Theoretical Physics Doesn’t Pass Monty Python Test: “Cut it Out. That’s Silly.”
What’s the Latest?
A theoretical contradiction may lie at the heart of the multiverse theory, which says that our universe is but one in a series of potentially infinite universes. It’s hard to believe that physics comes down to the sort of logic that follows, but here it is: “In the split second after the big bang, the universe is thought to have gone through an explosive growth spurt known as inflation…and every so often an inflaton would be randomly infused with extra energy, blowing a separate bubble universe into existence. That bubble would itself go through inflation and in turn blow more bubbles, leading to the idea of the bubble multiverse.”
What’s the Big Idea?
So by this thinking, once inflation starts it can never really end, and new universes are always being born–so this multiverse is infinite and endless. Now here’s where it gets good. “In such an infinite multiverse, everything that has even a slight chance of happening is virtually certain to happen–you just need to wait long enough.” Taken to its logical conclusion, that includes the spontaneous aggregation of matter so that it creates self-aware, disembodied brains. “The problem is that the starting point for our understanding of the universe and its behaviour is that humans, not disembodied brains, are typical observers.”
Read more at the New Scientist