Are we living in a multiverse? - Anthony Aguirre (SETI Talks)

About a decade ago, we completed an epochal transformation in the understanding of our cosmos, unraveling a broad and deep understanding of how the observable universe has evolved from a hot, dense state 13.7 billion years ago. Yet a second, even bigger transformation may now be taking place, because this understanding points to a crucial early epoch of "inflationary" cosmic expansion, during which it expanded at a stupendous rate to create the vast amount of space we can observe. But cosmologists are coming to believe that inflation may do much more: in many versions, inflation goes on forever, generating not just our observable universe but also infinitely many more such regions with similar or different properties, together forming a staggeringly complex and vast "multiverse". Dr. Aguirre will trace the genesis of this idea, explore some of its implications, and discuss how cosmologists are currently seeking ways to empirically test this idea by actually searching for hints of other "universes".

[SETIInstitute]

Thanks - that's why we video tape them, so you can watch them again and again!

[Scofield]

I was blown away, yet AGAIN when he was making the point about the other universes all being infinite

[jmmvirta]

The video's name is A Critique of Multiverses and it is found in youtube.

[Lastindependentthinker]

I have started listening to these talks while looking for signals on SETILive. on a personal note. I find 3 dimensional space i.e the void, more interesting than matter in the universe. how can it be so big?

[motz]

Great talk! The person working the OSD is unfortunately an amateur.

[astroguyz]

Infinite numbers of possible universes explains several bizarre phenomena in this universe, such as the Kardashians, Paris Hilton, Jersey Shore, etc...

[nemesis]

The universe WAS, not is, expanding. Our region of space is stable. If I was a billion light years, right now, I would see conditions the same as here, so on and so forth to any local reference frame, to an observer and and all forces. So, in a sense, we can consider every sub-quantum level point and its neighbours as the centre of a universe, effectively infinite.
Infinite temperature - think ultraviolet catastrophe solved by Max Planck, if only he was still alive.

[Nmisling]

@Zurround100 SETI is the "Search For extraterrestrial intelligence" regardless of where it is.

[jmmvirta]

Check out George Ellis on his critique of multiverses. George Ellis is said to be the scholar that knows the most about cosmology. God is still there.

[johnycannuk]

Where is your God now?

Awesome talk...

[CHistrue]

Probability arguments made with infinities are impossible.

[Gregoryt]

Ps -, 3rd point is that even if inflation is true, eternal inflation is another story. So we are at least 3 times removed from scientific verification. That is not scientific proof. And finally, there are so many variations on multiverse, it is just theory and philosophy at this time

[stevenmildred]

Hard to imagine us living in a multiverse.

[Gregoryt]

Nubbs c -- two problems. One, inflation has not even definitely proved or confirmed, likely as it may be. Two, even if true, and even if most math models of inflation suggest, as you say, a multiverse, here as well this is not definitive. There are other mathematical solution to inflation.

[vincentlecornu]

OK, let's suppose the multiverse theory is wrong (and there is a good chance that it's wrong) - how does that prove that a creator being of some kind made the universe? You seem to think that if the universe had a beginning, that means somebody created it. That doesn't follow.

[Aluminata]

So there could be a universe where he is giving the exact same lecture -  but has on a pink bow tie - then another completely identical universe where he has a pink bow tie and one less hair on his head then another where the pink bow tie, the number of hairs on his head and every thing else is identical except the history of this universe differs by the fact that Hitler had an extra hair on his head...? Seriously?

[realcygnus]

so many camera operators need to be fired is a picture of a man pointing a laser at a chart more important then the chart itself ? jeez !

[CraigCline]

If most pocket universes are sterile then maybe there is an evolutionary mechanism that directs some to produce habitats for intelligent life, increasing the odds we are here. Otherwise I should buy a lottery ticket being my luck is so good.

[zytigon]

Thanks for this good video
If Biblegod created this universe in one week does that imply there are 52 universes ?
I'm kidding of course. Try Carl Sagan, " Cosmos: A Personal Voyage " for more realistic theories

[WolfgangBrozart]

Phd and he still uses Papyrus as a font lol