Michio Kaku: Parallel Worlds

[Image credit: Geoff Oliver Bugbee]

[Update: Visitors, video of Dr. Kaku answering a question about time travel may be found here on IFblog.]

The speaker now is theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. He holds degrees from Harvard, UC Berkeley and has offered a foundation for modern string field theory. He has authored "Hyperspace," "Time Warps" and "Parallel Worlds," popular books on physics.

The presentation starts with a thumping video of the city of the future. In 2057 the video says we'll all live in a wired world full of ambient technology.

Michio Kaku takes the stage, pointing out to laughter that the list of 100 smartest people he is on (mentioned in the introduction) also contains Madonna.

"Prediction," he says quoting Yogi Berra, "is hard to do, particularly about the future."

Now, in this point in time, there are opportunities available to recent generations.

Poking fun at physicists, he tells a joke about a priest, a lawyer and a theoretical physicist, who are about to face the guillotine. The priest is spared by a miracle and the lawyer by justice. The physicist last words were that he knew little about God and the law, but he knew one thing. "If you look up you'll see the rope is stuck on the gallows."

Kaku's journey to physics clearly involved a lot of experimentation, including building a homemade atom smasher that blew out every fuse in his home, prompting his mother to wish she had had a basketball player for a son.

The next year, the largest atom smasher is turned on Switzerland. It is 27 kilometers in circumference. Hopefully that smasher will reveal that we in fact live in 10 dimensions or more.

"Today we'll talk about creating a baby universe in a laboratory." We know that our universe began 13.7 billion years ago.

We have the embers of the Big Bang; he shows a photograph of the universe when it was only 300,000 years old. The universe is largely made out of Dark Energy, 23 percent Dark Matter, 4 percent Hydrogen and Helium, .03 heavy elements like you and me. Dark Energy is blowing the universe apart, he says.

"The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose."

Recounting the experience of the discoverer of pulsars, who made the mistake of telling her graduate adviser, who took all the fame about her finding, Kaku says that if anyone in the audience discovers what dark energy is, "TELL ME FIRST! I'm a generous man."

The universe is undergoing continuing creation. "Our universe is a soap bubble, which is expanding and there are other 'soap bubbles' out there."

He briefly explains the four forces of nature - gravity, weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force and the strong nuclear force. In the beginning these four forces were one.

He believes the string theory is particularly satisfying because it has a beginning, as mentioned in Genesis, as well as the timelessness of Buddhism.

Gravity holds you and me together. The electromagnetic force has led to the Internet and unimaginable communications options. He quickly runs through a number of home and portable devices that will intelligently keep us connected.

The nuclear force holds atoms together. Instead of memorizing all the particles he had to memorize, in the future, he hopes that PhD students will simply say "string theory."

He describes the "strings" in the theory, which can instantaneously change and construct something new. All the particles he had to memorize are nothing but musical notes on a "rubber band."

"The Mind of God is cosmic music resonating through 11 dimensional hyperspace."

"The universe is expanding" it's true. "It's expanding into 11 dimensional hyperspace." And like a fish out of water, we spend all of our time in three dimensions.

Dimensional thinking also has a literary history, citing the book Flatland. It also has a visual arts past. In Medieval era it was believed that a God's eye view demanded two dimensional figures.

Da Vinci brought a third dimension to art in his pieces such as the Last Supper. Picasso and Salvador Dali painted time, the fourth dimension.

"Well If time and space can have higher dimensions, can they be bent?"

An Oxford mathematician wrote physics masked as children's literature, he says. His name was Lewis Carroll. Like Carroll's imaginary world, the shortest line between two points is NOT a straight line, but a wormhole.

How do we test these theories? The Large Hadron Collider will be turned on; he hopes that it will reveal much.

In 2011 NASA's LISA craft may take a snapshot of the moment of creation and "maybe an umbilical cord to another universe."

We will need to escape in the far distant future, but how? Every few minutes Gamma Ray Bursters are being created. Showing a picture of the black hole, the math indicates that perhaps there is indeed a Looking Glass.

Holes in space may be accompanied by holes in time.

He describes types of Civilization as Type 0, carbon-fuel burning one, like ours; Type 1, which controls the power of an entire planet; Type 2, which controls the power of an entire star; and Type 3, which controls the power of an entire galaxy.

Given a Star Trek example, the crew of the Enterprise are examples of a Type 1 civilization, the Borg are a Type 2 civilization and the "Q" are Type 3.

He believes that our civilization will become a Type I civilization in the next 100 years.

The movie 2001 realistically depicts what an an encounter between ours and a Type 3 civilization, he says.

Ending with and Einstein story, he recounts how the professor, who had grown tired of giving the same presentation over and over, took up the offer of his chauffeur to give it instead. Taking a question at the end of the presentation the chauffeur, who had donned a whig, insulted the questioner by saying "that question is so simple, my chauffeur can answer it!"

In answering a follow up question, he says that string theory was discovered too early and is too undeveloped to be used to understand Dark Energy yet.

Wayne

Comments

[Grey Dress]

It seemed that Mr. Kaku was the Renaissance man of the IF...particularly as a "theoretical" physicist,he was out on a very long limb,and showed great bravery with his predictions.....I was most interested in his string field theory ideas(particularly the Multiverse theory) and the way he linked his thoeries to art,literature AND science and succeeded in not leaving anyone (even those of us who were creative,intuitive rather than crypto-scientific),out in the cold ,so to speak.I had wanted to ask him (an extension of a certain young man's question about all these purported,new technology's "weaponization" possibilities),If the world he was talking about was truly desirable (and this is,admittedly spoken as a true "Type 0" human),in that it would limit all human-to-human contact?I mean,nanobots and Internet sunglasses?...very impressive ,but what's the gain in the philosophical,humanist sphere,if any? Are we unable to see the virtues because we are still (technically,at least)HUMANS and have not evolved?Also,what are his thoughts on the possibilties (50 years from now or so ) of "evolution classes" and "forced evolution"? Also want to reiterate my great admiration for Dr.Kaku's lecture today ,and my hope that he will return ,next year.(*What are everyone's thoughts on Philip K. Dick......amazing sci-fi writer,who never forgot about HUMANS or our condition?"(9/15/07,Louisville,Ky.)

[Thomas Wrobel]

"I mean,nanobots and Internet sunglasses?...very impressive ,but what's the gain in the philosophical,humanist sphere,if any?"

When we controll energy enough to make totaly augmented worlds, much of our materialistic world becomes meaningless.

If we could put on a pair of AR glass's that can make anything look like anything else....then where would the value be in brand names and things that look fancy?

Surely all that would really mater would be function, not form.

It seems to be that "internet sunglass's" could well advance us in philosophical & humanist gain, even if it is by a kinda of back door approach.

[crackpot]

Dr. Kaku is my current hero. He see's things that most humans cannot even dream of.

He epitomizes the scene:

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

What a marvelous time to have existed.

[Tavis Wack]

I can only say that I'm happy to see someone with the knolage,imagination and courage to put there ideas to good sientifis use. Not many people have all three.

[Mr.Emanuel W.Cook]

you,re theoretically right Dr.Kaku,time is the 4th dimension;their is a Universe parallel to ours and its called the heavenly realm;their are portals

[Mr.Emanuel W.Cook]

you,re right Dr.Kaku,time is the 4th Dimension;their is a Universe parallel to our's and it is called the Heavenly realm and their arr portal routs and it is not the Black hole.

[Mr.Emanuel W.Cook]

Dr.Kaku,you can only get to the other Universe through visions only,for example,We would like to interupt this dream,for an important message and time is the 4th dimension.

[Edward Overbey]

I think perception is our greatest friend and greatest enemy. Time and space is infinite the only constant is what we perceive what is then we base all reality around that paradigm. Time and space is dimensional and/or anti-dimensional or/and somewhere infinitely in between. Spirit unlike time exists in all things and all times even when we perceive spirit as negieble. Time is perceived in the mind and the mind is a tool of the spirit. Time is not opposed to spirit for spirit exist is all time. It is what it is. Just like light all in this realm is a matter of perception.

[Michael Douet]

Dr.Kaku
I really like the idea od the Super Collider I just heard about it recently and I can't wait for when it is turned on your work is very good for me I a learning very quickly because of you thank you very much we need you if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have known about the Super Collider

[:Robert-Leslie:Harris]

QUESTION< IF A SOLAR SYSTEM SIMILAR IN SIZE TO OURS WAS SUDDENLY TO APPEAR 1 TO 2 LIGHT YEARS AWAY FROM OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, HOW MUCH TIME WOULD IT TAKE FOR THE MAGNETIC AND GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS TO REACH OUR SOLAR SYSTEM IF WE WERE CLOSE ENOUGH TO EFFECT OUR SYSTEM?

:Robert-Leslie:Harris

[Karen C.]

Dr. Kaku,
I am reading your new book and love it! I first heard of the string theory on "What the Bleep", not to sound trite, but do our thoughts determine our outcome?