String theory limits space brain threat

• Autores: Adam Becker
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2918, 2013, pág. 12
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Legions of disembodied brains floating in deep space threaten to undermine the human's understanding of the universe. New mathematical modeling suggests string theory and its multiple universes may just provide human's salvation--and that could win the controversial theory a few more backers. Raphael Bousso and Claire Zukowski at the University of Berkeley performed a mathematical analysis of multiverses that start out in one of two different initial states: an older model first suggested by Stephen Hawking and his colleague James Hartle, and a newer model that has come out of mathematical treatments of the string multiverse. While the Hartle-Hawking model ended up overrun with Boltzmann brains, ordinary human-like consciousnesses prevailed in the newer model. That makes the view of the universe reassuringly normal in such a multiverse. The very idea of string theory and the multiverse is still controversial. It is often attacked for being overly complicated and difficult to prove. If Bousso and Zukowski are correct, though, and it can help resolve the problem of Boltzmann brains, the theory may just win a few more backers.