The Allure of the Multiverse

An Epic New Book By Paul Halpern

About the History of Multiverse Controversies

Alternative realities and parallel universes electrify our fantasies and draw us to riveting cinematic epics and literary works. But is the multiverse really science?

The biggest controversy in contemporary theoretical physics involves the notion of enclaves of reality that are not directly observable yet are assigned vital roles. Everyone agrees that there are limits to measurement. Yet, while some feel comfortable including undetectable realms in theories— such as extra dimensions beyond space and time, remote bubble universes spawned in quantum processes during the nascent instants of the cosmos, and branching strands of actuality—others protest that such speculations are not even science. It doesn’t help matters that the term “multiverse” has a vast array of meanings in science and culture, including the fantasy of exploring timelines in which one’s most troubling mistakes and heart-wrenching tragedies never happened. However respected physicists, such as the late Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg and the Astronomer Royal of the UK Martin Rees have argued that an ensemble of universes with different properties might be the only way to explain unusual features of our own universe.

The Allure of the Multiverse: Extra Dimensions, Other Worlds, and Parallel Universes offers a clear, level-headed approach to the history of multiverse debates, and the speculations that preceded them, as well as an excursion through speculations about higher dimensions, unseen worlds, and parallel universes in culture, from Plato’s cave allegory to the wild realms of Rick and Morty and Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Preorder Now: