Worlds like our own

A journey through parallel realities

Imagine a world where John F. Kennedy was not assassinated in 1963, or the Beatles never broke up. In the world of multiverse, all versions of Earth follow the same laws of physics, only the reality changes. This is the basic idea of the Multiverse Theory — within the space-time continuum, there exist other dimensions where reality differs from our own, sometimes slightly, sometimes radically.

The Multiverse Theory states that there may be multiple universes (including the universe we constantly experience) that comprises everything that exists: space, time, matter, energy as well as the physical laws and constants that describe them.

Artistic impression of the Multiverse. Source: Forbes

In this context, multiple universes are referred to as parallel universes because they exist simultaneously with our own.

The theory is scientifically based on cosmological forces like black holes and errors in the Big Bang Theory. For example, scientists believe that singularity exists within a black hole, which means all physical laws cease to exist and it is impossible to predict physical behaviour.

“Philosophically, the universe has really never made things in ones. The Earth is special and everything else is different? No, we’ve got seven other planets. The sun? No, the sun is one of those dots in the night sky. The Milky Way? No, it’s one of a hundred billion galaxies. And the universe–maybe it’s countless other universes. “

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a strong believer of the multiverse theory. Source: New York Times

So, does the multiverse actually exist? Here are 7 reasons to accept that it could be a real possibility:

1. It fits our pattern of knowledge about the universe: The multiverse actually fits the progression through modern history of how humans view themselves and the universe, even if the idea of it is bizarre. We first thought that the Earth was at the centre of everything. After learning that wasn’t true, we found out that the solar system is not a significant part of the Milky Way. The Multiverse would take that pattern to its logical extreme. If the Multiverse does exist, it means that we are not special at all, as there exist infinite versions of us.
2. People Have Imagined Multiverses Since Early Times: A lot of ancient civilisations believed that the Multiverse does exist. Ancient Indian religious texts, for example, are filled with descriptions of multiple parallel universes, while the ancient Greeks also believed that there were an infinite number of worlds scattered through a similarly infinite void.
3. We Might Be a Simulation for an Advanced Civilization: In 2003, Nick Bostrom raised the question of whether what we think of as reality — that is, our particular universe — could be a digital simulation of another universe. In Bostrom’s conception, it would take 1036 calculations to create a lifelike, detailed replica of the human history. A really advanced alien civilization might have enough computing power to simulate every human who ever lived. This could prove that that there might be more computer-generated beings in existence than real ones .
4. The Universe is Too Big to Rule The Option Out: As it is difficult to prove that the Multiverse doesn’t exist, it is theoretically possible to assume it exists, even if we can’t see those parallel dimensions. The universe’s scale makes the possibility of a parallel universe more believable.
5. Observational Evidence Suggests a Multiverse Could Exist: In 2010, a team of scientists from the UK, Canada and the USA discovered four odd circular patterns in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). They hypothesized that the marks were bruises that our universe got from bumping into other universes . In 2015, Rang-Ram Chary made a similar discovery. At that point, the sky should have been pretty much empty, except for some background noise. Instead, in a particular frequency range, Chary could detect scattered patches in the map of the cosmos, areas that were about 4500 times brighter than they should have been. These evidence could suggest that a Multiverse does exist.
6. It Explains How the Universe Begins and Ends: A Multiverse could explain how the universe began and will end. Some physicists have suggested that the infinite regions of a multiverse are something called braneworlds. They exist in many dimensions, but we can’t detect them as we can only perceive the four dimensions (three space dimensions and the time dimension). Most of the time, they stay separate and out of reach.
7. It’s a Way for Reality to Be Infinite: According to Brian Greene, a noted Multiverse supporter, if we assume the universe and all the matter in it to be a deck of cards. As there are only 52 cards in a deck, there are only so many forms of matter. If the deck is shuffled enough number of times, eventually at one point, the cards dealt must repeat itself. Similarly, in an infinite universe, matter eventually would have to repeat itself, and arrange itself in similar patterns. A multiverse, with an endless number of parallel realms containing slightly different versions of everything, provides a neat, easy way to accommodate the need for repetition.

Brian Greene states that if a deck of cards is shuffled enough number of times, the cards dealt would eventually have to repeat themselves at one point. Source: Smithsonian Magazine

The debate on the Multiverse theory has gone on for centuries and will continue to go on in the future. If this theory is proven to be true, it could open up a lot of possibilities. Soon, it might be possible for us to see what would have happened if we had chosen differently.