Thread: The Multiverse??

I have always been interested in the idea that our universe may not be the only one. Thus, I read with interest a New Scientist article called "Touching the Multiverse."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ultiverse.html

However, the article left me puzzled. To be frank, I could not really understand it all. The article suggested that recent work on mathematical modelling would lead to the opportunity to see if the multiverse is real. I can't see it.

To me, science is about empiricism. While computer models and maths models are useful tools, ultimately, the truth about various propositions must come from real world experiment or observation. Any scientific idea must lead to a prediction that can be tested in this way.

However, the multiverse idea appeals to me. It has always seemed to be the logical 'next step.' This may, of course, be totally wrong, but it would be nice to see the step taken, if possible.

Can anyone see a way to go that extra step, and test the idea?

If our universe can exist, then there is no reason why other universes cannot exist unimaginable distances away from our own. However it thn allows the scenario that like galaxies, such universes might wander and even travel through each other, with somewhat chaotic results. However, if you say that a universe has dark energy helping it expand, this would be a repulsive force which may actually stop or limit such collisions.

How would we get evidence of another universe? Presumably there could be a point where we not only see matter from our own universe rushing away from us uniformly, but equally uniformly another lot of matter from a colliding universe rushing towards us? Or where universes have met, there would be a marked decrease in recessional redshifts at that point as dark energy from the other universe slows down material from our universe.