Search Results for: multiverse

Multiverses: Science or Science Fiction?

Posted on August 3, 2015 by woit

The September issue of Astronomy magazine is now out, with a cover story on Multiverses: Science or Science Fiction? The author Bob Berman does a good job of explaining both the arguments for various Multiverses, as well as the reasons … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 59 Comments

News of the Multiverse

Posted on April 8, 2015 by woit

Just about ten years ago, my April 1 posting here was a fantasy about the Stanford ITP getting major funding from the Templeton Foundation, using it to fund a program on the multiverse, and renaming themselves the Stanford Templeton Research … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 35 Comments

The Multiverse in a Nutshell

Posted on December 1, 2014 by woit

The Guardian has a podcast up today featuring Robert Trotta and David Wallace called The Multiverse in a Nutshell. It’s largely more of the usual uncritical multiverse hype that has been flooding the public expositions of fundamental physics for years … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 29 Comments

Advertisements for the Multiverse

Posted on November 15, 2014 by woit

After watching the Breakthrough Prize awards tonight, tomorrow night on the Science Channel you can watch a program that actually features physicists rather than Hollywood/Silicon Valley celebrities. There’s an hour long infomercial for the Multiverse, entitled “Which Universe Are We … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 43 Comments

Big Bang Blunder Bursts the Multiverse Bubble

Posted on June 4, 2014 by woit

This week’s Nature has an article by Paul Steinhardt, with the title Big Bang blunder bursts the multiverse bubble. The subtitle of the piece describes the BICEP2 frenzy of last March as “premature hype”, and the description in the body … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 27 Comments

Multiverse Mania at Wikipedia

Posted on March 9, 2014 by woit

The quality of Wikipedia entries about mathematics is often quite good, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for their entries about physics. I happened to take a look today at the Wikipedia entry for Multiverse, which is an outrageously … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 43 Comments

The Multiverse, Evidence and Theology

Posted on February 11, 2014 by woit

Yes, this multiverse business is tedious, but since it is becoming mainstream physics, with colloquium talks here at Columbia devoted to it, and the Columbia University Press publishing books about it, seems to me that someone at Columbia should be … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 62 Comments

Belief in multiverse requires exceptional vision

Posted on August 14, 2013 by woit

Tom Siegfried at Science News has a new piece about how Belief in multiverse requires exceptional vision that starts off by accusing critics of multiverse mania of basically being ignoramuses who won’t accept the reality of anything they can’t see … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 73 Comments

Hard Evidence for the Multiverse Found, but String Theory Limits the Space Brain Threat

Posted on May 22, 2013 by woit

In recent years there have been many claims made for “evidence” of a multiverse, supposedly found in the CMB data (see for example here). Such claims often came with the remark that the Planck CMB data would convincingly decide the … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Multiverse Mania, This Week's Hype | 34 Comments

Linde on Inflation and the Multiverse

Posted on August 25, 2012 by woit

Andrei Linde is one of Yuri Milner’s $3 million dollar men, best known for his “chaotic inflation” version of inflationary theory, as well as being one of the main proponents of anthropic multiverse mania. There’s a long piece based on … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 38 Comments