[samtheman]

Why are the physical constants exactly the way we find them? Because that's the way they are in the universe we happen to find ourselves in. They are some other way in some other universe.

[atomicpossum]

I've been doing reasearch for my doctoral on g-string theory. Now, if I can just find a school which offers that as a major...

[mtbopfuyn]

According to my paycheck, inflation is bad.

[saganite]

John Kerry won the election in some alternate universe! Scary ;^)

[Ranald S. MacKenzie]

bump for later

[bkepley]

Why do we have to go that route? We still aren't certain that the universe collapses are we? And if it does and recreates forever then the universe we see today would be inevitable.

[voletti]

They are some other way in some other universe.
By definition, there can be no other universe. It would be come a 'multiverse' then. In any case, am pretty mystified by all these abstract goings-on in the physics world nowadays. If something isn't testable, how can we accept it as truth? It would then become an axiom - that which can neither be proved nor disproved - and mathematicians have long known you can play god and create different consistent systems of study just by changing the axioms. We only of course choose the interesting ones. Maybe G-d, if He exists, does the same, eh?

[Pietro]

ping

[kinsman redeemer]

Ping for when I'm smart.

[WarEagle]

I'm convinced that string theory is nothing more than high-fallutin' BS invented by stoned graduate students.

[Flightdeck]

Doesn't the casimir effect prove a non-zero "cosmological constant"?

[SalukiLawyer]

Why are physicists taking the idea of multiple universes seriously now? ... Without any explanation of nature's fine-tunings we will be hard pressed to answer the ID critics.

Take out all the imaginary scientism between the two quotes and there you go! Not so hard after all.

By the way, the argument that we find the universe improbably friendly to life because we are alive in this universe is neither an explanation nor an argument, but merely begs the question. In these imaginary other universes, does conscious life exist in gasseous form in starless space? How about flying monkeys? In an infinite number of universes, surely there is one with flying monkeys! Cthulu? Wise and patriotic Democracts?

[IronJack]

inflation implies: a huge universe with patches that are very different from one another. The bottom line is that we no longer have any good reason to believe that our tiny patch of universe is representative of the whole thing.

What would differ in those "anomolous" patches? Would they not conform to the same physical laws that govern this "patch?" Are we supposed to believe that Relativity extends to the very fabric of reality, and that Truth itself varies from locale to locale?

Would an intelligent observer from Tau Ceti IX see a universe governed by different laws, arising from completely different origins? Can we no longer rely on the assumption that certain values are immutable and universal?

Intriguing, but I suspect more of a parlor exercise than a physical reality.

[Wiz]

Shall we go after the M-theory and trash the string theory?

[joesnuffy]

Is string theory in trouble?

I'm a frayed knot

[finnigan2]

"The universe is big. Really, really big. No one knows just how big it really is."

- Opening lines of "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".

[aposiopetic]

But the belief that the universe beyond our causal horizon is homogeneous is just as speculative and just as susceptible to the Popperazzi.

Seems true. Nice turn of phrase, too. In my falsificationist persona, I suppose I am one of them.

[Grut]

A 'multiverse' in which every possibility happens blows Hell out of the experimental method, though.

[DOGEY]

How is the belief in alternate universes different than the belief in a deity?

[Eastbound]

According to Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe", we are 'toast' -- or just another slice of bread in the loaf.

The 'saddle' theory rings a bell, though. Make it a saddle that saddles the bottom and sides of the horse as well and you have a torus-like structure -- the old jelly donut theory.

Just watched the DVD Nova series on "The Elegant Universe" the other night. Very colorful and thought it presented some great models.

I can't add anything here, just making an observation.

I think space and matter only defines two aspects of the universe. Add time and you have a tri-universe, each aspect directly related and an emanation of the other.

So add them up and what do you get? Space + Matter + Time = 3 separate but unrelated units.

But multiplied, as Space x Matter x Time = the entire volume = 1 triuniverse.

[Boundless]

> Is string theory in trouble?

It always had been hanging by a thread.

Cosmology theories have changed radically more than once
during my lifetime, and may do so several times more.