Either people are very lucky, and our Universe is so unique, or, in fact, there are other Universes that are not similar to ours.
It is easy to imagine that there are other universes that are different from ours. They are governed by completely different laws of physics and, for example, intelligent life could not arise in them. Should we be surprised that there is such a Universe as ours, in which humanity appeared? What if our universe is only part of a larger complex of universes? In an article for The Conversation, scholar Martin Rees of the University of Cambridge, UK reflects on these questions.
According to Rees, scientists can more or less accurately trace the development of the history of the cosmos to the very first second after the Big Bang. But what happened before that? This question is more difficult to answer. Most likely it was in this first second that all the main foundations of our Universe appeared.
“Everything that happens in our universe can be described using fundamental constants. But our theories do not explain what values these constants should have. Instead, we must measure them and substitute their values into our equations in order to accurately describe the nature of the cosmos,” Reese says.
Big luck or something else?
Physicists have found that if some of these parameters are changed by just a few percent, then the universe will be a system in which life cannot appear.
“That is, some argue that people were just lucky and, by a happy coincidence, such a Universe appeared. But there is another explanation – we live in a multiverse, in different parts of which there are different laws of physics and different values of fundamental constants. In most of these Universes, life does not may appear, and only a few regions of the multiverse are habitable,” Rees says.
It is easy to imagine that there are other universes that are different from ours. They are governed by completely different laws of physics and, for example, intelligent life could not arise in them. Should we be surprised that there is such a Universe as ours, in which humanity appeared? What if our universe is only part of a larger complex of universes?
Photo: NY times
According to the scientist, there is a huge part of space that is invisible to us. Given the constant expansion of the Universe, most likely humanity will never be able to see thousands, and maybe millions of galaxies that are beyond our observations.
“Most likely, this huge part of the cosmos appeared as a result of“ our ”Big Bang and, probably, the same laws of physics govern it. But was“ our ”Big Bang the only one?” asks Rhys.
Too many big bangs at the same time
It is believed that after the “birth” of our universe experienced a period when it doubled in size every trillion trillion trillionth of a second. But some physicists suggest that at the very beginning there were completely different physical laws and there should have been an “eternal” appearance of Big Bangs, each of which gave rise to a new Universe. That is, there may be a huge number of other dimensions in which our physics does not operate.
“It turns out that our forces of nature can only have a local effect on our own part of the cosmos. If so, then it’s worth considering how the conditions in a certain Universe lead to the appearance of life, and which ones lead to the fact that it cannot appear,” says Reese.
According to the scientist, people should be ready to accept the fact that, theoretically, our cosmos is only a part of something much larger. After all, for a long time people believed that the Sun revolves around the Earth and our planet in general is the center of the universe. It turned out that this was not the case, and later people learned that there are millions of star systems in our galaxy and that there are millions of galaxies in our observable Universe.
It is believed that after the “birth” of our universe experienced a period when it doubled in size every trillion trillion trillionth of a second. But some physicists suggest that at the very beginning there were completely different physical laws and there should have been an “eternal” appearance of Big Bangs
Photo: NBC News
“We don’t yet know if there were other Big Bangs. Perhaps one day we will have reason to believe that they existed. This can be taken seriously if there is a theory that can explain what happened in the first second after the Big Bang and, if it finds its confirmation, then maybe there will be reasons to think that the Big Bang was not alone, “says Reece.
The multiverse may exist, but it will be difficult to comprehend it
According to Rees, some skeptics say that, scientifically, you can’t seriously talk about the existence of a multiverse.
“I don’t agree with that. Yes, we can’t see other universes, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. We can’t observe the interior of black holes, but we believe what modern physics says about what’s going on here. Because these theories consistent with a lot of things we can see,” says the scientist.
According to Rees, perhaps humanity in its current form will not be able to fully understand the existence of the multiverse. It’s like asking monkeys to understand quantum physics. In fact, the reality that surrounds us can be so difficult for human understanding that only some of our very distant descendants can explain it. But this does not mean that the theory of multiverses should be rejected and called anti-scientific, Rees summarizes.
Focus has already written about the emergence of a new theory, which says that in the very early universe there was one force of nature, which then split into four forces known to us. As a result of this separation, the Universe changed and peculiar faults appeared in space-time. And it is possible to prove it.
