[snarks_when_bored]

I would've enjoyed hearing these distinguished panelists go at it...

A couple of references:

Oldest light shows universe grew fast, researchers say [inflationary cosmology gets a big boost]

Andrei Linde, "The Self-Reproducing Inflationary Universe" [PDF file]

As for the obligatory Lisa Randall pics, I trust they'll be forthcoming...

[snarks_when_bored]

Yes, it's a ping...

[muawiyah]

Interesting that the latest theories keep tending toward the idea that what we see, isolated galaxies, linked by gravity in long chains, could very well be independent universes, and these could be interspersed with universes we can't see ~ black matter/black energy, and all of that encapsulated in a macro-universe that holds all of 'em.

Or something even worse than that ~ I am reminded of this old SciFi story where the folks discovered they were trapped in one of Philip Farmer's "Pocket Universes", and their space ships just bounced off the boundaries somewhere toward Pluto's orbit.

[SteveMcKing]

I like how bigger and bigger terms keep being invented to describe the same thing...

cosmos
universe
multiverse
theory-of-everything

(Others?)

[martin_fierro]

Gotta wonder what the anti-Marty would be like.

Rich, probably.

[siunevada]

I would've enjoyed hearing these distinguished panelists go at it...

an actual, politician-style duel

Perhaps they can bring in some South Korean legislators to show them how these things should be done.

[RichInOC]

"...Okay. That means that...our whole solar system...could be, like...one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being....This is too much! That means...one tiny atom in my fingernail could be..."
"Could be one little..."
"...tiny universe...Could l buy some pot from you?"

[Tench_Coxe]

I heard a version of this theory roughly 20 years ago.
I had pondered for a brief time, that if one could model spacetime, and know within a certain degree of certaintity the budding universe was deviating, one might be able to model what conditions in such a universe would evolve into--and, perhaps, find a way to link to it.
It was just a mental experiment at the time, but it did give me a few sleepless nights. :)

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

The idea of a multiverse is not new. Hugh Everett did his dissertation on the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics in 1957. As I understood it, his idea was that all possible quantum states are expressed.

[balrog666]

Scientists might one day create a “baby universe” in a laboratory by recreating such conditions, Kaku said. This would involve resurrecting the unimaginably high temperatures of the early universe. A spacetime foam can be recreated by literally “boiling space,” he said, adding that a sort of advanced microwave oven could do the trick.

Would the bozos of that universe worship us a gods? Would they fight Holy Wars over balrog666 vs snarks_when_bored?

What delicious possibilities!

[AntiGuv]

Very cool stuff! BTW, Michio Kaku has posted some very interesting essays on string theory and multiverses here: mkaku.org.

I especially enjoyed these two: Blackholes, Wormholes and the Tenth Dimension and Hyperspace and a Theory of Everything.

[HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath]

God can create as many or few universes as is pleasing to Him, and His Sons and Daughters (some of you). I do know one thing, there will be no shortage of land due to overcrowded conditions in eternity.

[woofie]

Al Gore can have his own universe if he wants

[Young Scholar]

Is this question really any different from questions of religion? They both seem to be metaphysical questions that are virtually untouchable by empirical science.

[metmom]

ping

[ccmay]

This stuff is fun to think about. I have three questions in mind:

1. Is there any use thinking about a parallel universe which can never be reached from ours? Isn't it a little like Schroedinger's cat, neither real nor unreal, remote from all powers of our observation?
2. If the scientists do succeed in creating a universe in a laboratory, are they not doing what the God of this universe did in Genesis/the Big Bang? Are they then worthy of worship by any life forms that develop in the new universe?
3. If things go poorly in such an experiment, could the new universe somehow consume or damage our own? Would Brahma suddenly become Shiva?

-ccm

[the anti-liberal]

Of course we live in a multiverse, and I will be the one.

[Getready]

What I find interesting is that even though these scientists
only deal with the "physical" world some of thing think
that "we" are trapped in a 3 dimensional world and cannot
perceive the other dimension...

Now just who is the "we"? Is it a being that can be
"trapped" in the physical world?
By using the term, "we" I believe they are implicitly,
and quite unobviously (to themselves) believing in the
idea that the "we" is NOT part of nature, and is separate.
Therefore they are not completely controlled by the physical world,
and by their own beliefs, show that there has to be
a supernature, or an "other than nature" (i.e. physical world)
quality about what we call life.

[wallcrawlr]

^{Revelation 4:11}Intelligent Design

[fso301]

I don't know one way or the other but even the bible and apochriphal works suggest the existence of multiple dimensions and or multiple universes.

[fso301]

apochriphal => apochryphal