All language subtitles for S02E06.da

Freeman:
Earth - a place we all know.

But this is an Earth where
dinosaurs terrorize mankind.

Or it could be another Earth

where Russia
won the moon race.

Or another Earth that could
annihilate our own

in the blink of an eye.

Beyond the faintest star,

at the bottom of a black hole,

or hidden in higher dimensions,

groundbreaking science
now suggests

there might be more than
one version of reality.

Are there parallel universes?

Space, time, life itself.

The secrets of the cosmos
lie Through the Wormhole.

Is there more than one of you?

More than one of me?

Another version of me
may look identical.

But we're not.

Our fates could be
completely different.

One of us could be
a descendent of the other.

Our meeting
could cause both of us

to evaporate
into pure energy.

We could all be living
multiple parallel lives,

because as scientists explore

the outer reaches of physics
and the cosmos,

they're beginning to believe

that parallel universes do exist

and that they might determine
the fate of humanity.

When I was in grade school,
I was smitten with this girl.

I couldn't get her
out of my mind.

Trouble was, I had a
funny way of showing it.

Morgan!

I often wished
I could be someone else,

somebody with
confidence and charm.

I wished I could swap
myself out for that Morgan,

wherever he was.

Cosmologist Max
Tegmark of MIT

believes that this
other version of me,

and of all of us, really exists.

And he believes
our cosmic doppelgangers

live beyond the edge
of the known universe.

Tegmark: The best theory we have
for what made our Universe

predicts that it isn't
just really, really big

but actually infinite,

going on literally forever
in all directions.

Freeman: For Max, it's all
a matter of statistics.

And in an infinite universe,

even extremely unlikely
occurrences are possible.

Tegmark:
If I take three rocks here,

here's a pattern of orange,
white, and black.

I look around.

Oh, here's another one -
orange, white, and black.

If I take a larger pattern with,
say, uh, 10 rocks here,

then I have to look a lot harder
to find a copy of it.

Here it repeats.

Freeman: Earth is an enormous
pile of stones,

just as our bodies
are enormous piles of atoms.

How those atoms
are arranged in space

determines who and what we are.

The bigger the pattern,

the further you have to travel
before finding a repeat.

When I say
all patterns of atoms repeat,

I really mean all patterns,

even the pattern of atoms
that makes up me, Max Tegmark.

If I go far enough away,

there's gonna be
another exact copy of me

who will not just look like me
but feel like he is me.

Freeman: Max has calculated the
number of light-years he must travel

to find the same arrangement
of atoms he is made of.

It's a staggering number
of light-years.

Tegmark: I came up with 1 with a
million trillion trillion zeros

after it.

And that's a huge number.

But compared to infinity,

which is the true size of space,
I think,

it's just in our backyard.

Freeman: But there's a catch

for any explorer daring enough
to brave the long trek

to meet his cosmic clone.

In the 1920s,
astronomer Edwin Hubble

observed that our Universe
was not sitting still.

In every direction he looked,

galaxies were
flying away from us.

The further he looked,

the faster these galaxies
appeared to move.

Hubble concluded
this was only possible

if the entire Universe
was expanding.

Tegmark:
If this slab of concrete here

were a distant galaxy
sitting still,

then I could
send messages to it.

I could send intergalactic
e-mails at the speed of light.

If I'm willing to wait
long enough, they'll get there.

Since space is expanding,

we need to turn on
the conveyer belt

to make this more realistic.

This distant galaxy
is actually moving away from me.

Freeman: The further away
from us we try to reach,

the faster the space between
here and there expands.

At a certain point,

the expansion is faster
than the speed of light.

And that means we will never
reach or even be able to see

anything that lies
beyond this horizon.

To me, the bad news
with this cosmic horizon

is it prevents me
from visiting copies of myself

and of my friends,
which would be kind of fun.

Freeman: But there's another
place to look for parallel worlds -

not in the depths
of outer space,

but in the microcosmos
right under our noses,

where nothing,
it seems, is solid.

Frank Tipler studies the strange
laws of quantum mechanics.

These laws govern
the tiny subatomic particles

we are all made of.

Thank you, Adam.

He fuels his prodigious
brain power

with the finest cuisine the city
of New Orleans has to offer.

I think what I would be
in the mood for today

is the Schrodinger's
Special.

All of reality is described
by quantum mechanics,

and the central equation
of quantum mechanics

is Schrodinger's Equation.

Freeman: Erwin Schrodinger
unplugged reality as we knew it

when he wrote down
his namesake equation.

He proved that subatomic
particles could exist

in multiple places
at the same time

and that more than one particle

could occupy the same point
in space at the same time.

This subatomic world remains
a blur of probabilities

until the moment
someone looks at it,

when those probabilities
gel into one definite reality.

Frank believes
this quantum fuzziness

doesn't just happen
in the microscopic domain.

It's the way everything works.

People try to think,
"Oh, it can't be

quantum mechanic supplies
to the Universe."

Nonsense.

Anyone who looks
at the Schrodinger Equation

is forced to conclude that
it applies to all of reality,

not just to atoms,
but to buildings, to glass,

to the whole Universe.

Freeman: If Frank is correct,

everyday objects
are schizophrenic

when nobody looks at them.

They constantly shift
between one of many existences.

Underneath this metal hood

is every dish that
Frank could order,

existing simultaneously.

And only when
the hood is removed

and Frank looks at it
does one reality take hold.

Ah. Veal.

Oysters.

But why this dish
and not the other?

Most scientists believe
Frank's observation

forced nature to make
a decision at random.

In the blink of an eye,

all other possible
realities collapse.

But Frank is not convinced
the mainstream has it right.

They concluded that when you
carry out a measurement,

there are possible
universes out there

which collapse
into one real universe.

Actually, that is inconsistent

with the mathematics
of quantum mechanics.

Freeman: Frank believes
that every possible outcome

does in fact become reality,

each in its own
parallel universe.

In this Universe,
Frank eats veal.

But in another universe,
he ends up with steak.

In another, shrimp jambalaya.

In fact, we have always known

that reality was more
than one universe,

but physicists would not
believe their own equations.

Freeman: If Frank is right,

the space that you occupy is
filled with a near infinite sea

of identical copies of yourself.

If something happens to you,

the exact opposite could happen
to one of your hidden twins.

But they may not
stay hidden for long.

On this silicon chip
lies a tiny object

that can exist
in two realities at once.

For the first time,

this scientist may have caught
sight of a parallel universe.

Alternate realities don't
have to be light-years away,

far across the Universe.

They could all be right here.

If the strange rules of quantum
mechanics are correct,

I am really a collection
of countless alter egos,

all locked in a
relentless struggle.

This internal war is
supposed to be undetected.

At any moment,
only one ego can become real.

The others
are completely invisible.

Or are they?

Physicist Frank Tipler believes
quantum mechanics predicts

there are countless
versions of ourselves

living in parallel universes.

And like many of us,

he sometimes daydreams
of an alter ego.

Man: It's time for another
trip around the cosmos

with fearless Frank,

astrophysicist and
cosmic adventurenaut!

This week,

Frank discovers a portal
to a quantum parallel universe!

Freeman: This Frank Tipler believes
our Universe, like a cartoon,

tricks us into thinking
it's the only reality.

From the top down, a cartoon
appears to be a single object.

But a cartoon
is made up of cells.

We can use one transparency
to represent one universe,

but in reality, there are four
more universes out there,

superimposed on each other.

Freeman: An unobserved object
will be in many places at once.

According to Frank,

each one is destined
to become reality

in its own separate
parallel universe.

When we make a measurement,

each one of the Frank Tiplers
would be united

with a particular result.

Freeman: In one universe, the
objects can only be seen in one place.

From our perspective,

it appears the
act of observation

destroys all other
possibilities.

But appearances
can be deceptive.

We shouldn't think
of the possibilities

just as possibilities.

The other realities
do not cease to exist

just because I have
picked one in my own hand.

They still remain.
They still exist.

Freeman: If we could see
every universe at once,

a countless number
of Frank Tiplers

will make the same measurement
at the same time.

And each Frank
will see the object

in a slightly different place.

These tiny nuances can,
over time, amplify,

resulting in parallel worlds
with diverging fates.

In one universe,

a giant asteroid misses Earth
and dinosaurs live on.

In another, rocket failure dooms
America to lose the moon race.

But how can we ever know if
these alternate realities exist

if they evaporate from view
as soon as we look at them?

Cleland: We never see these
quantum-mechanical effects,

like being in two places
at the same time,

because we're always
unavoidably measuring things.

Air molecules are hitting them.

That's a kind of measurement.

We shine a light on something.

That's a kind of measurement.

Perhaps you have an object
sitting on a table.

The table, because it's pushing
back on the object,

is also measuring it.

Freeman: Experimental physicist
Andrew Cleland

may have become the first man

to catch a glimpse
of a parallel universe.

Inside this small square
of silicon,

Andrew has etched
a barely visible metal panel.

It's made up
of over a trillion atoms.

In the quantum world,
it's Godzilla.

And he's trying to show
that something this large

still obeys the rules
of quantum mechanics.

We're very familiar
with the fact

that quantum mechanics
applies to small things,

like electrons or atoms.

But the idea that it should also
apply to large things,

things that we deal with
in our everyday life,

is much harder to accept.

Freeman: But proving that his panel
can behave quantum mechanically

means making sure
nothing measures it.

It needs to be in complete
isolation and very cold.

Cleland: So, this instrument
is a dilution refrigerator.

If you have half a million
dollars lying around,

you, too, could own one
in your own home.

The instrument has a series
of temperature stages

that go from 1 Kelvin to .6
Kelvin to .1 Kelvin

all the way to 20 Millikelvin,
or in other words,

about -459 degrees Fahrenheit.

This is where we operate
these quantum experiments.

Freeman: Inside
the dilution refrigerator,

Andrew directs a single quantum
of energy at the paddle.

It should have a 50-50 chance

of either receiving the
energy or missing it.

Instead, to his amazement,

the panel both receives
the energy and misses it

at the same time

and begins to oscillate
between these two realities.

The panel can be both in a state
where it has no energy

and where it has one of these
units of energy in it.

And in that state, actually,

when it's in both
at the same time,

you actually do get a vibration
at 6 billion times a second.

Freeman: Andrew's
groundbreaking experiment

proves that the strange laws
of quantum mechanics

govern everything
in our Universe,

from tiny particles...

to gargantuan galaxies.

No matter the size, any object
can be in many places at once.

Cleland: I thought people
within the physics community

would notice it and would give
it some applause, as it were,

but I really didn't expect
that it would break

outside of the small community
that I'm used to dealing with.

So that was quite a surprise.

There's a number
of different interpretations

that have been generated
to try to explain this.

One of them is the
many-worlds interpretation,

or parallel universes.

But in the end,
those are not predictive.

And because it's not predictive,
it's not something we can test.

So that leaves it open
for people to choose

whichever interpretation
they prefer.

Freeman: If there are
quantum parallel universes,

Andrew's experiment
could be the first step

toward unlocking their secrets.

But there's another type
of parallel world

that nearly all scientists
are convinced should exist.

It's made of antimatter,

and if we ever meet it,

the results would be
complete and utter destruction.

There's something evil
lurking out in the cosmos.

It's called antimatter.

If one tiny drop of it
met a drop of normal matter,

it would explode with more force
than the bomb at Hiroshima.

The frightening reality

is that the Big Bang should have
created antimatter and matter

in equal amounts.

In other words, out there,

there should be an antimatter
twin to our Universe

with the power to
annihilate all creation.

There's just one problem.

This deadly antimatter universe
has gone missing.

Joanne Hewett
is a theoretical physicist

at the Stanford Linear
Accelerator in California.

She's a detective

on the trail of this missing
parallel universe.

Where did it go?

That's one of the big mysteries
of science today,

is where did the antimatter go?

Every particle has its own
antiparticle associated with it.

It has the same mass
as its parent particle,

but it has all the
opposite properties.

Like an electron has an electric
charge associated with it,

so an antielectron,
which is called a positron,

has the opposite electric charge
associated with it.

When antimatter
and matter collide,

basically you get
a big burst of energy,

just like "Boom."

Freeman: If the Big Bang created
as much antimatter as matter,

then one of two things
should have happened to it.

Any particles
of antimatter and matter

that bump into one another

should have been
completely annihilated.

But some antimatter and matter
may not yet have met,

and an explosive reunion
could be coming our way.

Joanne has made it
her business to find out.

She harnessed
the power of Stanford's

2-mile long particle accelerator

to re-create miniature versions
of the Big Bang.

We created
two beams of particles,

and we collided them
with just enough energy

to create a pair of particles
called B mesons.

Freeman: Inside their experiment,
called the "B" factoring,

Joanne and a team of scientists

track the swarm of B mesons
and their antimatter twins,

known as Anti-Bs.

They looked for any
subtle differences

between these supposedly equal
and opposite particles.

If you want to study the B meson
versus the Anti-B meson,

you have to be able to see
the difference in the time

between which
the two of them decay.

But they live
for a trillionth of a second.

It makes them
very difficult to study.

Freeman: With the help
of sophisticated instruments,

Joanne and her team
discovered a tiny difference

between the B and the Anti-B.

One will decay
just a little bit faster

or a little bit differently
than the other one.

And it's the Anti-B meson that
decays just a little bit faster.

Freeman: This tiny imbalance
between matter and antimatter

could make a big difference

to what happened
after the Big Bang.

In fact, it could make
a whole universe of difference.

Think of matter and antimatter

locked in a game of checkers...

...to the death.

Both sides start
with equal numbers.

As time goes on,

most of the checkers
and anti-checkers

annihilate one another.

But in the end,
one side has a slight edge

and claims victory.

This one single checker
out of that entire group

that was created from the Big
Bang is all that exists today,

and it is the entire
matter content of the Universe.

Freeman: The matter we see
in the Universe today

is just a tiny fraction

of two vast seas of
matter and antimatter.

They would have completely
destroyed one another

were it not
for the tiny imbalance

Joanne and her colleagues found
between the B and Anti-B mesons.

Hewitt: Because
of this slight difference

in the decay properties
of the antimatter,

we're left with matter today,
just a sliver of matter

compared to the original
amount of the Big Bang.

Freeman: So, Joanne's
detective work is done,

and everyone can stop worrying

about our impending annihilation

with an evil antimatter universe

prowling in the dark
recesses of space.

Actually, this story may not
wrap up so neatly.

Because even though the
"B"-factoring results

explain where most
of the antimatter went...

Unfortunately,
that doesn't account

for all of the missing
antimatter in the Universe.

So there must be
some new piece of physics

that is still there
for us to discover.

Man:
3, 2, 1, zero, and liftoff

for the final launch
of Endeavour.

Freeman: That discovery
could be close at hand.

In May 2011,
the space shuttle Endeavour

delivered a giant particle
detector called the AMS

to the International
Space Station.

The AMS will look
for the cosmic rays

created billions of years ago
from matter and antimatter

annihilating in the
wake of the Big Bang.

Perhaps they will lead us
to the remnants

of that primordial sea
of antimatter,

if it's out there.

The antimatter universe
is not the only strange domain

that may be lurking
on the fringes of our cosmos.

We could be surrounded by all
manner of parallel universes.

Learning where and what they are
is not just a theoretical game.

The fate of our entire
Universe depends on it.

Why do we care if another
version of you and me exists?

We're never going to
meet them face-to-face.

But these alter egos
are important.

Because they are
the key to answering

the biggest questions
of existence -

how was the Universe born...

and how will it end?

Cosmologist
Andrei Linde believes

he's made a shocking discovery.

The force that
created the cosmos

should have created countless
other parallel universes.

And that same force

would also cause the demise
of everything we know.

This discovery
began with a simple,

seemingly innocuous question.

Why does the Universe
look the same

in every direction that we look?

This is the problem
which bothered physicists

for, well, hundreds of years.

Freeman: Andrei was convinced that
a massive chaotic explosion alone

could never create the
smooth and uniform Universe

that we see today.

Because the way physics
understands the Big Bang,

everything we see today

exploded from something
the size of a sugar cube.

Linde: It appears
that in order to create

all of these galaxies
surrounding us

in the standard Big Bang theory,

we would need approximately
10 to the degree 85

tons of high-energy explosive.

It's like a billion of a billion
of a billion of billion

of a billion of a billion
of a billion of a billion

tons of matter.

And this just sounds
totally unbelievable.

And that's why it was necessary

to come with a different
kind of story.

And that was
the inflationary theory.

Freeman: Inflation is a process
Andrei knows very well,

and not just as a force
that blows up the Universe.

When he's not decoding
the mysteries of the Big Bang,

he inflates tiny portions of our
world with his favorite hobby -

photography.

Linde: This is actually
a pretty nice camera.

My family gave it to me as a
birthday present when I got 60,

and since that time,
I got kind of hooked.

Freeman:
According to Andrei's theory,

when the Universe
was the size of this sugar cube,

it must have been
a chaotic lump of energy,

each microscopic part

a fundamentally different
place from another,

like a technicolor patchwork.

Linde: This cube may have
different colors of different size,

but what inflation does,

if you start with any tiny
corner of the sugar cube,

then this part
of the Universe expands.

And we look around.

We're living inside
this sugar cube.

Everything is white around us
or everything is pink around us.

And then we say,
"Oh, so beautiful."

Our Universe is uniform.
We've solved all our problems.

Freeman: But inflation may not
solve all of our problems.

Because once it gets going,
inflation,

like Andrei's addiction
to blow-up photography,

never stops.

The Universe, it seems,

is constantly growing
larger and larger forever.

But according to Andrei,

inflation must also come back

to visit our already
expanded Universe.

It zeros in
on a tiny fraction of it

and blows it up
into a new universe.

Linde:
So, what will happen -

there will be a bubble formed
of a new phase, if you wish,

and the bubble
will grab you and kill you,

and, well, that will be the end.

Freeman: If Andrei is correct,

our Universe
is inherently unstable.

At any moment, one tiny part of
it might expand to cosmic size

and destroy everything we know.

But across the continent,

a former colleague
thinks Andrei has got it wrong.

Paul Steinhardt is the Albert
Einstein professor in science

at Princeton University,

a title that only two scientists
have ever earned.

What does inflation
actually predict?

Well, any possibility can occur
an infinite number of times.

There is no prediction
that such a theory can make.

Anything that can happen is
consistent with such a theory.

Freeman: Paul is scrapping
decades of work on inflation

for a new theory,

one that claims

there is a hidden
fourth dimension of space.

And across that dimension
lies a parallel universe.

Our three-dimensional world
can be viewed

as a membrane-like surface
embedded in space

with an extra
fourth spacial dimension.

So think about
these two newspapers here

and how close they are together.

The two brane worlds -
ours and the one opposite -

are separated
by a much tinier distance,

about a trillionth
of a trillionth of an inch.

Freeman: In Paul's model,
everything in our Universe

lives on a flexible
three-dimensional membrane,

or brane world.

The other brane world,

even though
it's incredibly close to us,

is a separate universe
that does not interact with us.

But then Paul began to wonder
what would happen if it did.

Steinhardt: What my colleagues
and I began to think about

was the idea that these brane
worlds might not just sit there

for all time,

that they might begin
to move towards one another

and actually collide.

In that collision,

energy would be converted

from the energy of motion of the
branes into matter and radiation

so that when
they came apart again,

they would be filled with hot
matter and radiation,

just like what we'd get
after a Big Bang.

In fact, we realized
this could be the Big Bang.

The Big Bang, instead of being
the beginning of space and time,

could actually be a collision.

Freeman: Paul believes
that this alien universe

is still less than
an atom's length away.

It's a strange domain

where the laws of physics
are completely different.

And Paul thinks we're already
picking up evidence of it.

Although we can't
touch, feel, or see

any matter on the other brane,

we can nevertheless
sense its existence,

because we can feel its gravity.

Freeman: In the past decade,

astronomers discovered
that every galaxy

is surrounded by invisible
supermassive sources of gravity.

No one is sure what these
hidden behemoths are made of.

They call it dark matter.

The matter that's on
the other brane world,

which from our vantage point

appears to be
a kind of dark matter,

doesn't interact
with the light on our side.

Freeman: Could dark matter actually
be matter in a parallel world?

Paul thinks we
may find the truth

at the bottom of a black hole,

a vast sink hole in space

where gravity is so intense,
nothing can escape it.

If a lot of matter
clusters together

on one brane or the other brane,

its gravitational field
becomes so strong

that it draws the other brane
towards it near that point.

What happens is as if you've
pinned the two together

at that point
where the black hole forms.

So elsewhere,
the two branes may be separate,

but at the point
where they're pinned,

they're joined together at
the position of the black hole.

Freeman: Decoding
the riddle of dark matter

is one of the biggest challenges
in physics today.

Thousands of brilliant minds

and hundreds of telescopes
are trained on it.

Paul believes that when
they finally learn

what dark matter is,

they will actually discover that
it exists in another universe.

Do black holes connect us
to a parallel world?

This scientist may already
have the answer,

and if his new
theory is correct,

we could be on the verge
of making contact

with a parallel universe.

400 years ago,

it was believed Earth
was the center of the Universe.

Then a man from the village
Torun in Poland

swept the Earth aside.

But in discovering
our true place in the cosmos,

the great astronomer
Nicolas Copernicus

left one crucial
question unanswered.

Where is the center
of the Universe?

Now another son
of that same village

thinks he has the answer.

If he's right, it could lead us
to a parallel universe,

one that gave birth to ours.

Nikodem Poplawski has
the same revolutionary spirit

as his Polish predecessor.

He believes the key to making
a scientific breakthrough

is rigorous training
and a clear head.

Poplawski: When I work out, I
have some freshness in my mind,

and then I want to think
about some problems

about the Universe.

I become more creative.

Freeman: Nikodem's intense focus
brought him face-to-face

with a cosmic monster -

the black hole.

Inside its outer edge,
known as the event horizon,

not even light can escape
its voracious appetite.

No one is sure what happens past
this cosmic point of no return.

At the heart of a black hole,

the force of gravity
is so powerful

that it will compress
the entire mass of a star

into a single point.

Physicists call this point of
infinite density a singularity.

Poplawski: And, of course,
singularity means

that we do not understand
completely the physics.

I don't like singularities,

and I wanted to see
if there is a mechanism

which would be the simplest
and the most natural.

Freeman: Like most scientists
who study gravity,

Nikodem is a disciple
of Albert Einstein.

Einstein professed that space
and time are woven together

into a flexible fabric
he called space-time.

Katie and Meghan
are holding here a towel,

which represents space-time.

Space-time can be curved

under the influence
of massive objects.

So here I have the ball,
which represents the sun.

Sun has some significant effect
on the space-time.

You can see
how space-time is curved.

And here's Earth.

And Earth feels curvature
of space-time,

and that's why it moves
around the sun.

Freeman: But this curving
was not the only way

Einstein believed
matter could distort

the fabric of space-time.

In addition to curvature,

space-time is also equipped with
another geomatical property

called torsion.

Freeman: Albert Einstein
and mathematician Elie Cartan

believed matter could also
twist individual fibers

in the fabric of space-time.

However, the effects
of torsion are so tiny,

they are impossible to measure.

Without any means to test it,

Einstein and Cartan
abandoned the theory.

But Nikodem picked up
where they left off.

He applied their theory

to the unforgiving gravity
inside a black hole,

where matter spins so fast,

torsion twists space-time
into a coiled spring,

waiting to explode.

So, here is
the collapsing black hole.

Tornado in a tube visualize
the very violent dynamics

of the motion of the matter
through the event horizon.

At extremely high densities,

torsion starts
becoming significant

and manifests itself as a force

that opposes
gravitational attraction.

Freeman: As matter approaches
the heart of a black hole,

torsion becomes so extreme

that it spins the matter around
with intense force.

Matter does not fall
into a singular point.

Instead, the heart of a black
hole is a swirling opening.

Poplawski: The matter
cannot just disappear.

The energy must be conserved.

So all the matter
goes through the event horizon

from a black hole to the growing
white hole on the other side

and participates in creating
new growing universe.

Freeman: If Nikodem is right,

when the mass of a star
collapses into a black hole,

it spews out on the other side
as a white hole,

an explosive fountain
of mass and energy

in a new parallel universe.

But this idea
does not just apply

to black holes in our Universe.

If we assume
that every black hole

produces a new universe inside,

then our Universe must have
been born in a black hole

which exists
in another universe.

Freeman: Nikodem believes the
Big Bang that created our Universe

was actually a white hole

created in turn by the death
of a star in another cosmos,

a cosmos that is our parent.

And if this theory is correct,

there should be
a cosmic umbilical cord

between these two worlds,

one that has never
been severed.

Poplawski:
If we are inside a black hole,

then there must be a connection

from the parent universe
to our Universe.

Freeman: Has this scientist stumbled
upon a bridge to another universe?

And could strange bursts
of energy in the night sky

actually be something
totally unexpected...

messages from the inhabitants
of a parallel universe?

Black holes are the
most terrifying things

in the Universe.

Anything that falls into
one is gone forever.

But where does it go?

The answer could be
another universe.

If this idea is right,

black holes might be a way
to send a message

to a parallel world.

And there's another possibility.

Beings from another universe

may already have tried
to make contact with us.

Physicist Nikodem Poplawski
is convinced

that our Universe rests
at the bottom of a black hole

in a parallel world.

And he's trying to discover

whether beings
in that parallel world

might have a way
to communicate with us.

And this is a visualization

of what happens to
the matter and energy

when it goes to a black hole.

Freeman: The gravity inside
a black hole is so intense,

if you jumped into one,

it would rip apart
every atom in your body.

But that doesn't mean
nothing can survive the trip.

Now I'm going to write the word
"Space-time" in Polish,

"Czasoprzesetrzen."

Now I'm going to rip it off,

and I'm going to put little
piece of paper to the blender.

And I'm going to
press the button.

No matter how long
I'm going to press the button,

the information is still there.

Now it's very distorted.

We cannot easily recognize it.

However,
it is inside a black hole,

and it will appear on the other
side inside the white hole,

and we can hope that one day

someone will be able
to decipher this information.

Freeman: Could our cosmic
parents be sending us messages?

Nikodem thinks we may already
have detected evidence

that they are.

For decades,
astronomers have picked up

powerful bursts of energy

coming from the farthest
reaches of the cosmos.

Poplawski: Gamma-ray bursts are
the most luminous explosions

that we observe in our Universe
besides the Big Bang.

And we still do
not understand well

the mechanism
that causes them.

We see them coming
from far, far away.

They may be
indications of matter

coming from the parent
universe to our Universe.

Freeman: Could these pulses of energy
actually be a form of Morse Code

from inhabitants
of another universe,

a message of profound
cosmic wisdom

based on billions of years
of experience

before our Universe
was even born?

Nikodem's theory is still young,

and the math is intimidating.

He could be wrong.

But in his struggle
to wrench parallel universes

from the realm of fantasy

to one of serious
scientific possibility,

he is far from alone.

Once you consider the full
multiverse point of view,

you see a much broader
picture of reality.

Tegmark: Whenever
two different things happen,

you would just be
aware of one of them.

You would think mistakenly that
the other outcome didn't happen,

but in fact,
the other copy of you

would feel just the
other way around.

We start discussing things

which previously belonged
to realm of science fiction.

We are right now thinking about
this very, very seriously,

and maybe eventually
we will find some answers.

The word "Universe" is supposed
to mean everything that exists.

Today, we're almost certain

that our Universe
is not all there is.

There really could be
parallel Earths,

parallel you's,
and parallel me's.

It's hard not to wonder what
our alter egos might be like,

whether they are living out
our most cherished dreams.

But don't forget
this possibility -

you could already
be living the dream

of another you from
a parallel universe.