the main agent of chaos in her local universe. She finds herself careening through alternate universes and alternate versions of herself.
The Daniels, who call themselves the Daniels and are best known for their film "Swiss Army Knife", wrote and directed the movie.
Their new film is a meditation on the loneliness of the infinite, which is depicted as a raunchy kung-fu Astro-comedy, with references to other movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey. She is a famous martial artist. At the far end of her journey, is a giant bagel, signifying the ultimate doom and psychic black hole.
The movie was shown at South by Southwest in March. I was eager to see it and learn more about the multiverse.
The Daniels said they were devoted fans of pop science. A collection of science and speculative writing by authors, including Carl Sagan, was sent to me.
There are many theories of the multiverse, depending on the physics you use. The universe splits in two when you turn left out of your driveway, according to the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Every way you could turn, every way a ball could come off Judge's bat, every way a cookie could fall, there is a universe.
Theory of Anything is a string theory that describes particles as vibrating strings of energy.
The prevailing theory of cosmic inflation still springs from another multiverse. Universes are branching off from one another at a rapid rate thanks to a violent whoosh fueled by negative gravity at the dawn of time.
The Daniels said their multiverse was a combination of Many Worlds and the bubble bath implied by inflation theory.
The film is not about physics but about how physics makes you feel.
They said that the multiverse could be a metaphor for the attention deficient lives we have embraced in our bubbles of social-media truth.
Mr. Kwan said that Evelyn suffers from A.D.H.D., and that she is distracted from one activity to another, never mastering any of them. She is a Marco Polo of the multiverse who explores across the dimensions of reality more than anyone else.
The multiverse is a logical next step in our progression from the Earth-centered universe of Ptolemy to the modern universe of dark energy, fantastic galaxies and, perhaps, other life-forms.
Every new discovery is good for the human experience.
We'll move beyond soon. The night sky is filled with beauty, because it serenely disdains to destroy us. Who is out there? Will anyone ever know anything about us? The bigger the universe, the smaller we feel.
The multiverse, with its billions upon billions of alternate realities, would seem to amplify our insignificance. At the end of her quest, Evelyn said nothing mattered.
It is one of the most freeing ideas we can have.
I grew up in a very religious home, and so everything mattered.
You aren't responsible for the universe if nothing matters. Do what you want, love whom you want. The hot dog fingers are great with condiments.
A guide to the spaceship.
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