It's Called Way...

An article in Discover magazine (hat tip: Sullivan) reports on physicists thinking big thoughts.  Really big thoughts.  Like this:

...Our universe may be but one of perhaps infinitely many universes in an inconceivably vast multi­verse. Most of those universes are barren, but some, like ours, have conditions suitable for life.

Wow.  Multiverse.  I think Chuang Tzu would say: sure, why not?  The very word "universe" asserts an essential unity, a logical unity, that simply may not exist.  As human creations, the word and concept of universe, to a Taoist, necessarily fall short of capturing the vastness and complexity of Way.  Our words and ideas always fall short.  If there is a unity in Way, it is a unity of coincidence, not of structure or process.  From that point of view, a multiverse is possible; it might even be a closer approximation to the scale and variety of Way.

If we have trouble giving up the idea of "universe," the trouble is merely in our minds, not in Way.  And we might, then, give up the silly pursuit of a "theory of everything."

Comments

[Paul Yarbles]

Words are misleading! When one hears the word universe, one thinks of all there is. What the heck is a multiverse!? If there is any possibility of connection from one universe in the multiverse to our own universe, then it's all just the same universe. If there is no possibility of connection, then the other universe does not exist.

Any proof of the existence of another universe with no connection on our own would lead to a contradiction since the existence of the proof itself would mean that the other universe does have a connection. For how else can the other universe be shown to exist unless it is knowable to some degree and thus is connected to our own universe?