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4. Multiverse
It seems that the numerical parameters
that have set the universe on its course to make stars and hence
life are so accurately set that it’s difficult to imagine
they got that way by chance. But if they didn’t get there
by chance, how did they get there, by design? No. Cosmologists
have come up with an elegantly simple way around the invocation
of a Designer. How about the suggestion
that the universe we inhabit is only one of many? If there
are many universes, then there must have been many Big Bangs
creating them and each could have resulted in a universe with
a different set of natural laws. So we would be existing in
a universe that is one of many, each with its own peculiar
set of laws to define it. If this were the case then it wouldn’t
be at all surprising to find that one of the many universes
was finely tuned enough for the evolution of life.
Martin Rees explains: ‘If you go into
a clothes shop and there’s a large stock, you’re
not surprised to find one suit that fits you, whereas if there’s
only one suit in stock, then you are surprised to find it
fits. So, many universes governed by different laws would
remove any reason for surprise at the apparent fine-tuning
in our universe.’
In one bountiful leap of imagination,
the problem of Intelligent Design is swept aside. Martin Rees
has coined the term ‘multiverse’ to describe the
whole ensemble of universes. The next leap of imagination
takes us even further into the outreaches of sci-fi, or is
it sci-fact?
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