There are a number of cosmology enthusiasts on Agnostic.com, some of whom enjoy speculating about multiple universes (multiverse) and offering seemingly limitless hypotheses about the possibilities in other universes. For those members, I suggest a highly readable book for a general audience: “Just Six Numbers” by Sir Martin Rees, an eminent cosmologist and astrophysicist.
Sir Martin discusses how just six numbers with astonishingly precise values are the underpinning of the observable universe. These numbers lead to profound connections between stars and atoms. If any one of these six numbers had a slightly different value, there would be no stars and no life. While it’s fun to speculate, one should always realize that an imagination completely unfettered by any reality has pretty much entered the Twilight Zone of anything goes. Spend too much time there and you might never return. 
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I have not read this book, but i do get into discussions with these types occasionally, people who don't understand the relationship between actual possibility and the multiverse hypothesis. It is definitely a condition of "only those things which are possible", and it is difficult sometimes to make them understand that "possible" is a finite set, even if we don't know all of it's members.
HereticSin
Level 7
Aug 5, 2018
0
Aren't those who dream putting makeup to the stars?
GipsyOfNewSpain
Level 9
Aug 5, 2018
0
Nothing in the past can be different than it was.
HereticSin
Level 7
Aug 4, 2018
0
Well, the past is only as we are told it happened so I do not concur. We are constantly revising the past. At times making it to fit an agenda. Maybe one day history will say... Lee Harvey Oswald did not killed President Kennedy. How many of you know Columbus Died without knowing he "discovered" a "new world". Or about a statue in Portugal claiming Pinzon Brothers as the "Real Discoverers" of the "new world"? A lot of Fugazi in the past that you claim can't be changed... just saying... we only know like 7% of what has actually happened? And often enough we accepted it because that is how is told but we can't prove it one way or another? The past is perception and "Sorry Charlie, but can be different."
@TheAstroChuck precisely that. lack of knowledge or changing knowledge doesn't make it possible to have the past be different than it was, it makes it possible to have it be different than we think it was.
many comments are simply a Dunning -Kruger Effect
magicwatch
Level 7
Aug 4, 2018
1
@TheAstroChuck like your comments, don't see enough of you, KEEP ON TRUCKING
@TheAstroChuck Gracias
Thankfully I am well aware I struggle to understand but keep on trying.
I see young students wanting to go off on "what if" tangents all the time. I try to capitalize on these teachable moments by returning to the boundary conditions of the real world. It's not always simple or quick. Given the time limitation of a class period sometimes you just have to "That's a big 'if.'" Rarely is an invitation to discuss the subject further after class accepted, revealing the the true intent was often idle speculation, not genuine interest. Sigh.
Flyingsaucesir
Level 8
Aug 4, 2018
1
I like to return the favor. In terms of the topic, when someone likes to say that there is a universe where they are rich or famous or whatever, I like to remind them that if that were true, then there is a universe where they've been kidnapped and attached to life support where they're being tortured and kept alive.
Or when people claim aliens helped to build the pyramids, I like to claim that it was really ant people who live inside the hollow Earth and built them as a vent. So long as we leave the vent in place, they won't come to the surface. Then I remind them that my "what if" has the same amount of evidence as their "what if". It usually helps with those who haven't formed a belief aroubd their what if.
Thanks I will read that book sounds interesting. However my understanding is the multiverse is less a theory and more of a byproduct of current physics in both string theory and quantum physics. I personally remain flexible on the topic as I have a rudimentary knowledge of physics. But I am still fascinated by it enough to follow the dumbed down versions for us smart but not that smart folk.
Wahker
Level 6
Aug 4, 2018
0
@Scoobs yes, any model that satisfies all known conditions is definitely still on the table.
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