Saturday, January 27, 2018

The (pretty strong) skeptical case against the multiverse

Hey, Sabine Hossenfelder has written as clearly as I think I have ever read about the reasons people should be very skeptical about the idea of the multiverse, covering the three main types of multiverse scientists speculate about. 

She has a book coming out too, which I strongly suspect may be worth reading.

I'm sure people (including me!) at least partly like the multiverse idea because of the large slab of science fiction scenarios it lends itself to.   But I'd be happy if there was just one other universe that consciousness can interact with, as many religions would consider as the supernatural realm...

1 comment:

John said...

Everyone should be skeptical of ontological interpretations of QM. Regarding the multiverse, Coveney and Highfield described it as "hiring an aircraft to cross the road." Last year I received an acknowledgement for editorial assistance in a recent book on particle physics authored by a physicist at CERN. I wish more people would read particle physics because that is where the real science is done. As one particle physicist stated: theoretical physicists too much like playing God.