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Multiverse: The theories of multiple universes
First things first. Democritus and Leucippus believed that since there are innumerable atoms and an infinite void, there is no reason why only one such world should be formed. Therefore they postulated innumerable worlds, coming-to-be and passing away throughout the void. They are the first to whom we can with absolute certainty attribute the odd concept of innumerable worlds (as opposed to successive states of a continuing organism). The picturesque reference was made by their pupil Metrodorus of Chios, who said that it is strange for (just) one ear of corn to be produced in a great plain, and for (just) one world in the boundless. In 1277 the bishop of Paris proclaimed that the Church admitted that there could be a multitude of worlds. His interest was not scientific, of course; it was merely to stress that we cannot stop God of creating how many worlds He wishes. We are still not dealing with a concept of a universe, as we know it today, but that´s only a question of perspective. After Galileo and Kepler the ancient "world" started to turn into the modern "universe". But before we proceed we must pay attention to the Theodicy of Leibniz, where we have the notion of logical possible worlds. He speculated that God considered all logically possible worlds then created the one He deemed best for His purposes. The theological explanation is somewhat interesting: as God is omnipotent and good, we can be sure that this world is the best of all possible worlds. That is, it contains a maximum of good and a minimum of evil, which is a must to the equilibrium of the whole. But this article is not working with the hypothesis of God; as we shall see later, the fulcrum is the expression "The notion of logical possible worlds". So, like that distant cousin of ours in A Space Odissey, let´s throw the technological (and lethal) bone to the air and change the scene and, in the next page, go to the second half of the 20th century. Related news:
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