The Concept of the Megaverse

Everyone is well aware that they live on a small blue-green planet which goes around an average star which orbits an average galaxy which is one of billions and billions of galaxies that collectively make up our Universe. Is that all there is? Well, you may have heard of the Multiverse concept – a collection of Universes. Then too you are probably familiar with Mirror or Parallel Universes, even if just from watching or reading sci-fi. I’ll use an analogy here we’re all familiar with to illustrate these concepts – money.

Every country has money – coins and bills. Some currencies are more varied and colourful than others. Australia’s currency is one of those IMHO, but I’m probably biased living Down Under and using Australian currency. Still, the currency concept is pretty well established, so non-Australians should have no trouble following the analogy that I hope illustrates the Multiverse and the Parallel Universe, collectively a conglomerate I term a Megaverse.  

The Australian Multiverse Currency Collective

One Cent Piece: A high density copper Universe that was inhabited by the Feathertail Glider, a civilization unable to prevent the End of their Universe which has collapsed, due to high density, into a singularity and disappeared from sight.

Two Cent Piece: A high density copper Universe that was inhabited by the Frill-Necked Lizard which has also now collapsed for similar reasons into a singularity and disappeared from sight.

Five Cent Piece: A high density silver Universe inhabited by Echidnas, a race of spiny anteaters. It’s currently the smallest high density Universe.

Ten Cent Piece: A high density silver Universe inhabited by Lyrebirds.

Twenty Cent Piece: A high density silver Universe inhabited normally by the dominate race of the Platypus but with a few rarer species as well.

Fifty Cent Piece: A high density silver Universe inhabited mainly by a civilization of a very rare species indeed, the Coat of Arms (i.e. - stylized Kangaroos and Emus) but with a few rarer species as well present – they come and they go. This Universe is unique in having evolved over time from round space-time geometry to twelve-sided space-time geometry (Dodecagon). This Universe is the largest of all the high density Universes.

One Hundred Cent Piece: A high density golden Universe inhabited by a very diverse set of entities, though the dominant life form is a civilization of Kangaroos

Two Hundred Cent Piece: A high density golden Universe inhabited by a humanoid race known as the Aboriginals, an alien species if ever there was one. This Universe is the second smallest of all the known high density Universes.

All of the high density Universes is also by the way inhabited by variations of an alien parasitic species known as the Queen Lizzies.

One Dollar Bill: A low density brownish-orange Universe with a flatland space-time topology, but alas this Universe suffered the cosmological Rig Rip. RIP!

Two Dollar Bill: A low density greenish-yellow Universe with a flatland space-time topology which has now suffered a cosmological final Heat Death. A Two Dollar Bill was never all that crash hot to begin with!

Five Dollar Bill: A low density purple or violet-pinkish Universe with a flatland space-time topology. What’s interesting is that this Universe started out as a pale mauve cosmos before morphing into its current appearance. This Universe also hosts a species of the dreaded alien parasite, the Queen Lizzy. How this species made it from the high density Universes to here is a mystery of currency cosmological physics – perhaps she went through the wormhole.

Ten Dollar Bill: A low density Blue Universe with a flatland space-time topology.

Twenty Dollar Bill: A low density orange Universe with a flatland space-time topology.

Fifty Dollar Bill: A low density Yellow Universe with a flatland space-time topology.

One Hundred Dollar Bill: A low density Green Universe with a flatland space-time topology, the largest in size of all the low density Universes. What’s interesting is that this Universe started out as a light bluish-grey cosmos before morphing into its current appearance.

On some substantial note, all of the low density Universes, all those with a flatland space-time topology, are inhabited by various humanoid entities, so one might conclude that this collection or low density part of the Multiverse is older than the high density Universes. That might make sense if the younger high density Universes are expanding (due to ‘cosmic’ inflation?) and therefore density decreases over the long haul - cosmic evolution in action.

Now none of the above Universes coexist in the exact same space-time. They are all separate and unique Universes, even when in your wallet and jingling in your purse or pocket.

So that’s the collective Australian currency/coinage Multiverse comprised of various Universes, all of different colours and sizes; all with various densities and inhabitants.

But note that you can’t have just any old Universe. There’s no currency physics that allows a Three Dollar Bill Universe or a Seven Cent Coin Universe, though cosmic evolution might allow for that in the far distant future. In the meantime however, there’s allowable currency physics and unallowable currency physics when it comes the allowable and unallowable Universes.

The Australian Parallel Universe Currency Collective

A collection of just Twenty Cent Pieces or just Twenty Dollar Bill Universes would be a collection of Parallel Universes. Each Twenty Cent Piece (or Twenty Dollar Bill) Universe is the same in being a Twenty Cent Piece (or Twenty Dollar Bill) Universe. However, Parallel Universes while the same in terms of each being the same Big Picture, differ in the details – that’s what sets them apart as Parallel or Mirror Universes.

For example, in the case of the Twenty Cent Piece Universe, each Twenty Cent Piece has a case of ‘different strokes for different folks’, the ‘folks’ all being the same Big Picture (i.e. – they are just ‘folks’). Each and every Twenty Cent Piece Universe has a different fate – perhaps a differing date stamped on the coin. Some Universes will be mint and un- circulated; others eroded and/or dented and/or tarnished.

A collection of Twenty Dollar Bill Universes is also a Parallel Universe of Twenty Dollar Bill Universes. Again, each Twenty Dollar Bill Universe has a unique history apart from all other Twenty Dollar Bill Universes. Each has a differing and unique serial number; some maybe counterfeit; some are hot off the printing press, others creased, folded maybe torn. They are all Twenty Dollar Bill Universes, but all are quasi-Mirror images of the generic ideal. All exist in parallel with respect to the others - the same, but different.

Now say you have a stack of One Hundred Dollar Bill Universes. Clearly all are the same Universe, yet no two are absolutely identical – you have a Parallel Universe composed of the One Hundred Dollar Bill Universes. New Parallel One Hundred Dollar Universes are still being created as new bills are manufactured (acts of creation). Some Parallel Universes become defunct too (acts of destruction). Universes are dynamic and evolving entities. 

If you say that you are an inhabitant of the Ten Dollar Bill Universe, you’d probably have no way of contacting or exploring or even knowing about other currency Universes in other space-times. There’s probably no way you could know about and explore another Ten Dollar Bill Universe and meet yourself and discover what alternative history your other self lived; what sort of lifestyle and what sort of worldview did they have. As all Bills and Coins are isolated in their own individual space-time niches, so too are you isolated to that one bit and piece of space-time you find yourself in. The possible exception to this, as demonstrated by the Queen Lizzies, is travelling from one Universe to another via some exotic relativistic currency physics, say via currency wormholes.

In fact, since you cannot escape from your coins or bills currency Universe (currency wormholes apart), you could even think of it has being a currency Black Hole, an object from which nothing can escape! A Black Hole and a Universe might just be one and the same thing. On the other hand, a Black Hole that leaks into a White Hole could have that White Hole exit in another Universe in which case the Black Hole is the wormhole. 

Now, that’s the Megaverse in microcosm; now throw into the mix all the rest of the world’s currencies, past, present and future and you have the Big Picture of the macrocosm Megaverse. Is that all there is? Isn’t that enough?

Megaverse: A few notes.

The Australian one and two cent coins, and the one and two dollar bill denominations are no longer manufactured and are no longer in active circulation, though technically still legal tender.

The Big Rip: The density of the [antigravity] Dark Energy in our Universe gets bigger and bigger as time goes by and the Universe evolves. Trillions of years from now the force of Dark Energy should be so strong as to rip apart even the constituent parts of molecules and atoms down to the level of their fundamental particles.

The Heat Death: We live in an expanding Universe. Unlike our ever increasing supply of Dark Energy, our heat supply is and always has been finite. Thus, over time, that finite supply is spreading out into an ever increasing volume and so the Universe is cooling, ever cooling, down. Eventually, as all the stars exhaust their fuel, the Universe will acquire an overall temperature as close to absolute zero as makes no odds. So you have, as the ultimate fate of the Universe, the slow death of heat, or the Big Chill!

The Singularity: If you gather enough mass together, the ever increasing amount of gravity will eventually become so great that mass will implode, perhaps, according to some physicists, down to a dimensionless point  of infinite density. That’s nonsense IMHO. The imploded object, the singularity, is just very, very, very tiny and very, very, very dense. It’s so dense that the intense gravity traps light and keeps even it from escaping. So you have this singularity, or in other words the heart and soul of a Black Hole.

The Wormhole: A theoretical shortcut, a gateway or passageway linking one part of the Universe to another part (or perhaps one Universe to another). Wormholes are common objects in sci-fi scenarios where you need to quickly get from Point A to Point B which is a massive distance away.

Mathematics Are You

You are part of life, the Universe and everything. You and that greater whole have to be grounded in some fundamental bedrock that connects everything into a logical and unified whole. Most would say that’s the role of the laws, relationships and principles of physics. But there’s a deeper level yet. Mathematics are the ultimate foundation that make physics a logical (if not quite yet unified) whole. So ultimately life, the Universe and everything is based on maths. Maths is ultimately your reality. It’s what makes you tick!

The Universe IS just mathematics according to physicist/cosmologist Professor Max Tegmark (Department of Physics, MIT). It’s called the “Mathematical Universe Hypothesis (MUH)” or the “Ultimate Ensemble”, one of those proposals for a ‘Theory of Everything’ (TOE), that ultimate theoretical equation so beloved by physicists that describes life, the Universe and everything. It will be so concise that it can be printed on just the front of a tee-shirt. Tegmark's mathematical universe hypothesis is: our external physical reality is a mathematical structure. All structures that exist mathematically exist also physically. That is, the universe IS mathematics in a well-defined sense. Mathematics has an external reality, and since everything is built from the ground (i.e. – mathematics) up, everything ultimately is mathematics and therefore can be expressed in that ultimate theoretical TOE tee-shirt equation.

Mathematics is the universal language. Whether you’re a Frenchman or a Chinaman; an Englishman or even ufonauts like those alien LGM (Little Grey Men); a Klingon or a Romulan; you understand the Pythagorean Theorem and the quadratic equation; topology and the calculus.

The most fundamental science is physics. That’s the bedrock on which chemistry is formatted. The earth and space sciences are in turn supported and explained by those two building blocks. All of those collectively form the foundations of the biological sciences, which in turn support anthropology, psychology and the other social and behavioural sciences. Even economics and the arts have ultimate foundations in mathematics.

But what supports physics? Mathematics, that’s what. Ultimately that’s where it all begins. The Universe (including life and everything) is mathematics. You exist inside of geometry. You are receiving information about life, the Universe and everything encoded in mathematics; it takes mathematics to reveal the information. You cannot come to terms with understanding space and time, matter and energy, and the four (or more) fundamental forces that govern the Universe, hence ultimately you and your surroundings, without resorting to maths.

Your day is constantly filled with how much, how many, and how fast - mathematical relationships. ‘Where’ is maths; ‘when’ is maths; ‘what’ is often pure maths. You may not be a physicist, but economics probably rules your roost. There’s gambling (even if just on the stock market or getting away with running a red light) involving probability theory. Every day in every way you add and subtract and multiply and divide numbers. You even do fractions! Your calculator may crunch the numbers, but you press the buttons.

Music and sounds in general play a massive role in our lives. Acoustics, harmonics, sound waves, and the like are all expressible in, and based around, mathematics. Ditto for navigation and GPS and related.

Now think of the mathematics supporting the physics (or its applied alter ego, engineering) behind your home, your transport, your entertainment, your comfort conveniences, and what goes into making you able to get through your day. What holds all your bits and pieces together and holds you to the ground yet doesn’t allow you to go through it can be expressed in equations? What mathematical physics fuels the sun that ultimately gives you your daily bread? What mathematical physics keeps your home planet a goldilocks planet, not too far away from, or too close to the sun with an atmosphere over your head? 24/7/52 you are governed by time and space; matter and energy, all of which have reality as mathematical constructs. And where would sports teams*, NASA and the military be without the basic mathematics behind the basic physics that guide and govern their activities?

There’s another kind of mathematical universe apart from the one promoted by Max Tegmark, though maybe they are actually one and the same. That’s my hypothesis. There’s another way of looking at this. There’s another possible, even probable, Mathematical Universe – the Simulated Universe. Could these two universes be one and the same?

Firstly, why is a Simulated Universe our probable Universe? Well, for the exact same reason that while you suspect there is just one real Universe, the one real Universe the really real you lives in, you would be aware that Planet Earth in that really real Universe has an intelligent human population that has evolved computer technologies and has created thousands upon thousands of virtually real simulations, both for the purposes of instruction (say astronaut flight training) as well as for entertainment (video games). The ratio of virtually real landscapes to really real landscapes is therefore multi-thousands to one.

Further, in most cases there are thousands upon thousands of copies of those simulations, a sort of Multiverse, where say a character in one video game has thousands of ‘clones’ because there are thousands of copies of that game. That character of course couldn’t meet any of his or her or its identical copies, which is probably a good thing. However, if you could ask that character whether they felt they were really real or simulated, they would of course answer really real not knowing or suspecting that a human being was their creator and the creator of their simulated landscape.

Go one level up from Planet Earth and humanity’s numerous simulation creations and extrapolate and the odds are high that someone or something out there, a Supreme Programmer, created a simulation that’s our Universe. There are numerous copies of this video game simulation called say “The Life and Times of Planet Earth” created by this unknown and probably unknowable Supreme Programmer, and thus there are really numerous copies of you, but fortunately only one copy per game! Your day-to-day reality is just a virtual reality because you don’t really exist in the way you think you do.

Another way of thinking about the numerous copies of the video game “The Life and Times of Planet Earth” is that this amounts to the concept of Parallel Universes. In another copy of “The Life and Times of Planet Earth” another copy of you has led a different life and lifestyle to the you that exists in your copy or version of “The Life and Times of Planet Earth”.

Now, the interesting bit, IMHO, is what if our Universe or Max Tegmark’s Mathematical Universe which is also our Universe was just a Simulated Universe; a virtual reality computer software generated Universe? Well, what is computer software? Computer software is just bits and bytes, ones and zeros, binary code, or in other words mathematics. You can construct life, the Universe and everything via mathematics by constructing or programming appropriate computer software. Ultimately a video game ‘Universe’ or landscape is just mathematics. An astronaut’s training simulator is just a mathematical construction. If you are a computer software generated, simulated being, inside a virtual reality, then you are a mathematical construction.

What’s the appeal of a Simulated Universe? It explains a lot that’s currently unexplainable.

Why are all electrons (or positrons or up and down quarks, etc.) identical? Because all electrons have the exact same binary code, that’s why. Forget vibrating strings as the reason. String theory isn’t even in the hunt. Any and every anomaly is explained as easily as “run program” as there is no such thing as the concept of impossibility in a simulation or a video game. Joshua can indeed make the Sun and the Moon stand still in the heavens! You can even have a virtual reality afterlife! In fact, for the physicist, a Simulated Universe scenario should be pleasing since in fact there are two separate sets of incompatible mathematical software running the Simulated Universe – gravity software and quantum physics software. I bring this up because physicists have been trying to marry those two branches of physics for decades now into a Theory of Everything, and haven’t scored a run yet.

In conclusion, our Universe is a Mathematical Universe; a Simulated Universe is a Mathematical Universe. Therefore, it’s possible or even probable as I noted above, that our Universe is a Simulated Universe and you therefore live in a virtual reality landscape that exists as a mathematical construct!

*There’s an entire book, for example, devoted to the physics of baseball, and no doubt many “How To Play…” books focus on the physics behind the scenes and the mathematics behind the physics. Baseball can be reduced to pure mathematics apart from the mathematical physics relating to bat and ball, which will come as little surprise to most baseball fans, players and managers. There’s percentages this; statistics that, all of which make baseball about the most mathematical oriented sports on the ground.

The Trilogy of Universes: Problem Solved

There are three possible universes we inhabit. The first is the Natural Universe where the laws, principles and relations of physics, chemistry and biology rule the roost. The second is the Supernatural Universe where one or more supernatural deities reside and miracles are commonplace and the laws, principles and relationships of science can be overridden or suspended. The third is the Simulated Universe where what we perceive as life, the universe and everything is just programmed software and we are virtual beings in a virtual reality. Now, which one of the three possibilities is the one we can actually call home?

A while back I examined the trilogy of possible universes we could inhabit and examined numerous fundamental or universal beliefs part and parcel of nearly all human societies or cultures with the goal of trying to figure out which universe best explained those universals.

The answer to this dilemma has puzzled me for decades. Both a Simulated and a Supernatural Universe better explained the human belief systems better than a Natural Universe. However, the ultimate solution finally yielded itself. At the time I opted for the Simulated Universe. Here I now go into a bit more detail as to why.

 The solution will come as a surprise to most; it certainly came as a shock to me. What decides the issue, IMHO, are ghosts, animate and inanimate! The Simulated Universe rules, and to show why this is so we need something impossible to account for in the Natural Universe, something which is totally illogical in the Supernatural Universe, but absolutely logical and predictable in the Simulated Universe. Ghosts fit the bill.

Now it is easy to say “ghosts don’t exist” or “I don’t believe in ghosts”, and in fact I haven’t ever seen one and to be honest I don’t ever expect to, but there’s massive amounts of eyewitness testimony to the contrary that needs to be taken into account. It’s the classic standoff between “it can’t be therefore it isn’t” and “I know what I saw”. When it comes to the debate between theory and observation, observation has trumped theory too many times not to be taken seriously. Theorists frequently have to “go back to the drawing board” to take into consideration another bona fide observation that contradicted their theoretical worldview.

What do we know about ghosts according to the “I know what I saw” crowd?

* They have been observed by all societies and all cultures since recorded history began, and no doubt prehistoric humans would have ghostly tales to tell too. The total number of observations now must number in the multi-millions. All of this testimony needs to be taken with more than just a grain of salt. The cultural acceptance of ghosts has been more than adequately demonstrated by the popularity of ghostly happenings related in literature, film, and other art forms.

* Ghosts have been captured on film and other manifestations of a non-visual nature have been recorded as well such as audio recordings, temperature readings, etc.

* Since ghosts can be seen, heard and interact with the environment, they must be products of matter and energy.

* Ghosts are not just animated beings, including animals, but have been observed as phantoms of inanimate objects, something the trilogy of universe options needs to deal with.

* The animated ghosts of Homo sapiens - that is ghosts of former living human beings - are observed dressed, that is clothed.

Okay, how does each one of the given trilogy of potential universes deal in turn with the above?

There is absolutely no way known to any sort of physics, chemistry and biology that’s part and parcel of the Natural Universe that can turn 100% deceased human remains (comprised of matter and energy) into an animated ghost of that person (also comprised of matter and energy). The key is accounting for the fact that the above mentioned deceased human remains, remains. The newly dead body hasn’t decreased by any significant amount of mass (or energy) to account for the newly created material ghost. It’s like generating something out of nothing. The Natural Universe has got to account for millions of observations of that which cannot exist by natural science as we understand it.

You’d think the Supernatural Universe would account for ghosts, after all the Supernatural Universe is the universe of the afterlife, and aren’t ghosts proof of life after death? Problem one is how to account for ghostly visions of purely inanimate objects – you can’t. Problem two is that if ghosts are images of a biological human life form, then that image should be starkers! That image should be appearing in their ghostly birthday suit! Why? It’s the biological entity that died, not the clothes they were wearing, so why the ghostly clothing? If the Supernatural Universe cannot deal or come to terms with ghostly manifestations of inanimate objects like ghost ships, then presumably animated objects like ghostly humans cannot be associated with inanimate accoutrements. That is to say, apart from no clothes, human ghosts shouldn’t still have their tooth fillings, hearing aids, peg legs, artificial hip joints or contact lenses.

To the rescue, the Simulated Universe conquers all.

Why would our Supreme Programmer write software subroutines for ghosts and phantom trains, etc.? Who knows? Why do we incorporate the fantasy elements we do into some of our video game creations? That aside, we might though expect the Supreme Programmer’s virtual reality software to generate ghosts that wear clothes!

But there is a second possibility relating ghosts to a Simulated Universe. Alterations or overwrites of existing software, once written, might not always produce 100% deletions and thus might provide unintended effects, ghostly effects of a previous software’s content.

The fly in the Simulated Universe ointment, the one thing that the Simulated Universe cannot give you, is free will. But there’s no way you can verify you have free will. Let’s just say that philosophers and metaphysics professors have been arguing that point: do you or don’t you have free will, for thousands of years. As the saying goes, “you have to believe you have free will; you have no choice in the matter.” It’s illogical to reject a Simulated Universe just because you firmly believe you have free will. That belief or conviction could easily be the result of the software programming. You wouldn’t be any the wiser. You are programmed to believe what you believe.

Summary

If, and only if, you accept the reality of those human belief systems that lend credibility to “I know what I saw” observations of ghosts and related phantom phenomena then the following are the pluses and minuses that are suggestive of what sort of universe we inhabit.

* Natural Universe: The natural universe, the universe where Mother Nature rules the roost, cannot easily account for universals such as an afterlife, a home for afterlife retirees, animated ghosts, inanimate phantoms and variations on that theme. These concepts cannot be accommodated in Mother Nature’s realm.  

* Simulated Universe: With the sole exception of free will, a Simulated Universe can account for, well, life the universe and everything, and especially animated ghosts with clothes and inanimate phantoms.

* Supernatural Universe: With the exception of animated ghosts who shouldn’t be wearing clothes, and inanimate phantoms, a Supernatural Universe can accommodate everything regarding life, the universe and everything universal. 

When crunch comes to crunch, it seems to be a tossup between a Supernatural Universe (with supernatural deities) and a Simulated Universe (with flesh-and-blood computer programmers). If you’re the end product, does it matter much if it’s a god or a programmer that’s responsible? It’s “In the beginning God created” vs. “In the beginning the Supreme Programmer created”.

Anyway, the choice apparently boils down to free will vs. ghosts. Both a Natural Universe ruled by classical (cause-and-effect) physics and a Simulated Universe can remove free will from any consideration. Ghosts on the other hand have been seen and recorded for thousands of years by millions of people – “I know what I saw”. Ghosts have a greater reality quotient than free will. Therefore, I have to give an extra tick to a Simulated Universe scenario which can give you a believable ghost, but not free will vs. a minus-tick to a Supernatural Universe which cannot give you a believable ghost but a free will that cannot be verified.

However, there’s a philosophical reason as well to choose the Supreme Programmer over the Supernatural Deity. It’s my personal bias that natural is preferable to supernatural, lock, stock and barrel. Ultimately, a Simulated Universe has to be positioned within some form of Natural Universe, a universe where mathematics, physics, chemistry, ‘flesh-and-blood’ biology and all things technological reside. That sort of Natural Universe however may be vastly different to what we think of as our really real Big Bang Natural Universe in the same way as our video game universes often bear only superficial resemblance to the reality inhabited by the human programmer who created that video game in the first place.

If however you reject the ghost-filled Simulated Universe scenario, then you slide on down the steep slope to the Supernatural Universe minus ghostly manifestations option. If you reject the Supernatural Universe, even though it gives you allegedly free will, then it’s down the slippery slope to the ghostly realm of the Simulated Universe. If you reject both in favour of the Natural Universe, then you have a lot of spooky enigmas that require some very deep thought and explanations.

For example, take those massive quasi-human appearing statues found on Easter Island, some of which are as tall as a four storey house and weigh as much as 30 to 40 tons. How did they get from where they were quarried to where they now reside, in a land without the wheel or beasts of burden? Well, according to the natives, the finished multi-ton stone statues apparently walked by themselves from their quarry to their final location! That’s the native’s story# and they are sticking to it, and no, I’m not making this up. These animated statues that ‘walk-by-themselves’ are just an impossibility in a Natural Universe; have no real relevance in a Supernatural Universe but are as easy to account for as “run program” in a Simulated Universe.

In fact anything and everything that violates the known natural order (of physics, chemistry and biology), from magic to miracles, can easily be accounted for as just another subroutine of the virtual reality software programming.

# Heyerdahl, Thor; Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island; Rand McNally & Company, Chicago; 1958.