How many universes are there?

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When cosmologists came up with cosmic inflation, the idea that the early universe ballooned exponentially in a moment, they quickly realised they may have got more than they bargained for. Inflation can happen anywhere in space and time. It happened in our patch of the universe a long time ago, and it made our corner of the universe very large, but there could be different parts of the universe where it’s still going on.

This scenario, known as eternal inflation, produces a pantheon of different “bubble” universes, all crowded together, with more budding off all the time. Welcome to the inflationary multiverse. There is no way to observe or measure it because all the bubble universes it contains lie outside the limits of our observable universe. Instead, many cosmologists are convinced it exists because it is a logical consequence of two theories, inflation and quantum mechanics, that have been demonstrated to be valid to varying degrees.

Not being able to see them hasn’t prevented people from speculating about how many universes there might be, and what they might contain.

With the standard-issue inflationary multiverse, the number of universes is endless. What we find in each one could be something wildly different from the universe we know. This idea of a cosmic pick-and-mix grew out of attempts to explain gravity in the same way as the other three forces of nature, as a quantum force. These string theories replace familiar point-like particles with tiny vibrating strings that exist in multiple dimensions – normally 10 or 11 of them, depending on your preferred version– and predict a vast landscape of at least 10500 different possibilities for how physics might look in the myriad bubbles of the inflationary multiverse. Each would have different physical laws and different values for the constants of nature.

Or maybe there is just one other universe, and we have already seen tangible evidence of its existence. In 2016, the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) detected a high-energy particle that instead of heading in from space, appeared to be blasting out of Earth. Two years later, it made a second such discovery. One explanation is that the particle might have come from a parallel universe created concurrently with our own, but travelling backwards in time. (New Scientist, December 2020).

My comment: makes all our alarums and excursions, attempts at political coups, illnesses and political buffoonery seem rather petty. I wish I could have been one of the clever scientists who spend their lives theorizing about universes. It takes imagination ( with a capital “I”).

A good and harmless way of achieving ataraxia.

Money and elections

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The 2020 Election illustrated how organized money has been devouring American Democracy.

It’s not just a problem in Maine – Democrats’ ability to fundraise far exceeded expectations, but that’s not necessarily a good thing if you don’t know how to put all that money to good use. (It didn’t have the hoped- for effect in Maine.  Ed.)

The election cycle cost a stunning $14 billion in total, a figure that has become significantly  higher in the weeks running up to the imminent Georgia runoffs. But while the share of the money that funded Biden’s campaign certainly played a role in his victory, we can’t ignore where it comes from.

As it turns out, most of the contributions to the campaign came from big industry donors. As political spending and corporations’ already outsized influence over policy increase, individuals’ power will decrease. Organized money is nothing if it’s just beholden to special interests, and not invested in building power at the local, state, and federal levels.   (Luke Savage, Patriotic Millionaires 17 Dec 2020, slightly edited for length).

My comment: The Republicans are even more beholden to Big Money.   Money erodes democracy because it is a rare big donor who doesn’t want some quid pro quo.  I would loathe being in the pocket of some guy with deep pockets and only passing regard for the well-being of the country.

We should be ashamed

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Yesterday I heard that my oldest son’s mother and my former wife, both of them living in England and, of similar age to myself, are getting vaccinated for covid-19 this week.   Yes, you read that correctly!  The much denigrated and trashed ( in America) National Health Service, accused of “socialized medicine” is already vaccinating elderly people.  Both are in homes for the elderly, but then vaccination in the UK  only started ten days ago.  A university contemporary, exactly my own age, has already been vaccinated.   What has happened here in America? I needn’t elaborate.

The National Health Service, albeit it is being messed around by the current incompetent conservative government, is regarded in England with admiration bordering on veneration.  It is well run, knows how to plan and manage, and exists to care for people, not to make money.  There!  You have it in one!

Reining in the police

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Since 2016, the District of Columbia has spent more than $40 million to settle police misconduct lawsuits, according to the records released by the Office of Attorney General .  The records did not include several other settlements for lawsuits which, the police department told the council, cost taxpayers $805,000.

About $33 million detailed in the records from the attorney General’s office covered six claims of wrongful conviction and death, while $2.8 million was to settle the last of several lawsuits over botched arrests during 2002 protests in Pershing Park. The remaining $5 million was to resolve at least 65 other suits — alleging false arrest, excessive force, negligence and violations of constitutional rights — with amounts that often ranged from $25,000 to $200,000.

“Behind these dollars are real people who live here or visited here,” Allen said, adding that the collective tab is costly. “What more could we be doing with tax dollars to end violence and fund victim services?”

Dustin Sternbeck, a police spokesman, said in a statement that officers in the past five years have responded to more than 3 million calls and made nearly 150,000 arrests. He said it would be “misleading and disingenuous to suggest any broad conclusions can be drawn from approximately 70 lawsuits that were settled by the city during a similar time frame where no fault was admitted.”  (Police Chief Peter Newsham declined to speak on the record for this article.)(Washington Post, 25 Dec 2020)

My reaction:  At frequent intervals we get phone calls from the police raising money for the current police force  or retired officers.  I  used to give money, but in view of the cost of police misconduct, a cost that comes out of the pockets of taxpayers, I now have a response to callers, the gist of which is this: “Policemen are public servants, represented by a union. If you are not happy with the money paid you, complain to the union, which will advocate. for you with the Council. We pay our taxes which cover your salaries.  I understand that the legal cases form a small part of the cost of policing, but we should not be asked to pay more for the  mishandling of cases by police officers, sometimes resulting in deaths.”.

The troubling thing is:  are we a marked couple?  Were a criminal to assault us or burgle our house will we get full-hearted protection?  It is not, I’m sure, intentional but I feel an element of  blackmail in these police phone calls.  I want peace of mind.