Posted on 04/21/2007 4:07:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Tegmark has categorized four types of parallel universes: Level I universes include identical copies of our world physically separated from our observable universe by cosmic inflation... The Level II universes involve parallel worlds with different laws of physics existing on a landscape of possible vacuums, as has become popular in string theory. Level III parallel worlds are implied by taking the unitary mathematics of quantum theory seriously... The most extreme interpretation produces Level IV universes, where alternative mathematical structures produce universes with different laws of physics... Using the prediction of black holes coming from Einstein's General Theory of Relativity as an analogy, Tegmark states that the Theory of Inflation leads to Level I worlds, the addition of an energy landscape, as popularized in string theory leads to Level II, unitary quantum mechanics to Level III, and ultimately the realization that our physical world is isomorphic to a mathematical structure invokes Type IV.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanchronicle.com ...
OMG, fascinating, thanks!
Freeper Physicist recommended this guy's webpage a couple of years ago. If you haven't paid it a visit yet, it's well worth it.
Poll: the Pythagorean says, "all is number", I say...
- How many finger am I holding up?
- What about letters?
- Must have been a big number that you smoked.
- What's the number for 9-1-1?
- Other (please specify)
Here’s a recommendation of a book by Douglas Hofstadter (you know him already) that explains Goedel’s disembowlment of positivism in terms that many will finally understand—”I Am A Strange Loop.” The rest of the book is about stuff many of us probably have already thought of, but it is sort of entertaining and there is some autobiographical material.
Rating—Five recursive loops out of five
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