the.com/multiverse
The ultimate alibi: every bad decision is just the one your other self skipped.
means A hypothetical collection of multiple, possibly infinite, universes — including our own — each with its own version of reality.
from Built from 'multi-' (many) plus 'universe' itself, from Latin 'universum' meaning 'turned into one, the whole.' The word popped up in philosophical writing in the late 1800s, then got borrowed hard by physics and comic books — one trying to explain quantum branching, the other trying to explain why a hero died on Tuesday and was fine by Thursday.
- origin
- William James coined it in 1895, not Marvel
- physics version
- follows from quantum mechanics and eternal inflation equations
- problem
- untestable, so some physicists call it unscientific
- pop culture
- turned infinite despair into box office gold