Sublime

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Can we be sure that just because a star appeared millimetrically displaced on Eddington’s photographic plate, space and time must be curved; or that because a photodetector at a certain position does not register a ‘hit’ in weak light, there must be parallel universes?

Lack of certainty is anything but weakness. Instead, it constitutes—and has always constituted—the very strength of rational thinking, understood as curiosity, rebellion, and change. It is precisely by not taking its answers as definitive that science can continue to improve them.

obtuse.

Traditionally, science seeks order by understanding the simplest parts of a system. How does a single gas particle behave given a certain temperature? Which gene in our DNA determines eye color? Scientists then try to develop theories that explain more general observations based on their detailed understanding of the individual parts.

Certain special arrangements of hidden dimensions correspond to universes with laws nearly identical to the ones we observe, differing, say, only in the precise values of a few particle masses. Such universes could be equally biofriendly—if not more.