The Case for a Creator - Lee Strobel [75]
“Now, let’s face it: a universe is far more complex than a loaf of bread. My point is that if a bread machine requires certain specific parameters to be set in order to create bread, then there has to be a highly designed mechanism or process to produce functional universes. In other words, regardless of which multiple-universe theory you use, in every case you’d need a ‘many-universes generator’—and it would require the right structure, the right mechanism, and the right ingredients to churn out new universes.
“Otherwise,” he said, stifling a chuckle, “you’d end up with a cosmic hockey puck!”
THE MANY-UNIVERSE MACHINE
Collins pushed back his chair and walked over to a chalkboard on the wall. “My students get a kick out of it when I draw a ‘many universes generator,’ ” he said, sketching a whimsical cartoon of a manufacturing machine, complete with a billowing smokestack and a conveyor belt that brought in raw materials and then carried freshly minted universes out the other side.
“This machine,” he said, putting the finishing touches on his artwork, “can only produce life-sustaining universes if it has the right components and mechanisms.”
I leaned back and scrutinized his drawing. “What would you need, say, under Linde’s theory?” I asked.
“First,” Collins said as he strolled back to his chair, “you’d need a mechanism to supply the energy needed for the bubble universes. That would be the inflaton field that he has hypothesized, which effectively acts like a reservoir of unlimited energy. Second, he would need a mechanism to form the bubbles. This would be Einstein’s equation of general relativity. Because of its peculiar form, this would supposedly cause the bubble universes to form and the ocean to keep expanding.
“Third, he would need a mechanism to convert the energy of the inflaton field to the normal mass/energy that we find in our universe. Fourth, he would need a mechanism to allow enough variation in the constants of physics among the various universes. In other words, he would need a way to vary the constants of physics so that by random chance he would produce some universes, like ours, that have the right fine-tuning to sustain life.”
“Is there a candidate for that mechanism?” I asked.
“Well, yes—superstring theory,” he replied. “This might work, though it’s far too early to tell.”
When I asked why he brought up superstrings, he explained: “According to superstring theory, the ultimate constituents of matter are strings of energy that undergo quantum vibrations in ten or eleven dimensions of space-time. Six or seven of these dimensions are ‘rolled up’ to an extremely small size. In the jargon of string theory, they are said to be compactified. Their shape determines the modes of vibration of the strings. This, in turn, would determine the types and masses of fundamental particles and the characteristics of the forces between them. So they would have different constants of physics and laws governing the forces.”
“That sounds pretty iffy,” I said.
“Well, both inflationary cosmology and superstring theory are highly speculative. In fact, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku said recently that ‘not a shred of experimental evidence’ has been found to confirm superstrings. 44 Physicists are a long way from even working out the equations. Right now it’s just a theory whose main merits are that it’s mathematically elegant and that it holds the promise of unifying quantum mechanics and general relativity, two branches of physics that physicists have struggled to reconcile for over fifty years.”
I summed up what Collins had said so far. “So the many-universes generator would need all these factors if it ever hoped to produce a functioning universe,” I said.
“Right,” he replied. “For example, without Einstein’s equation