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I liked the original form of this idea better, when it was hypothesized that universes are packed into a stack-like structure of membranes, although the mirror
by Udo 7y ago
I liked the original form of this idea better, when it was hypothesized that universes are packed into a stack-like structure of membranes, although the mirror hypothesis has the benefit of being theoretically accessible to experimentation.
There are a couple of neat effects that fall out of the (mem)brane hypothesis. For example, it offers a model for why gravity is seemingly so weak compared to the other forces: because a large part of it leaks out into neighboring universes. In that case, we'd have a handy explanation for dark matter as well: it's gravity that leaks in from neighboring universes. This would mean that stuff clumps together across universes. It could also be an auxiliary model for black hole formation in certain cases where we have yet to find out how some black holes could grow very quickly.
If we ever become a K3 civilization we could attempt to send a message across universes with gravity, or possibly even paint a symbol into the sky using large masses. Not we know how likely the other universes are to support life (probably not very).
- magduf 7y agoI know Kardashev never proposed a level 4 on his scale, but would a K4 civilization be one that can span parallel universes?
- Udo 7y agoI don't know since merely controlling the area is not enough, you'd have to capture (and use) all the stellar energy that comes out of that region. So K4 could be something like "uses the energy of the entire visible universe", but that's a shrinking concept over the time scales in question. It's not a well-defined scale anyway, since you could probably build a K3-equivalent civilization with only a few star systems using miniature black holes as reactors; conversely, you could easily be a galaxy-spanning civilization but only use a fraction of the total stellar output. The concept of translating into another universe does seem like an appropriate achievement and next step after K3. Since another universe might have wildly different basic parameters, classical sci-fi portals and such are probably out of the question. You'd have to translate the information stored in the brain into something appropriate that could continue to perform roughly the same functions on the other side.