Alternate Beings (How To Get Along)
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For example, if the strength of the electromagnetic force were just a little different, atoms would not be stable. Similarly, there is a delicate balance between gravity, which pulls matter towards itself, and so-called dark energy, which does the opposite and makes the Universe expand ever faster. This is just what is needed to make stars possible while not collapsing the Universe on itself. In this and several other ways, the Universe seems fine-tuned to host us. This has made some people suspect the hand of God.
Yet an inflationary multiverse, in which all conceivable physical laws operate somewhere, offers an alternative explanation. View image of Other universes might be different to ours Credit: In every universe set up in this life-friendly way, the argument goes, intelligent beings will be scratching their heads trying to understand their luck.
In the far more numerous universes that are set up differently, there is no one to ask the question. This is an example of the "anthropic principle", which says that things have to be the way we find them: For many physicists and philosophers, this argument is a cheat: How can we test these assertions, they ask? Surely it is defeatist to accept that there is no reason why the laws of nature are what they are, and simply say that in other universes they are different? The trouble is, unless you have some other explanation for fine-tuning, someone will assert that God must have set things up this way.
The astrophysicist Bernard Carr has put it bluntly: View image of Two branes collide, creating a new universe Credit: Another kind of multiverse avoids what some see as the slipperiness of this reasoning, offering a solution to the fine-tuning problem without invoking the anthropic principle.
In he proposed that universes might reproduce and evolve rather like living things do. On Earth, natural selection favours the emergence of "useful" traits such as fast running or opposable thumbs. In the multiverse, Smolin argues, there might be some pressure that favours universes like ours. He calls this "cosmological natural selection". Smolin's idea is that a "mother" universe can give birth to "baby" universes, which form inside it.
The mother universe can do this if it contains black holes. View image of A black hole Credit: A black hole forms when a huge star collapses under the pull of its own gravity, crushing all the atoms together until they reach infinite density. This suggested to Smolin that a black hole could become a Big Bang, spawning an entire new universe within itself.
If that is so, then the new universe might have slightly different physical properties from the one that made the black hole. This is like the random genetic mutations that mean baby organisms are different from their parents. If a baby universe has physical laws that permit the formation of atoms, stars and life, it will also inevitably contain black holes. That will mean it can have more baby universes of its own. Over time, universes like this will become more common than those without black holes, which cannot reproduce.
View image of Could one universe create others? It is a neat idea, because our Universe then does not have to be the product of pure chance. If a fine-tuned universe arose at random, surrounded by many other universes that were not fine-tuned, cosmic natural selection would mean that fine-tuned universes subsequently became the norm.
The details of the idea are a little woolly, but Smolin points out that it has one big advantage: For example, if Smolin is right we should expect our Universe to be especially suited to making black holes.
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This is a rather more demanding criterion than simply saying it should support the existence of atoms. But so far, there is no evidence that this is the case — let alone proof that a black hole really can spawn an entirely new universe. View image of Extra dimensions could be curled up Credit: When Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity began to come to public attention in the s, many people speculated about the "fourth dimension" that Einstein had allegedly invoked. What might be in there?
A hidden universe, maybe? Einstein was not proposing a new dimension. What he was saying was that time is a dimension, similar to the three dimensions of space. All four are woven into a single fabric called space-time, which matter distorts to produce gravity. Even so, other physicists were already starting to speculate about genuinely new dimensions in space.
The first intimation of hidden dimensions began with the work of the theoretical physicist Theodor Kaluza. In a paper Kaluza showed that, by adding an extra dimension to the equations of Einstein's theory of general relativity, he could obtain an extra equation that seemed to predict the existence of light. View image of String theory Credit: The Swedish physicist Oskar Klein offered an answer in Perhaps the fifth dimension was curled up into an unimaginably small distance: In the modern version of string theory, known as M-theory, there are up to seven hidden dimensions.
The idea of a dimension being curled may seem strange, but it is actually a familiar phenomenon. A garden hose is a three-dimensional object, but from far enough away it looks like a one-dimensional line, because the other two dimensions are so small. Similarly, it takes so little time to cross Klein's extra dimension that we do not notice it. Physicists have since taken Kaluza and Klein's ideas much further in string theory. This seeks to explain fundamental particles as the vibrations of even smaller entities called strings. When string theory was developed in the s, it turned out that it could only work if there were extra dimensions.
View image of The brane multiverse Credit: What's more, these dimensions need not be compact after all. They can be extended regions called branes short for "membranes" , which may be multi-dimensional.
A brane might be a perfectly adequate hiding place for an entire universe. M-theory postulates a multiverse of branes of various dimensions, coexisting rather like a stack of papers.
If this is true, there should be a new class of particles called Kaluza-Klein particles. In theory we could make them, perhaps in a particle accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider. They would have distinctive signatures, because some of their momentum is carried in the hidden dimensions. These brane worlds should remain quite distinct and separate from each other, because forces like gravity do not pass between them.
But if branes collide, the results could be monumental. Conceivably, such a collision could have triggered our own Big Bang. View image of Perhaps two branes collided Credit: It has also been proposed that gravity, uniquely among the fundamental forces, might "leak" between branes. This leakage could explain why gravity is so weak compared to the other fundamental forces.
As Lisa Randall of Harvard University puts it: In , Randall and her colleague Raman Sundrum suggested that the branes do not just carry gravity, they produce it by curving space. Contemporary Examples In the absence of typical classrooms and curriculums, West Africans have opted for alternate methods of learning and education. Well, La Ti Da: Historical Examples He closed his eyes as if asleep, and I paddled on in the alternate moonlight and shadow.
In the Valley Harold Frederic.
Image credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration, modified by me for correctness. What we find is that the Universe is most consistent with being . to give us alternate versions of ourselves; the number of possible outcomes. See more synonyms for alternate on donnsboatshop.com We Should Bring Back; These Famous People Have Their Own Words in the Dictionary being in a constant state of succession or rotation; interchanged repeatedly one for another: .
The Forest Stewart Edward White. His Masterpiece Emile Zola. US and Canadian a person who substitutes for another in his absence; stand-in Show More. Thus, a would-be close family is often torn apart by the weakest link: Even if this all too common temptation is not perpetrated, relations between family members are colored by money relations. A family member may be judged unworthy and a disgrace just for not achieving material success and prestige, regardless of how fulfilled and ethical the family member may be, or how conscious in a low-consumptive or artistic lifestyle.
When conflict over money arises between people who have a close relationship, the conflict is a microcosm of the haves-versus-have-nots. There exists a war between the person with money and the one without, as long as they function in this society's value system.
Alternative Methods of Communication: An Overview
The culture is rotten to the core if the institution of family is vulnerable to schism and fighting over money. We are witnessing this with military and energy "policies" destroying the biosphere to enhance profits. Today, money is needed for survival, and a child may demand money from his or her parents or older brother or sister as guardian. Or, instead of demanding, a loan is voluntarily made. If it is not paid, relations can suffer tremendously.
Parallel universes in fiction
Other conflicts than money can spoil relations, but rarely so. Lovers may couple their lives together as a single economic unit, but the glue of money is weak and filthy compared to nature and community. Healthy, biodiverse nature and true community are the two most vital elements for living, anywhere, that are practically absent in almost all U. Today, with so much stress in society and in families over money, blessed be the childless couple, or blessed be the only child.
These may seem like solutions to materialistic bickering and fallings out, and may assist when scarcity of food strikes, but they only hide the inherent potential for conflict. If adopted by too many, our species would die out, as childlessness or one-child-only policies dominated. Because of overpopulation, such policies are a good idea for a while. When human numbers may regain a healthy relationship with nature someday, a replacement fertility rate could be resumed safely and willingly.