Do You Believe In Magic? By William Lama, Ph.D
The Flash and the DC Multiverse: How Did It Start? | Tor.com
Parallel Earths entered comic book lore in Wonder Woman #59, published in 1953. In the story Wonder Woman is holding her magic lasso when it’s struck by lightning, and “the strange mix of energies sends her to a strange reality where she encounters an identical double.” Over several decades parallel earths evolved into the multiverse, an infinite playground “where we get to remember that comics and superheroes can do and be anything. It’s where we get to embrace the sheer fun of asking hey, what if Batman met a version of himself who was really a vampire?”
Since science often imitates science fiction, many now believe that the expanding universe that we see is not the only one that exists. The idea is that there is not just one universe, but an infinity of them, all fundamentally different. There is not just one universe—there is a “multiverse.” But is it real, or is it magical thinking?
Our Finely Tuned Universe
The laws of physics involve a handful of fundamental constants that determine the strength of the fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism and nuclear. These constants could have any possible values, but life as we know it couldn't possibly exist if they departed just slightly from the values we measure. In the Palos Verdes Pulse article “Devine Numbers” I discussed one of these magical numbers.
Divine Numbers by William Lama, Ph.D — Palos Verdes Pulse
Nuclear fusion provides the Sun’s energy. In the conversion of hydrogen into helium the two protons and two neutrons fuse to create one helium nucleus, releasing heat energy equal to 0.7% of the rest mass of the protons and neutrons. If the energy released was just 0.6% then the nuclear “glue” would be weaker, a proton could not be bonded to a neutron and the path to helium formation would be closed. We would have a really simple universe composed of hydrogen alone. On the other hand, if the energy released was 0.8%, then two protons would have been able to bind together in the early universe. No hydrogen would remain to provide the fuel in stars.
Albert Einstein: What I’m really interested in is whether God could have made the world in a different way; that is, whether the necessity of logical simplicity leaves any freedom at all?
In atoms, gravitational forces can be ignored. That is because the ratio of the electrical to the gravitational force of two elementary particles (electrons or protons) is an enormous number, 10 to the 36th power, or 1 followed by 35 zeros. If gravity was stronger or electricity weaker such that the ratio was just 10 to the 30th power then our Sun would be a billion times less massive and would last only 10,000 years, much too short for life on Earth to exist.
Furthermore, the electrical/gravity force ratio must be finely tuned or the production of carbon and oxygen in stars would be reduced by factors between 30 and 1000. Again, life on Earth could not exist.
Fred Hoyle: A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology.
What do “fine-tuning” and the “multiverse” say about God? - Common Question –
The value of the nuclear force is also critical. Unless electrical and nuclear forces are finely tuned, hydrogen, carbon and heavier elements cannot form, stars cannot shine and chemical reactions are impossible. Carbon-based life can exist in just a narrow range of the two forces, as shown in the next figure.
Max Tegmark, “Parallel Universes,” Sci. Am. 5/03. multiverse_sciam.pdf (mit.edu)
The Multiverse Theory
It’s an amazing fact that the fundamental physical constants in our universe have just the right values to allow for complex structures, including life. Some physicists contend that an exotic multiverse provides a tidy explanation for this coincidence: if all possible values occur in a large enough collection of universes, then viable ones for life will surely be found somewhere. And it’s a tautology that life can only exist in life-permitting spaces. This explanation is analogous to the life-supporting orbit of the Earth that allows temperatures needed for liquid water and life.
The Fine-Tuning of Nature’s Laws (thenewatlantis.com)
Note that this idea is not an actual scientific theory. Rather it is a hypothesis, that our universe is just one of many existing universes, each with its own laws. According to this “anthropic” reasoning, we might just occupy the rare universe where the right conditions happen to make life possible.
Is the multiverse physics, philosophy, or something else entirely? | Astronomy.com
The hypothetical possibility of infinite parallel universes straddles a strange world between science and science fiction. But scientists have no direct evidence for the multiverse's existence. How credible is a scientific idea that is not be testable?
Cosmologists George Ellis and Joe Silk warned against a troubling new trend: the acceptance by some that if a mathematical model is elegant and explanatory it does not need to be tested experimentally. “Theoretical physics risks becoming a no man’s-land between mathematics, physics and philosophy that does not truly meet the requirements of any,” Ellis and Silk concluded. The credibility of science was at stake.
Scientific method: Defend the integrity of physics | Nature
Some argue that a criterion for a scientific theory is that the math must be elegant, or “beautiful.” I argued that one should not get lost in the beauty.
Lost in Beauty by William Lama Ph.D. — Palos Verdes Pulse
String theorists argue that their math describes 10 to the 500th power universes, but they cannot describe our own. We are faced with an option: one creator or an infinity of universes.
But when it comes to comics, I favor the multiverse populated by superheroes of the female persuasion.
William Lama Bio
Dr. William Lama has a PhD in physics from the University of Rochester. Taught physics in college and worked at Xerox as a principle scientist and engineering manager. Upon retiring, joined the PVIC docents; served on the board of the RPV Council of Home Owners Associations; served as a PV Library trustee for eight years; served on the PV school district Measure M oversight committee; was president of the Malaga Cove Homeowner's Association. Writes about science, technology and politics, mostly for his friends. email: wlama2605@gmail.com
