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Letter: Doubly infinite?

Published 14 December 2011

From Hillary Shaw

So our universe is one of 10500 universes in a multiverse (26 November, p 42). But what lies beyond the multiverse? Is it just one of 10500 multiverses in a polyverse? Maybe it’s a reversal of the idea from mathematician Augustus De Morgan’s poem: “Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.”

The editor writes:

• The suggestion is that the multiverse is everything.

From Brian Horton

Those who are convinced that the multiverse explains everything should read The Infinity Puzzle by Frank Close, which Amanda Gefter reviewed (29 October, p 54) and which describes how quantum field theory appeared to require electrons with infinite mass and charge. The infinities disappeared with further development of these theories. No doubt the infinite number of universes will also disappear with a little more thought.

West Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

From Phil Carter

If the multiverse contains all possible versions of reality, could we not be living in one of the universes where the inhabitants are destined never quite to make sense of physics?

Lichfield, Staffordshire, UK

Newport, Shropshire, UK

Issue no. 2843 published 17 December 2011

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