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If Weinberg's world of the very small is crammed with bits of atoms colliding and bursting into multiple parallel universes, what about the big cosmic world? Unfortunately, this is just as weird.
Although at first they absolutely gagged on it, cosmologists have reluctantly come to accept that there are probably an infinite number of real universes out there. This was forced on them because if the basic laws of our universe, like the speed of light or the strength of gravity were only slightly different from what they are - then the universe could not have evolved the way it has - to produce odd looking blobs of carbon and water that can study cosmology.
They have had to admit that the existence of our universe with its particular laws is an extremely rare event. Ever wondered what the biggest number is in the history of science? Well, the estimate for the probability of our universe happening the way it did is 10200. Doesn't look that big does it? You only begin to grasp its size when they tell you that the total number of atoms in the universe is only 1080. You get an idea of the size of these numbers if you consider that there are about a million atoms in a single grain of table salt, let alone the whole universe.
With an infinite number of universes out there, our home universe looks like being only one of every possible configuration there can be. That means; one of every possible universe that can be constructed by maths. Which means an infinite number of them.
In some, matter & anti-matter cancel each other out and nothing happens, in others galaxies do not have enough time to form. In some, gravity isn't strong enough to make stars shine, in yet others I just scratched my nose instead of sneezing. Because there are an infinite number, there is even one in which Timbuktu wins the World Cup.
I didn't just make that up, by the way. Stephen Hawking an ultimate heavyweight champion of the world who is the Lucasian Professor of maths at Cambridge university said it. And he goes on to say that multiple universes are 'science fact'.
The ultimate confirmation if you like, comes from another mega heavyweight champion of world intellect - no less a person than the Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Reece. I have actually corresponded with him in the past, and once spoke to him on the phone. He sums up by saying that our universe may stretch not just millions of times further than we can measure, but millions of powers of ten further, (his emphasis, not mine). And even that isn't all. It may itself be just one member of a possible infinite collection of universes.
Are you still there...? It's enough to blow you're mind away. Try and imagine that will you! It's better than any acid trip. Such a colossus requires you to reappraise your brain meantime...and what does it mean?
Let's go back to where we began. If everything is made of maths, what does maths have to say about bits of atoms going every-which-way at once? Parallel universes occurring in every configuration possible every split second? And trillions of other universes happening all at the same instant.
Well forever, people were convinced there could be only one great big infinity in maths. Then along came Cantor in the 19th century. He discovered that there was not just one infinity, or even a few. There are trillions upon trillions. In describing it John Barrow says, 'there is no end to this inconceivable infinity of infinities'.
When we pause to imagine what an infinite number of infinities looks like - we don't have very far to go - hard science is telling us that it's where we live!
Both the maths and the science - our most trusted and sophisticated tools for 'seeing' - are telling us that our particular reality consisting of us, the solar system and this universe, is just a 'quivering slice of mathematical consistency buried deep within an infinite ocean of all possible possibilities'. (I said that). The ultimate triumph of human reason will be to discover a Theory of Everything which as Hawking says - will answer the question of why it is that we and the universe exist.
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