Are we living in the matrix? People have long pondered the mystery of the universe, developing theories such as the multiverse, in which multiple, connected universes exist, or the parallel universe, and more. Amidst constant misinformation and a lack of definite scientific proof, it can be hard to distinguish the possible from the impossible.
Astronomy and physics teacher Dylan Bell has his own opinions on these ideas: “Right now, I find the large, growing amount of evidence for the simulation theory, as in the entire universe is a simulation.”
This theory states that the world we live in is a construct created by anything along the lines of AI or higher beings, similar to a matrix.
“When we observe something, you get a certain result, just by the act of looking at something. And then when you turn away, and you stop observing something, there’s a different result,” Bell said.
The question, then, that he posed is “How does that thing know it’s being observed?”
He cites the multiverse theory and the heat death theory as more possibilities he believes in. The heat death theory relates to entropy and is a possible way the universe could end if it keeps expanding and energy becomes too spread out.
The multiverse theory has recently been receiving more attention after a Google-sponsored quantum chip purportedly provided evidence for the idea. The chip did a computation in under five minutes that would take today’s fastest supercomputer 10 septillion years to do.
“It lends credence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes, in line with the idea that we live in a multiverse, a prediction first made by David Deutsch,” Google said in a statement on its blog The Keyword.
During the Big Bang, the event that formed the universe (according to prevailing scientific theories), the universe was incredibly small and dense (known as the primeval egg or atom) and expanded to what it is now.
According to Bell, “This just means that any point that is very dense can expand and create its own universe.”
Our universe started as one point and expanded, but Bell reasons that there could have been other points that developed universes, establishing the multiverse.
“Other points in space that are kind of like points of singularities are black holes,” Bell explained.
Essentially, mass is contracted in these points, which could theoretically explode and create their own universes.
“That’s kind of what my theory is,” he said.
In Bell’s dual enrollment astronomy class, universe theories come up every year during the cosmology unit, with students asking him about what he believes in.
Despite the myriad ideas, there is a strong chance we will never know the complete truth about the universe.
“All we can do is keep asking questions. We’ll probably never be able to fully answer, but we can get closer,” Bell said, “and that’s what science is about.”