Curious6 said:
As I understand it, M-Theory predicts about 10^100 different possible universes and one of the main aims right now is to figure out the mechanism which selects our Universe out of all these possibilities. Does this mean that the other 10^100 universes are equally real and truly exist out there or are they just abstract mathematical possibilities allowed by M-Theory?
In the beginning there was stringtheory, as more Mathematicians looked into the theory, 5 versions appeared, with the pertaining question:Which one is correct?..sending crises waves rippling across all of the Theoretical Mathematical Oceans.
Then out of the distant horizon came a sail-boat with the letter 'M' daubed upon it's sail, a lone passenger at the helm was proclaiming that:There is really only One Theory, the previous Five were just certain values of a more fundamental theory, all the Theoreticians jumped aboard and thus M-Theory was born.
As the theoreticians asked intruging questions about the theory, they were answered with an ever increasing complex varying solutions, with every solution producing extensions to the original Theory, one such question was posed:Does M-Theory allow for a single or Multiple number of Universe's?
The answer was when the solution does not fit reality of observation for the present Universe, then it is solved by the creation of a Universe THAT does explain the solution.
So many Mathematicians started to branch out into abstract arena's, and consequently started to jump ship, but when they jumped ship, they were actually jumping out of one Universe and into another, the corresponding theoreticians could find extensions and soon it was realized that for every Mathematician that jumped aboard the original 'Flagship-M', they could find a corresponding Universe with its own Laws and Complex Maths.
The current status is comparable to :For every SINGLE atom that has ever existed in THIS universe, they are deemed to really complete Universe's according to M-Theory, and their worldlines can be traced out of our current Universe, which means for about every square centimetre of 3-D space in our Universe, there are an Infinity number of worldlines branching off to a subsequence number of other Universe's, each with a slight variation of the original Maths that sent them on their way?
Some think that there will eventually be so many extentions to M-Theory, with a vast number of solutions to the slightest deviation from one world-line-history to another, that the many configurations of all of Vacua at any instant, still could not accommodate the exponential number of solutions that are currently gaining momentum!
The gentle breeze which fetched the flagship 'M' is starting to gust and blow the ship onto the rocky shore's of a isolated island of Vacua despair, the question is who is going to jump ship?.. and who is going to cling on to the rigging and hope their calculations are sufficient to allow for a 're-normalization' and soft landing!
