Tip for Reading List — History of the Multiverse Concept

This idea is not just restricted to science fiction. Some scientists believe that our universe may indeed be just one of many.

MULTIVERSE IS a scientific concept that has become commonly used because of the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Avengers: Endgame, the Ancient One explains how removing any of the Infinity Stones will create splinter timelines, each continuing alongside the original one, with a different universe along each timeline. This idea is not just restricted to science fiction. Some scientists believe that our universe may indeed be just one of many. The idea goes back many centuries, in fact, and it is this history that Tom Siegfried, former editor-in-chief of Science Magazine, explores in his new book The Number of the Heavens: A History of the Multiverse and the Quest to Understand the Cosmos.

“While ‘multiverse’ is in the book’s subtitle, and Siegfried starts the book with contemporary discussions about it, much of the book is a historical account of how our understanding of just what comprises the universe has evolved,” The Space Review writes in its review. The book traces the history of this idea from the time of the Ancient Greek philosophers, who first raised the possibility of multiple universes. During the Renaissance, René Descartes declared “the number of the heavens” to be indefinitely large. In the 1980s, new theories about the Big Bang led to renewed interest in the multiverse. And today, some cosmologists and physicists are debating about the possibility of parallel universes.