Martin Rees On The Multiverse, Scientific Research & Reality

There's an interesting piece by Martin Rees about the nature of the Uni/Multiverse, as well as some of the underlying mechanics. Also, a good bit on the nature of scientific research. You can get the text or the Real version. Good stuff.

Comments

In my section of the Multiverse

[Anonymous Coward]

Real doesn't suck so much.

Real audio

[fredrikj]

You can get the text or the Real version. Good stuff.

Great, except that the odds of getting meaningful sound out of the noise in .ram files are worse than those of finding alien signals in the SETI@Home project.

(OT, it's great to have karma to burn)

Re:Real audio

[product byproduct]

[Morpheus] What's Real? Real is an audio codec designed to blind you from the truth.
[Neo] What truth?
[Morpheus] The text version is better.

Theory of Doughnut shaped universe

[someguy456]

Your theory of a donut-shaped universe is intriguing, Homer. I may have to steal it.

More universes than atoms

[killthiskid]

At first it was thought that there might be just one unique solution to the equations, just one possible three-dimensional universe with one possible 'vacuum state' and one set of laws. But it seems now, according to the experts, that there could be a huge number. In fact Lenny Susskind claims that there could be more possible types of universe than there are atoms in our universe--a quite colossal variety. The system of universes could be even more intricate and complex than the biosphere of our planet. This really is a mind-blowing concept, especially when we bear in mind that each of those universes could themselves be infinite.

Note the bolded part of this quote... there could be a multiverse where most slashdotters have sex on a regular basis.! The best news geeks have ever heard!

Re:More universes than atoms

[qbwiz]

He meant with other people physically involved, you dolt.

Re:More universes than atoms

[feepness]

Note the bolded part of this quote... there could be a multiverse where most slashdotters have sex on a regular basis.! The best news geeks have ever heard!

Yes, but equally frightening is that _this_ could be the universe where slashdotters have the most sex!

Re:More universes than atoms

[hbo]

One of the reasons scientists keep considering theories like these is the observation that the Universe we inhabit is eerily well suited for intelligent life to be observing it right at this particular moment. If this is the only Universe there is, the result would seem to suggest that we have some special place in the cosmos. Since god is not a testable hypothesis, many cosmologists theorize that there are a multitude of universes, and our privileged position is just our "luck of the draw," so to speak. (This isn't the only reason they consider such theories, but it's a big one.)

So, if this is the best of all possible Universes for slashdotters, and assuming that most of us want to have sex, we can conclude that the average state of slashdotian sexual satiety in the Multiverse is close to zero, or even negative. That means that, on average, in an infinite Multiverse, sex is unpleasant. So, once we gain the hyper-limpid HERF enabled warp drive and can make our rampaging way across the true extent of the cosmos, there will be nobody to conquer due to chronic underpopulation!

But hey, no lines at Frys.

You mean...

[inertia187]

...there could be more than one slashdot? Yuck.

Please....

[GeneralEmergency]

...let this be that one 'verse where I get modded up all the time.

Re:Don't encourage idiots...

[Anonymous Coward]

"I'll bet that over 50% of the comments for this article will be pseudo-intellectuals espousing their retarded theories, misinformation, and other general stupidity... "
Guess which side of that 50% fence your comment is on! bwhahahahaaaa!

Sounds familiar

[M.C. Hampster]

At first sight you might get worried about an infinity of things in themselves infinite, but to deal with this you have to draw on a body of mathematics called transfinite number theory, that goes back to Cantor in the 19th century. Just as many kinds of pure mathematics have already been taken over by physicists, this rather arcane subject of transfinite numbers is now becoming relevant, because we've got to think of infinities of infinity. Indeed, there's perhaps even a higher hierarchy of infinities: in addition to our universe being infinite, and there being an infinite number of possible laws of nature, we may want to incorporate the so-called many worlds theory of quantum mechanics.

Why does this sound so familiar? ... Oh, I know, it sounds like the arguments I used to have with my brother:

Me: You're an idiot
Brother: Well, you're an idiot times infinity.
Me: Oh yeah? Well, you are an idiot times infinity times infinity!

And so on and so forth.

Interesting typo

[jamesmartinluther]

Maybe I am reading too much into a simple duplication, but I wonder if this was intentional:

Once you accept the idea of the multiverse, and that some universes will have immense potentiality for complexity, it's a logical consequence that in some of those universes there will be the potential to simulate parts of themselves, and you may get sort of infinite regress, so we don't know where reality stops and where the minds and ideas take over, and we don't know what our place is in this grand ensemble of universes and simulated universes.Once you accept the idea of the multiverse, and that some universes will have immense potentiality for complexity, it's a logical consequence that in some of those universes there will be the potential to simulate parts of themselves, and you may get sort of infinite regress, so we don't know where reality stops and where the minds and ideas take over, and we don't know what our place is in this grand ensemble of universes and simulated universes.

- JML

Guy is way off..

[Anonymous Coward]

Our universe is hand-crafted and unique, there's no such thing as a multiverse.

When the first AI achieved transcendence through singularity somewhere in 3k AD, it's first (and only?) task was to spark off the big bang to ensure that it would come into existence, as it had discovered in some arcane slashdot-archive that this was it's purpose.