• Question: Are there other universes?

    Asked by anon-267455 on 5 Nov 2020. This question was also asked by anon-267424, anon-270889.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 5 Nov 2020:

      This is a good question! We don’t really know for sure. There are some theories that suggest other universes exist – for example, in quantum physics, one theory is that new universes keep appearing and splitting away every time a possible choice is made on a quantum level. Another theory is that different parts of space are behind black holes, although getting through a black hole without being destroyed is basically impossible so far. And some theories suggest that there are more dimensions than the 3 (4 if you include time) we see – maybe even 11 dimensions, with different universes colliding in 11-dimension space. But we can’t see all of this for sure yet. There’s a lot we still don’t know!

    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 5 Nov 2020:

      Several scientists have come up with such ideas, however even if it was true, we have no means of communicating in any manner with them. Therefore it’s sort of like, if I can’t see it, I can’t touch it, hear it or anything else, is it really there, and does it matter given it has no effect on anything.
      Until we find a way to test the idea, it is as unproveable as anything else people think up or propose!

    • Photo: Daisy Shearer

      Daisy Shearer answered on 7 Nov 2020:

      There might be but there isn’t any solid evidence for one yet. There’s often a lot of hype around parallel universes and the multiverse, but we only really have some theories about it and nothing tangible or testable. For example, one of the interpretations of quantum mechanics is called the ‘many worlds’ interpretation and it says that all possible outcomes of a measurement of a quantum system exist but in many worlds. That is, these worlds split off into other universes each with a different outcome. String theorists also think that there might be multiple universes. But as I say, we don’t currently have any way to test these theories with any level of certainty. Personally, I am sceptical about the existence of other universes, but as a scientist, I always try to keep an open mind about these things. Maybe one day in the far future we will know for sure if other universes exist or not through experimental proof!

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