The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality

by Richard Panek

Inflation already ensured that certain traces of the universe’s initial conditions would be forever out of reach. Those conditions would put even branes to shame, in terms of defying perceptions. If inflation can pop one quantum universe into existence, why not many? In fact, according to quantum theory, it should. It would, if inflation actually happened. In that case, our inflationary bubble would be one of an ensemble of 10500 inflationary bubbles, each its own universe. That’s 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 universes. Our universe would just happen to be the one with a value of lambda suitable for the existence of creatures that can contemplate their hyper-Copernican existence.