From: Perry E. Metzger (perry@piermont.com)
Date: Sun Apr 27 2003 - 16:14:10 MDT
"Ben Goertzel" <ben@goertzel.org> writes:
> Testable hypotheses are sufficient. Do you have in mind specific testable
> hypotheses that could verify the existence of other universes, even if these
> other universes can never affect nor by affected by events in our universe?
Absolutely. For example, see WMAP and the geometry of our Hubble
volume -- the question of whether the geometry was closed or flat in
itself was a testable hypothesis, one consequence of which was
potentially proving or disproving the existence of Hubble volumes that
we cannot see or directly interact with.
> I don't understand how this is possible.
See above. Max Tegmark's papers on multiple universes list other
potential ways of testing the hypothesis of the existence of various
kinds of parallel universes.
> It seems to me that it's a
> contradiction in terms. If the existence of universe U is a testable
> hypothesis, then testing the hypothesis will yield a result that will have
> an effect in our universe
Your reasoning there is flawed. The impact on our universe is entirely
caused by items within our universe interacting -- such as scientists
and the WMAP satellite interacting with information about the thermal
fluctuations in the cosmic background radiation. The fact that this
can confirm or falsify a flat geometry for our universe does not mean
we're getting information out of other universes.
-- Perry E. Metzger perry@piermont.com
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