Multiple Universes

Multiple Universes
Parallel Worlds in Quantum Physics, Cosmology and Imagination

with Bernard Carr, Geraldine Patrick Encina (Mapuche Descent), Ruth Kastner, Tim Maudlin, Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz (Otomi-Toltec), Paul Tappenden and Jean François Vézina

Chaired by Shantena Augusto Sabbadini

October 2 – 3, 9 – 10, 16 – 17, 23 – 24, 2021
9:00 PDT | 12:00 EDT | 17:00 BST  |  18:00 CEST

Two hour sessions every Saturdays and Sundays

All sessions are live; recordings will be available for any sessions you are unable to attend.

Is the universe we live in unique? What lies beyond the boundaries of the universe we see? Was the process that we believe gave birth to our universe – the Big Bang –a singular event or are universes bubbling up all the time? Do we exist in different worlds and live parallel lives?

Such notions would have seemed outrageous a few decades ago: surprisingly, as evidence begins to converge from different directions, they are close to becoming scientific orthodoxy.

The Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann described a key motive in the evolution of scientific thought as “jettisoning excess baggage”. Ideas that were previously accepted as absolute truth (e.g. the idea that the Earth sits at the center of the cosmos) were later seen to be relative and simply a consequence of our particular perspective. Are we today on the edge of another such radical enlargement of our perspective by abandoning the notion of a single universe?

In this online course we will explore the idea of multiple universes (and multiple realities, multiple selves) in science, film, science fiction, indigenous wisdom, etc.

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Program of Event

Saturday October 2
The Multiverse and the Limits of Science
with Bernard Carr

Sunday October 3
Dendritic Quantum Mechanics
with Paul Tappenden

Sunday October 10
May The Force Be Between Us Exploring our MultiVerse with the help of Star Wars and Others
with Jean-Francois Vezina

Saturday October 16
Discovering Multiple Possibilities in Quantum Theory
with Ruth Kastner

Sunday October 17
Science, Philosophy, Evidence, Explanation and Fine-Tuning
with Tim Maudlin

Saturday October 23
Is the Multiverse in the Mind or is the Mind in the Multiverse?
with Bernard Carr

Sunday October 24
Multiple Universes: Closing Session
with Bernard Carr, Geraldine Patrick Encina, Ruth Kastner, Tim Maudlin, Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz, Paul Tappenden, Jean-Francois Vezina