Category Archives: Multiverse Mania

Short Items

Posted on April 27, 2011 by woit

Progress on increasing luminosity at the LHC has been going extremely well, with peak luminosity a few moments ago over 7×1032cm-2s-1. So far integrated luminosity is over 200 pb-1, well on the way to the extremely conservative nominal goal for … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, Multiverse Mania | 31 Comments

2011 Templeton Prize

Posted on April 6, 2011 by woit

This years $1.6 million dollar Templeton Prize has been awarded to astronomer and cosmologist Sir Martin Rees. The Templeton Foundation has traditionally been largely devoted to promoting the intersection of science and religion, so one surprising aspect of this choice … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 23 Comments

Multivers: Mondes Possible de l’Astrophysique, de la Philosophie, et de l’Imaginaire

Posted on April 3, 2011 by woit

While I was in Paris recently I picked up several French books that aren’t readily available in the US. One of these is entitled Multivers: Mondes Possible de l’Astrophysique, de la Philosophie, et de l’Imaginaire, and it takes the form … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 10 Comments

Is the Multiverse Immoral?

Posted on January 29, 2011 by woit

[Warning, somewhat of a rant follows, and it’s not very original. You might want to skip this one…] In the last week or so, I’ve run into two critiques of the currently fashionable multiverse mania that take an unusual angle … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 107 Comments

The End of Time

Posted on September 26, 2010 by woit

I’ve been critical of multiverse pseudo-science because it doesn’t make any testable predictions, but it seems that tonight there really is one. According to this new preprint, multiverse arguments guarantee that time will end, with the expected amount of time … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 49 Comments

Short Items

Posted on September 17, 2010 by woit

The Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee recently recommended that the Tevatron be kept running for an additional three years (until 2014). By the end of that time it should be able to accumulate a total of 20 fb-1 of data, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, Langlands, Multiverse Mania, Not Even Wrong: The Book | 16 Comments

Hawking Gives Up

Posted on September 7, 2010 by woit

David Gross has in the past invoked the phrase “never, never, never give up”, attributed to Churchill, to describe his view about claims that one should give up on the traditional goals of fundamental physics in favor of anthropic arguments … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 83 Comments

String Vacuum Project 2010

Posted on May 3, 2010 by woit

I’ve written before about the String Vacuum Project (back in 2006 and 2008), and there was a story about it in Nature. This week they are having an SVP 2010 Spring Meeting at the KITP, talks available here. A proposal … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 5 Comments

Oy vey

Posted on April 30, 2010 by woit

Last Friday City College held a symposium here in Manhattan celebrating physics at City College. I was able to attend just the morning session, which began with a quick rescheduling of Anton Zeilinger for David Gross, who had overslept. Gross … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 20 Comments

Freaky Physics Proves Parallel Universes Exist

Posted on April 6, 2010 by woit

Fox News has decided that some recent experimental atomic physics work showing that quantum mechanics works as expected (for a sane discussion of the science, see here) proves that parallel universes exist and that time travel may be feasible. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 5 Comments