An essay on parallel universes and the multiverse, written from the viewpoint of a science-fiction enthusiast who wonders whether the events of one life play out differently in alternate realities. It recalls the Big Bang picture in which everything began as a singularity about 13.7 billion years ago and asks whether ours is the only universe. Drawing on a 2012 space.com article, it explains that if space is flat and infinite, the finite number of possible particle arrangements (about 10^10^122) must repeat, implying infinitely many cosmic patches identical to or slightly different from ours.
Stephen Hawking's final paper is cited as narrowing the multiverse to a much smaller range of possible universes, while astrophysicist Ethan Siegel's 2015 argument is offered as a counterpoint: differing rates and timings of inflation reduce the likelihood of universes like our own. The author closes with mixed opinions on the subject and a quotation from Eden Phillpotts about the universe waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
