An article I wrote for the Foundational Questions Institute has been online for a couple weeks, but I’ve been so busy moving to my summer office near Algonquin Park that I haven’t had a chance to post a link to it yet. Well, no more.
The story focuses on the life and research of Hugh Everett who was the originator behind the multiple universe theory that you probably hear mentioned in science fiction novels every now and then. For the story, I interviewed Peter Byrne, an investigative journalist in California who usually covers corporate and government cover-ups but also has a journalist crush on theoretical physics.
I think my favorite moment in the story and in the interview was when Byrne discussed how Everett was literally a Dr. Strangelove type working for the CIA during the Cold War designing nuclear bombing algorithms. Yet, because of his work with multiple universes, he had to find it appalling because in some of them (which he believed all truly did exist) the bombs were really dropped and millions really did die.
Think of that next time you hear someone say theoretical physics is an irrelevant waste of research dollars.
