Betting on science
About the multiverse, it is appropriate to keep an open mind, and opinions among scientists differ widely. In the Austin airport on the way to this meeting I noticed for sale the October issue of a magazine called Astronomy, having on the cover the headline “Why You Live in Multiple Universes.” Inside I found a report of a discussion at a conference at Stanford, at which Martin Rees said that he was sufficiently confident about the multiverse to bet his dog’s life on it, while Andrei Linde said he would bet his own life. As for me, I have just enough confidence about the multiverse to bet the lives of both Andrei Linde and Martin Rees’s dog.
– Steven Weinberg
http://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-th/0511037.pdf
It seems there is an epistemological problem. Of course, that hasn't stopped scientists of other disciplines from speculating things and presenting them as fact that they can't know to be true. One can speculate the multiverse, but how can we know for sure? The existence of another timeline can't be tested.
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