A Uni-Verse Multiplied

The idea that we live not in a single universe but in a multiverse has been contemplated by philosophers since antiquity.... The atomists of Ancient Greece thought of the world as made up of indivisible clumps of matter (atoms) and empty space (voids) through which those atoms moved.

In their view, a collection of atoms moving around the voids clumped together to form larger objects, such as stars, planets, and then the whole universe. Because there were an infinite number of atoms and voids, this process could be continuously repeated to form many universes.

The main difference - a crucial one - between these early thinkers and current scientists is that, in the past few centuries, our accumulated knowledge about the theories of nature and technological progress have allowed us to pursue scientific investigations and subject them to observational tests for what had once been purely philosophical ideas.


What we are finding from these theoretical and observational advances is... a challenge to the dream, long cherished by physicists, of discovering a blueprint for a cosmos that contains only a single universe.

The idea that our universe is not unique but belongs to a much larger cosmic family - the multiverse - has recently moved from the fringes of cosmology to the scientific mainstream.

From 'Before the Big Bang: The Origin of Our Universe from the Multiverse'