Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe - Is The Multiverse Real?

Episode Date: January 22, 2019

What is the multiverse and is it real? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Why are TSA rules so confusing? You got a hood of you. I'll take it all! I'm Manny. I'm Noah. This is Devin. And we're best friends and journalists with a new podcast called No Such Thing, where we get to the bottom of questions like that.

Why are you screaming? I can't expect what to do. Now, if the rule was the same, go off on me. I deserve it. You know, lock him up. Listen to No Such Thing on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. No such thing.

I'm Dr. Joy Hardin-Bradford, host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. I know how overwhelming it can feel if flying makes you anxious. In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett and I discuss flight anxiety. What is not a norm is to allow it to prevent you from doing the things that you want to do. The things that you were meant to do. to listen to therapy for black girls on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast our iHeart radio music festival presented by capital one is coming back to

las vegas september 19th and 20th on your feet streaming live only on hulu ladies and gentlemen brian adams ed sherin fade chlorilla jelly roll chan fogerty lil wane l l l. colchay maria carey maroon five sammy hagar tape mccray the offspring tim mcraw Tickets are all sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today. AXS.com. Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you had made different choices?

You mean like if I had tea this morning instead of coffee? Yeah, no, like if 600 people had voted differently in Florida in the year 2000. Well, the whole world would be different in that case. Sometimes I wonder, like, what would have happened if I didn't go on that first date with my spouse, or, you know, we went to a different restaurant, or went for coffee instead of dinner. Yeah, I know, or like if you had conceive your children one minute earlier or a minute later. It's incredible, the thing about all the other different lives you might have lived. But the amazing thing is that there are some physicists out there that think that those other U's, they might be real, they might be out there, they might be living your other lives. And this is not a theory or an idea.

They think it might be reality. That's right. Somewhere out there, there's another podcast talking about whether you might be real. Hi, I'm Jorge number 176. And in this universe, I am a cartoonist. And I'm Daniel number zero, and I'm a particle physicist. I smash particles together at the large Hajon collider.

Oh, wow. So this time we get Daniel number zero, like the original. This is the prototype, yes. So, you know, it might not all be functioning. There's still some bugs being worked out. This is the beta version of Daniel. Daniel 0.0. Daniel, the mold.

And this is our podcast. Daniel and Jorge explain the universe. And this time we're not just going to take. take the universe and explain it to you in a way that actually makes sense, we're going to go bigger. We're going to go beyond. We're going to go multi. We're going going plaid. Beyond the universe. Bigger than the universe. That's right. Bigger than the universe. We're going to think about the depths of infinity. What is infinity? How far can you go? How infinite is the universe? Are there other universes out there?

I know this sounds like a crazy call-in show. You might have at three in the morning on an AM radio station, but it's a real science podcast. Today on the program The Multiverse. Multiverse, Multiverse, Multiverse, Multiverse, Multiverse, Multiverse. It's echoing through all those other universes, right? Oh, that's right, yeah. The Multiverse is an amazing concept, mostly because it gets you to think about the concept of infinity,

you know, how if things really go on forever and you get to try everything, then anything that's possible eventually will happen. No matter how improbable, it's probably, happening in an infinite multiverse. That's right. That's the wonderful mind-bending concept of the multiverse. That's what makes it such an attractive, like philosophical idea. I mean, the multiverse is really penetrated into culture. I know that because when I was typing multiverse into my phone, it auto-corrected

for multiverse. Like, that's a word in my phone's library, which means, you know, it must be a real thing, right? So not multiplication, not, you know, something basic. the multiverse was the go to with multi. Yeah, it's a really smart device. It's like, oh, are you talking about the multiverse? Yeah, yeah, let's complete the multiverse. My phone is totally ready for this podcast. I know all about the multiverse.

The machines know. That's right. So in today's episode, we thought we would take the concept of the multiverse and break it down for you, explain it to you. What is it? Why is it a real thing? Why do scientists talk about it? And are they actually crazy?

Is it even possible that there is more than one universe out there? That's right. It does not even make sense. And as usual, Daniel went out and asked people on the street if they knew what the multiverse was. Before you hear them, think to yourself, what is your idea of the multiverse? How would you answer this question? Here's what people had to say. Do you know what the multiverse is?

Not really. Have you heard of the multiverse? No, I haven't. You heard of the multiverse? No. No clue? No, uh-uh. My impression from having been around this kind of science for a few years is that it's a bit fantastical and it does not seem likely to be the truth.

I think of it as like a series of like our universes that like all kind of connect to it to other but are separate. That's from comic books, isn't it? Okay, so most of the people didn't seem to know what the multiverse was, which was surprising to me as a comics fan who is very familiar with the DC Universe Multiverse. and the Marvel multiverse. That was my favorite answer. The one person who said, isn't that a thing from comic books? I love that answer.

I love that answer. And I should reveal a secret, Jorge, which is one of these answers was from my wife. Oh. I will not tell you which one. I will not tell you which one and for the purpose of continuing her anonymity, but one of those is her answers.

Interesting. You mean the one with a beautiful voice, right? The one where she's like, this is a ridiculous question. I can't believe you're interviewing me for your podcast. There's so many better things to do. I'm trying to make dinner here. No, I make dinner.

Excuse me, no, no. I make dinner. I interviewed her while I was making dinner. Oh, right. Anyway. But a lot of people, yeah, do they just haven't even heard of it, right? Yeah. Some people haven't heard of it at all. Yeah.

It's interesting. And this is one of these words that you would think sort of explain itself just with the word, multiverse, like a multiple universe. And nobody sort of even tried to guess. I don't know. I don't think that explains itself. I mean, if you ask me the question, what is a multiverse?

I might say, it's a poem with multiple stanzas, you know, like multiverse. I would necessarily think crazy physics theory that spans the depths of infinity. Or comic book concepts. And, you know, I have a quibble with the word, you know, like, if universe is supposed to mean everything, then how can there, by definition, be a multiverse, right? Like, you can't have multiple everythings. It's like a uni-universe. That's right.

If I say, give me all your money, and you give me all your money, and then you still have money, then you haven't really given me all your money, right? Uh-huh. I want to rob the multi-bank. What is the multiverse? The multiverse is a concept in physics, which tries to grapple with infinity. And it grapples with infinity in multiple different ways. So there's the multiverse, but it's actually a multiverse.

multiple different multiverse theories, right? But they all share one thing in common, which is that they're trying to explain when there's an arbitrariness. They're trying to grapple with the fact that our universe seems random. Like, it's this way and not that other way. And the way they explain that is by suggesting

maybe every way is explored by the multiverse, and we just happen to live in this one. Right. And so when you find something in the universe, which seems like it could have been different, and you wonder, why is it this and not something else, The multiverse is there to coddle you and say, well, maybe everything is explored somewhere and there's no reason for it to be this and not the other. It's just random. Right. So that's kind of the reason why physicists consider it. But as a concept, what does it mean? It means multiple universes, right? It's a contraction of multiple universes.

Yeah, it means multiple universes. But then again, different physicists mean different things by that. And so there's a guy named Max Tegmark. He's a really smart guy. I read his book. It's called Our Mathematically Universe. and it's a fascinating book. It's like 600 pages. It's well written. But in it, he has a really nice categorization of the different kinds of multiverses. So I thought we'd follow that. Okay, so wait, there's like multi-multi-multi-verses.

That's right. Multi-Multi-Multi-Multi-Verces. Is it all just under the Uni-Multi-Multi-universe? That's right. Exactly. They all have the same agent, actually, so you can just pay them all directly. Okay, so you're saying there's a way to classify

the different versions, of the idea of the multiverse. Yeah, that's right. I feel like we're like three layers into the inception here. Be prepared for more levels. I mean, can we just sort of talk about what it, like, what is one version of the multiverse?

It's like the idea that there are multiple versions of like our universe is just one version of the universe and there might be other versions of the universe out there. Right? That's the kind of basic idea, right? That's the whole overall arching framework, But what the multi means depends on what you mean by the uni, right? So, for example, so let's get concrete, right?

All right. Some people think about the observable universe as our universe. That's just everything we can see, right? Remember, you can't see the whole universe because light doesn't travel infinitely fast. It travels at the speed of light. And so you can only see as far as light has had time to travel in the history of the universe. Right. It's everything we can see because there might be stuff that we can't see in the universe.

Exactly. There's other stuff out there. Now, some people think, oh, the multiverse is all these different bubbles. There's like my observable universe, and then somewhere super far away, maybe there's another me. And that other me has an observable universe that's centered around them, okay? And so from that concept, the multiverse is probing the fact that the universe seems to have started randomly. Like, why do we have the Milky Way? And why does the Milky Way look the way it does and not like another galaxy?

You can trace that all the way back to, like, the initial condition. of the universe. The arrangement of molecules in the very, very early universe, which inevitably led to the Milky Way. What if that arrangement had been a tiny bit different, right? You've had coffee instead of tea, you had taken that break differently or whatever. Some tiny thing had been different than the Milky Way would look different. So that simplest multiverse is just a way of saying every possible initial condition for the universe started somewhere else. And so all those other possibilities might be out there. There's a version of Jorge, you know, with blonde hair and there's a version of the earth where there's big blind blue dragons streaking

through the sky all the time. Right. But you're sort of assuming that the space we're in, our universe, goes on forever, infinity. Yes. And you're saying that a version of the multiverse is one in which if you just keep going in one direction, at some point, things will start to kind of repeat itself, but maybe not quite the same way. That's right, because they start from different initial conditions, right? Okay, but they're still the same universe. Yeah, it's the same space, right? Okay, so that's one idea. So it's the same space and the same laws of physics. But remember, what is the concept that that answers? What problem in physics does that address? The problem in physics it addresses is the fact that, you know, we don't know why we had

this set of initial conditions and not some other, right? Why are the particles that started off this observable universe arranged in that way and not another? And this is just a way of saying, it doesn't matter because every possibility is tried. So we don't have to answer that question anymore. But why do physicists have so much trouble with this concept? Like, why couldn't we just be a random role of the die? And that's just the way it is. Why does it need, why does

there need to be every possible rule of the die? Are you, you're basically asking me why do physicists look for answers? I mean, that's the job. You know, you look at the university and say, why is it this and not that? Is there meaning to it? Or is it random? Right? Because if there's meaning to it,

then you can get some insight. You could have just said, hey, look, there's a hundred elements the periodic table and that's all there is and why that hundred elements i don't know it was just random right well i mean no i mean in the sense that it could be it's like i have five dollars in my pocket and you know i could spend time thinking about why i have five dollars or i could spend an infinite amount of time thinking about why i don't have six dollars seven dollars eight dollars ten dollars do you know what i mean like why can i just be happy that with the fact that i have five dollars well i think you hit the nail on the head physicists are never having that's the

problem they don't have any money it's due to our deep-seated depression that we need to answer this question. No, we want to know why. And the answer, it's just a random choice, is not satisfying. Okay. But this seems to be like the most vanilla version of the multiverse. You're just saying that it's a multiverse, one version of the multiverse is just that it's so big and there's sort of different neighborhoods where different things could have happened. That's right. So that's the most vanilla. So now let's go to chocolate chip. Let's get to this slightly more interesting multiverse. Let's add some flavor. What if in other parts of space, deep, deep, deep, far away.

Maybe it wasn't just the initial conditions of how the particles were arranged. But maybe the constants of the laws of physics themselves are different. Like, what if the mass of an electron is different? A billion light years away. Or the strength of gravity is different,

a billion light years away. Because there's nothing that says that's not possible. There's nothing that says that's not possible because we have no reason to explain what the mass of the electron is. We have no reason to explain why gravity has the strength that does, right?

And so you think, well, maybe they're just random. So that's a way to answer. It's like, well, oh, it's just a random number and every possibility is tried eventually and we're just in the one that happens to be this one. We're just in the neighborhood where the electron weighs, you know, 0.6 EV. Exactly. And there's two varieties of this one, right?

There's either the laws of physics are different somewhere else in our very, very large universe or you have like different spaces So like these universes are not connected. Like there's the space of our universe and somehow there's another universe with a different set of laws of physics because the masses of the electron is different

and the strength of gravity is different and those spaces don't necessarily have to be connected. What do you mean? Like you can't travel in a straight line from one area to the other one because something would stop you? Yeah, that one makes them a little bit more sense because it's weird to have different masses

of the electrons in the same space. I mean, I guess it's possible, right? but it seems somehow more comforting if those other universes with different laws of physics were somehow disconnected from ours. Okay, but what would stop you from going to that other universe?

Well, if it's not connected to ours, you just can't get there. We had a whole podcast about like the shape of space, right? And we talked about how space could be infinite or it could be closed. It could be that you could travel forever and come back to where you started, et cetera. It's like close pockets of space.

Yeah, it could also be disconnected, right? You could have two, separate pockets of space that you just can't travel from one to the other. Like bubbles of space, right? And then if you have two, you could have three, you could have four. You could have a Jillian, right? Why not? There it's on sale. Take as many as you like. Okay, so let's get into the other types of multiverses. But first, let's take a quick break. Imagine that you're on an airplane and all of a sudden you hear this. Attention passengers. The pilot is having...

having an emergency and we need someone, anyone, to land this plane. Think you could do it? It turns out that nearly 50% of men think that they could land the plane with the help of air traffic control. And they're saying like, okay, pull this, until this. Do this. I can do it my eyes close. I'm Mani.

I'm Noah. This is Devon. And on our new show, no such thing. We get to the bottom of questions like these. Join us as we talk to the leading expert on overconfidence. Those who lack expertise lack the expertise they need to recognize that they lack expertise.

And then, as we try the whole thing out for real, wait, what? Oh, that's the run right. I'm looking at this thing. See? Listen to no such thing on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hola, it's HoneyGerman.

And my podcast, Grasasas Come Again, is back. This season, we're going even deeper into the world of music and entertainment. with raw and honest conversations with some of your favorite Latin artists and celebrities. You didn't have to audition? No, I didn't audition. I haven't audition in like over 25 years.

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But the whole pretending and cold, you know, it takes a toll on you. Listen to the new season of Grasasasas Come Again as part of my Cultura podcast network on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, sis, what if I could promise you you never had to listen to a condescending finance bro? Tell you how to manage your money again. Welcome to Brown Ambition.

This is the hard part when you pay down those credit cards. If you haven't gotten to the bottom of why you were racking up credit or turning to credit cards, you may just recreate the same problem a year from now. When you do feel like you are bleeding from these high interest rates, I would start shopping for a debt consolidation loan, starting with your local credit union, shopping around online, looking for some online lenders because they tend to have fewer fees and be more affordable. Listen, I am not here to judge. It is so expensive in these streets.

I 100% can see how in just a few months you can have this much credit card debt when it weighs on you. It's really easy to just like stick your head in the sand. It's nice and dark in the sand. Even if it's scary, it's not going to go away just because you're avoiding it. And in fact, it may get even worse. For more judgment-free money advice, listen to Brown Ambition on the IHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Okay, so we're in the chocolate chip flavor multiverse, the one where literally the universes are

like chocolate chips, you know, like the little chocolate chips sprinkled in, on the ice cream of infinity. Yeah, exactly. And each one could be infinite, right? And then you can think of them as like layers in a pastry, or you can think of them as chocolate chips or something, or you could think maybe Daniel should have eaten something before he did this podcast, or because all of his analogies seem to be about food. But yeah, that's the general idea.

Okay. That there could be other universes with different constants of the laws of physics, which would have, you know, a big impact. Because if the electron weighed a different amount, everything would be different. If neutrons had different, if the force of gravity or the force of the strong force were different, the place would look different. Oh, I see. Because all these numbers, you know, these constants in the laws of physics, they seem to be random. It's kind of what you're saying, right? Well, we don't have explanations for them. That's not the same as they're random, right?

One explanation for not knowing why the numbers are what they are is, oh, they're random. But there is no explanation. And so we can just sort of put the question aside. I see. It's possible that the electron weighs this much because of some mathematical, fundamental. you know, construction of the universe. Yeah, exactly. Like, say, for example, I lose 200 bucks. And the very same day, you tell me, hey, look, I found 200 bucks.

Well, that could be random, right? Or there could be a simpler explanation, like, you owe me 200 bucks, right? Yeah. Right. You don't sound persuaded. No, I'm saying this is all hypothetical. Yeah, exactly.

So, you know... I actually owe you $300. Oh, yeah, okay. I'll wait for the check. I want to pay it an ice cream, please. The goal of physics, remember, is to explain these things. It's not just to say, well, that's kind of a mystery, head scratch, maybe it's random, right? It's to say, what could explain it?

Is there a deeper theory of physics that doesn't have these arbitrary numbers in it, right? That can explain why the electron is the way it is, and the eggs is the way it is, right? That would be a better theory of physics. Like, just saying it's random is just not satisfactory to a physicist. That's right. To me, it's not satisfactory at all. It's like saying, stop asking questions. Okay. So then you have to posit the idea that maybe it's not random. And if it's not random, one possible

explanation is that they all exist. You have to pause that it is random. And then, right, and that every possibility is tried somewhere and that this ours was just chosen randomly. Oh, I see. Okay. All right. All right. So let's go past chocolate chip. Okay. What's another flavor of multiverse? This is, I would say this is like the rainbow sherbet flavor of the multiverse. Are there 27 flavors of multiverse? No, there's only four. This one is the quantum mechanics multiverse.

This one says, you know, what happens when a particle has to make a random choice, right? The Schrodinger's cat is either dead or alive and it's random. A particle goes to the left slid or the right slit. It's random. It's very uncomfortable for there to be no reason why it chooses one and not the other. So this is version of quantum mechanics called the multi-worlds hypothesis, multi-worlds interpretation, where both happen. The universe splits and both things happen.

The particle goes into the left slit and the right slit. Schrodinger's cat is dead in one universe and alive in the other one. So every quantum interaction generates another universe where the other random thing has happened. So every choice of every electron and quantum particle in all of existence, every time it makes a decision generates a whole new universe. Yeah, it's not a tiny theory, right? I mean, we judge these theories based on like,

how simple are they? How compactly can you explain everything? And this theory generates a whole entire universe for every particle interaction ever, right? And that's a lot of universes. So it's not a whole lot of simplicity. Is the idea that these things get generated or is just that everything,

every possibility exists at the same time? Do you know what I mean? Like, is it kind of like a, it actually pops into existence? Is it into the past as well as the future? Yeah. No, I think they are created in that moment. They only start from when the choice happened. Yeah, because they split, right?

So the number of universes is growing. Oh. And we all just exist at the same time, like in the same spot in the universe, in reality. Do you know what I mean? Like, are we on top of each other? That's not a well-defined question, right? We're not in the same space because. you know, our past is different from the other universe's past, right?

In our past, the cat is dead, or in their past, the cat is alive. And so we can't interact with them at all. They would be like in a different space. I mean, it would be a universe, it would be just as valid. There'd be ice cream and pretzels and all sorts of stuff in that universe as well, although it would just be slightly different. And we can't travel from one to the other. They're like causally disconnected, right?

Because they have a different past history. Right. So you can't get from one of the other. So where is that one? one, that question requires you to, like, put both of them in some space and then answer the question of how to get from one to the other, but they're just different. You know, they're like, it's like asking, how close is the page in this book to that page and that other book in China, you know, like, they're in different books, you know?

Right. Okay. Yeah. So that's the quantum mechanical one. That was sort of mind-blowing. And before people think, oh, that's ridiculous. Remember that there is no satisfactory answer to the question in quantum mechanics of how that randomness has chosen. Why the electron

turn left and not right? Yes, exactly. Why left and not right? And so that randomness is frustrating, right? And you'd like to have an answer. And the answer we have from quantum mechanics of the Copenhagen interpretation, the alternative to the multi-worlds, says that it makes a choice. The universe throws a dice,

right? Like, that's kind of crazy also. You know, like where is this dice? Who's in charge of throwing it? How does it work? You know, is it really random? Why not? I find it natural. Doesn't, you know, like the university made the decision and that's what it is. You like to live in a very decisive universe

that just like moves forward. Yeah, you know. Okay, so that's the quantum mechanics multi-world version of a multiverse. Yeah, exactly. And so you're saying there's a fourth type. Right, and so we're getting crazier and crazier. Yeah, that was the rainbow sherbet.

So now, it's like, I don't know, this is the version of the multiverse where you like, empty the freezer and mix everything together in a blender. Chocolate to vanilla, rainbow. Rainbow, sure, but pistachio, right, put in some liquorish in there. This is the idea that every possible theory of physics has its own universe, right? And to think about this, you have to think about the relationship between physics and math. So we use math to describe what's happening in the physical universe, right?

But sometimes you can come up with a theory that doesn't reflect what's actually happening, right? And this happens all the time. Physicists come up with ideas like, oh, maybe the universe works this way. I have a beautiful mathematical theory, which could describe a universe. But then they go and they check it and no, it doesn't describe our universe. You mean like I could say F equals 3M.A. Yeah. And that would be a theory of a universe, but it wouldn't describe what's happening around me.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, not that specific example, but that's the general idea. construct a different set of physical laws that are self-consistent, right? They have to be self-consistent, non-contradictory, and have all the right mathematical properties. There are more theories of physics than just the one that describes our universe, right? So Max Tegmark, he thinks that the universe is mathematical, right? That because the universe can be represented by a mathematical construct,

which is, you know, laws of physics, that means that it is those laws of physics, which means that if there are other laws, laws of physics that you could put together, they also have their own real universes out there. And somewhere out there, there is a universe following F equals 3M.A. Or whatever the other laws of physics are. Ah, not just the constant in our formulation of the laws of physics, but just like a whole different equation. Yeah.

I mean, imagine far in the future, we've answered all the questions about the constants. We know why the electron has a mass it is, why the Higgs is, whether gravity, all this stuff. We still have the laws themselves. And we have to wonder, like, why these laws? Why does the universe follow these laws and not these other very reasonable set of laws that my math professor over there put together and could work for his own universe, right?

Really? Why these and not some other? So, like, what are some things that could change mathematically? Do you know what I mean? Like, F doesn't equal M.A. F equals M.A. Is that the only physics equation you know, Jorge?

Because you keep going back to that one. I'm going to challenge you. Give me another physics equation. I mean, I could say things like the Lagrangian and potential energy, but, you know, I'm not sure a lot of people understand that. No, that's exactly right. Like, there are, I mean, even the whole concept of how energy works, right?

Like, we talked at another podcast about the theory of everything, how everything we're discovering is just the consequence of the universe at its lowest level. You know, is the universe at its lowest level strings? And they have some interaction, and everything follows from that. Or are they tiny quantum loops? Or are they point particles in the way they interact? Right. Everything that makes the universe, the university, comes from its basic structure.

And so you could ask, like, could its basic structure be different? Could those rules of interaction be different, right? Yeah, and you can start from a totally different point and say, I'm going to build a universe out of tiny puppies, right? And they interact in this way. And then you can get a universe, right? Like, build a universe, what would it look like? Maybe it wouldn't be very interesting.

Maybe it wouldn't have this rich, complex structure that we have, right? But it's a valid universe. You could have a universe with nothing in it, a completely empty universe, right? There you go. Nothing in it? interactions, boom, there's a theory of physics. That might be out there, right? That's the idea.

That's the idea that if there's a consistent set of laws, then it exists, right? That would be like the all-black chocolate, the deep chocolate with nothing in it. Okay, so let me see if I can break this down. There's four kinds of multiverses. The first kind of multiverse is one where it was just so big that you can live in different neighborhoods of it. That's right. And which might be different versions of each other, just because space is infinite and you're at some point going to repeat this universe, but maybe slightly different

within our own still sort of universe space. Exactly. And those different neighborhoods are all different because they started slightly differently in the very beginning. And that's the randomness that that first vanilla multiverse is exploring. Okay. The very beginning of how the particles were put together. Okay.

Version number two, the chocolate chip is, wait, is that the chocolate chip? Yeah, the chocolate chip is that maybe there are other pockets in our universe where the constant of the loss of physics are different and then there's a version the quantum mechanics version where it says every time you open the box and the cat dies that generates a whole universe and there's one where the loss of physics

itself, the math, changes from universe to universe. That's right, yeah. And for comic book fans, we can have a level 5 which is Marvel Universe versus DC universe versus independent upstart comic universe. Yeah, but then you had infinite crisis on infinite earth and that

all collapsed and then you had to Reboot 52 a few years ago, and there's a version of the universe where the D.C. movies are actually good, but, you know, those are incredible. I like the D.C. movies. They are dark. Yes, they are good. I am pro-D.C. Oh, man. You are the anti-Daniel. That's right. We're going to have a D.C. versus Marvel throwdown. On that note, let's take a quick break. Imagine that you're on an airplane and all of a sudden you hear this. Attention passengers.

The pilot is having an emergency and we need someone, anyone to land this plane. Think you could do it? It turns out that nearly 50% of men think that they could land the plane with the help of air traffic control. And they're saying like, okay, pull this, until this. Do this, pull that, turn this. It's just, I can do it my eyes close. I'm Manny. I'm Noah.

This is Devon. And on our new show, No Such Thing, we get to the bottom of questions like these. Join us as we talk to the leading expert on overconfidence. Those who lack expertise lack the expertise they need to recognize that they lack expertise. And then, as we try the whole thing out for real. Wait, what? Oh, that's the runway. I'm looking at this thing.

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So that's, that's kind of the breakdown of all the different kinds of multiverses. But at the course, the same idea is that there are different versions of our universe out there in existence. That's right. My big question is, are we ever going to know if these other universes exist? Like, is it even possible to verify that they're? that they exist, and could we get there ever? The short answer is probably not, right?

And the long answer is it depends on the flavor of multiverse we're talking about. But the simplest one, we're talking about, you know, things that are just sort of far away, then yeah, you just wait long enough. And eventually, light from there will reach us. And we will see that other version of you that married that other person and, you know, didn't have kids and gets to spend their money on cool bicycles and cars and all sorts of stuff. And you can answer the question, what I've been happy, Wow.

If you could zip through the universe, you would eventually find another Earth. Yeah. If the universe really is infinite and the initial conditions are random, then everything that's possible will happen, and you just have to go far enough away. Max Tegmar tried to calculate, like, how far is that away from us is that other you? You got some ridiculous numbers, like 10 to the 10 to the 100. So like, I mean, that's a number that's bigger than I can even imagine. Remember, it's 10 to the 80 is the number of particles in the universe.

10 to the 10 to the 100 is like a gigabillion. But in principle, that person is out there. It's out there. It's just separated by distance from us. Yeah. So that's one possible multiversity you could actually test, but it would take forever. And so it's not really satisfying. The other flavors are mostly different spaces, you know, like the ones where the laws of physics are different, or quantum mechanics has made a different choice.

Those universes we can't ever visit, we can't interact with them, almost by construction. no way to interact with them. And so if you can't interact with them, you can't like send a probe or get data from them, you know, then there's no way to ever prove that they exist. You know, there's no way to ever say, here, we can visit them or we can demonstrate conclusively that it's real and not just an idea. Like we can't ever touch it, touch those other universes or get there, but you're saying that you were telling me today that we might be able to prove mathematically that they exist. Yeah, there's a nice argument, um, by. several people, including Sean Carroll, that says that what if you had a theory of physics which required the multiverse, right?

What if the only theory of physics we could come up with here required there to be other universes? And the hard work there is figuring that out. Meaning in theory, you could know that there's a multiverse and that other multiverses exist, but you could still not be able to touch them or visit them. Yeah, exactly. It's hard to come up with a theory that absolutely requires the existence of the multiverse. The unique solution to the theory is that the multiverse exists. So, in principle, I think Sean is right.

It's possible. But I think it's very difficult to construct that kind of theory to prove the multiverse exists. So it kind of seems like it's kind of a, if we can't ever go to these other universes or visit them, it's almost like it's pretty much just the universe. That's right. The one we have is pretty much it. For us, it's pretty much the only one we have, right? for all practical purposes. And I think that's where we should focus.

And the reason I'm down on the multiverse is that I feel like a little bit, it's giving up. You know, it's saying, okay, we don't know what the mass of the electron is, but maybe there is no answer. Maybe the electron is different here and somewhere else. And so let's just stop asking. And I never want to stop asking, right?

I always want to say, maybe there's another theory that explains that maybe there's a way to unravel this mystery. So the multiverse and the anthropic principle, it's a way of sort of shrugging and saying, I don't know. and that's not very scientific. You want to keep digging that hole

look for that one sort of unifying theory that explains one universe. So far, we've been making progress. So far, we've figured things out. So far when things have seemed inexplicable, we've realized why they had to be that way. And it turns out there could have been no other way because we understood something at a level deeper,

which explained it. So I think the multiverse, we're going to look back on it 100 years and laugh, you know, and we'll say, oh, those guys had no idea what was going on. Everything they thought was random was determined by laws of physics they just hadn't discovered yet, you know? But I think you're right. I think the lesson is to really focus on the one universe we have, you know? This is the only one I've got, so I'm going to spend my time trying to figure it out.

So make your choices carefully. That's right. That's right, because you only have one go-around so far until physics finds the multiverse. All right. Thank you for joining us. I hope you enjoyed that. or I hope there's a version of the universe where you enjoyed that. And I understood it as well. See you next time. Thanks for listening.

If you still have a question after listening to all these explanations, please drop us a line we'd love to hear from you. You can find us at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge, that's one word, or email us at Feedback at Daniel and Horhe. Jorge.com. Why are TSA rules so confusing?

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I can't expect what to do. Now, if the rule was the same, go off on me. You know, lock him up. Listen to No Such Thing on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. No such thing. I'm Dr. Joy Hardin-Bradford, host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast.

I know how overwhelming it can feel if flying makes you anxious. In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett and I discuss flight anxiety. What is not a norm is to allow it to prevent you from doing the things that you want to do, the things that you were meant to do. Listen to therapy for black girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA. Right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime.

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