We believe that our planet is among billions of planets in the universe. We also believe that universe is infinite. How about an idea that the universe is not only “uni” or one- verse but more than one universe or multiverse

I remember an action movie starred by Jet Li titled The One, that projects a reality that we are living in a parallel universe, a planet Earth with other earths, a Milky Way galaxy with similar galaxies and a universe with similar universe.

Physicist Max Tegmark, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania considers the theory of parallel worlds, when he lectured a group of more than 50 budding physicists and assorted philosophy, biology and science majors at the University of Delaware – Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Tegmark told his audience that, “there may be at least a thousand parallel universes out there.” His concept is all based on the latest measuring capabilities and mathematical equations devised by physicists in the past few years.

Many articles written by Tegmark have been published in academic periodicals and more mainstream magazines including “Scientific American” about the theory of parallel worlds.

Many would ask, who is Tegmark? Born in Sweden, he earned a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley and post-doctorate degrees in Europe and at Princeton.

To support his hypothesis, Tegmark told his audience that the most popular and simplest cosmological model today predicts that there is another you not a short distance from us doing – exactly or approximately, depending on those unpre- dictable quantum mechanics – what you are doing now: eating breakfast, riding in a carpool, or wrinkling your brow and rolling your eyes.

The professor also argued, “if space is infinite and the distribution of matter is relatively uniform, then even the most unlikely events must take place somewhere.” This could mean there are an other infinite number of inhabited planets with people who not only look like you but have nearly the same sort of experiences.

“We know that the universe is infinite and relatively uniform, because cosmic microwave background experiments have ruled out old ideas that the universe is like a four-dimensional sphere or doughnut, implying that it’s actually rather simple and infinite. Maps of galaxy distribution also have shown a uniformity in the distribution of matter.” Tegmark was quoted by writer Victor Greto.

This theory got people killed just few hundred years ago. In 1600, theologian-philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in Italy for heresy; among his ideas was a claim that there are more worlds out there than anyone could imagine.
Now because of a generation of open-minded people, Tegmark was not roasted alive but instead applauded with his remarkable idea.

Normally our reaction to this notion would depend upon our point of view, but I believe many would also think alike and hold up the idea of Tegmark.