In my article, I discuss how the difficulites encountered by Superstring Theory also point to the existence of multiple universes. In Superstring Theory, we have a theory that has been remarkably successful in its attempts to unify the discrepancies between our foremost physical theories, Einstein's theory of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. But on the other hand, Superstring Theory has failed considerably in its other goal; to predict the values of the fundamental constants from first principles. Superstring Theory itself postulates that elementary particles are not points but higher dimensional strings, where different particles like protons or neutrons are differentiated by the way their string is vibrating, like different notes on a violin. In addition, Superstring Theory finds that mathematically, space itself must have extra dimensions, with a total of as many as 11 or 26, if the inconsistencies of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity are to be resolved. Since we only see three spatial dimensions around us, the others must then be tightly curled up at the microscopic level, avoiding easy detection. What is interesting is that the geometry of the way in which the extra dimensions are curled up determines the values of the fundamental constants of physics. Change the topology of these curled up spaces, and you change the speed of light and all of its companion constants. But what Superstring theorists have found is that contrary to expectation, there are literally an infinite number of ways to curl up these spaces that are all mathematically consistent, and thus an infinite number of allowed combinations of the physical parameters. The fact that we can not pin down a unique set of parameters, and predict our own values straight from the theory, gives further credence to the idea that all possible values are just as viable, and may be realized in other universes.

Flat Schematic of a Calabi Yau Manifold.

Wrapped around a sphere.

The mathematical term for the kind of curled up extra dimensional spaces allowed by Superstring Theory is what's called a Calabi Yau Manifold. The difficulty posed in constructing a graphic to illustrate the concept of extra dimensions is this; It is ridiculously impossible to draw a complicated 6-dimensional object like a Calabi Yau Manifold. Thus one must settle for a schematic illustration purely designed to capture the essence of the complexity of the object, without worrying about the impossible task of actually constructing an accurate artistic representation of one of these things.

Displacement map on surface of sphere.

Final conception of Calabi Yau Manifold magnified from an arbitrary point in space.

The idea I thought of was to use an abstract geometric piece that I did a while back, which seemed to have the complexity I was looking for. With the help of my friend Tom, we then wrapped it around a sphere in 3D Studio, then we used the program to construct what's called a displacement map, where regions of different brightness on the sphere are translated into bumps of corresponding size on the surface of the sphere, creating a rough, complex shape that is our conception of a Calabi Yau Manifold. Finally, we have a graphic where we magnify an arbitrary point in space to reveal the existence of the Calabi Yau Manifold at the microscopic level. Just imagine that every point in space harbors one of these crazy things, which we could only see if we could resolve space itself on the tiniest of scales. The amazing thing is that this actually may be true of our world. The universe never ceases to be ridiculous, it seems.

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