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Multiple Universes
Bunks
Australia Veteran
Apparently astronomers have recently discovered evidence that there may be other universes out there.
I only caught a small portion of a documentary about it but they were effectively saying that they have pointed super powerful lasers out towards objects on the edge of the universe with an expectation that the reflection would come back in a certain way but it doesn't.
They have started to draw the conclusion that the laws of physics present in our universe aren't present in this part of space. Hence, it is a different universe.
I don't pretend to understand much of this stuff but it is pretty exciting I think.
Did the Buddha talk about "the ten fold universe"? What did he mean?
I only caught a small portion of a documentary about it but they were effectively saying that they have pointed super powerful lasers out towards objects on the edge of the universe with an expectation that the reflection would come back in a certain way but it doesn't.
They have started to draw the conclusion that the laws of physics present in our universe aren't present in this part of space. Hence, it is a different universe.
I don't pretend to understand much of this stuff but it is pretty exciting I think.
Did the Buddha talk about "the ten fold universe"? What did he mean?
3
Comments
Oftentimes we mistake the limits of our knowledge as the limit of what is knowable.
I was actually able to find the narrative from the program I was referring to. It's called Catalyst and it's a science show on Australian television.
Here is the relevant part I was referring to:
Professor John Webb
The physical equations that we've been using for many years now all make the assumption that physics is the same everywhere and always has been the same, but it is an assumption.
NARRATION
Could the laws vary from place to place? Tantalisingly, John Webb and his colleagues have found clues this could be true. They pointed powerful telescopes at bizarre objects out at the edge of the universe - quasars. They're massive black holes perhaps a billion times heavier than the sun. They beam out brilliant radiation, like torches pointing at us from the edge of the universe.
Professor John Webb
They're very bright point sources of light which we can use as beacons of light, shining through the universe and illuminating anything that gets in the way.
NARRATION
When a cloud of matter gets in the way, the matter absorbs specific colours of the quasar light, causing those missing black bands. Now, if the laws of physics are the same everywhere, the bands should have the same pattern no matter where in the universe the quasar is.
Professor John Webb
And we found something that we didn't expect to find. So they change depending upon where you look in the universe.
Dr Graham Phillips
Yeah, I mean, that's quite remarkable. I mean, standard physics says that those absorption lines should be the same everywhere.
Professor John Webb
That's right. That's what standard physics says. It doesn't seem to be what we're seeing.
Dr Graham Phillips
That's pretty exciting stuff.
Professor John Webb
If it's right, it's very exciting, actually, yes.
NARRATION
Very exciting because it would be the first evidence the laws of physics are not set in stone, and so would at least open the door for the multiverse. But if the multiverse exists, it causes some serious conundrums, because it means there is a lot of space out there.
Associate Professor Charley Lineweaver
Well, as a matter of fact, the current data is consistent with our universe being spatially infinite, going on forever and ever and ever, and we're just seeing a small part of it. And over here there's another universe, and over here there's another universe.
NARRATION
And if there's infinite space, even the most unlikely things are bound to happen somewhere.
Associate Professor Charley Lineweaver
Anything that's possible will happen, right?
NARRATION
Lawrence Krauss puts it starkly.
Professor Lawrence Krauss
Once you get to infinity, all sorts of weird things happen, 'cause if there are an infinite number of universes over an infinite amount of time, then it means that there are an infinite number of universes that seem like ours, and in fact there are some universes in which I'm sitting there asking you the questions and you're sitting there asking me the questions. So they're almost the same, but there are other universes that are precisely the same, where everything that happens to us now is repeated an infinite number of times. There are also universes where you and I and everything we see pop into existence, via the laws of quantum mechanics, one second ago.
If we can't call it a "parallel universe" what would you call it?
It could be like this:?
I once read that if the totality of light was represented by the Empire State Building, the part of the spectrum we can see is about one floor.
That means what we can actually "see" is pretty limited. There might be a lot more to the Universe than what we can actually see. It may seem like an alternate universe, but it's actually just a part of the one that we already know about.
If you start to believe in such things, without any proof, you are moving away from seeing things as they are.
I do believe the universe is a multiverse but because "universe" means all that exists anywhere, we can put all the so-called universes in one multiverse but we are actually just making the universe bigger. The universe would already include any and all big bangs.
I think an alternate (sub)universe would have to do with timelines that all lead back to the same big bang.
If there is more than one big bang going on in the universe and each one has a multitude of alternatives then the universe would have a multitude of multiverses.
Makes me think of the Mandelbrot Set.
BUT at the end of the day, yes it is fun to play with these theories but who is ever going to prove them and what will it change for humanity? zilch