Here’s a fascinating article about the possibility of creating a new universe in a laboratory (or many of them). This is not about virtual reality or artificial intelligence, this is about creating a wormhole to an actual new physical baby universe. A number of physicists think it is theoretically possible and take it seriously. This has any number of mind-bending implications. First, our own universe could have come about this way, whether created by a deity as some of us imagine or by some intelligent but fallible mortal being out there. Second, and the article goes into this, the creator of such a universe might be able to observe it but would have no control over it (although at least in theory, they might be able to actually travel to it.) Third, and the article doesn’t mention this, let’s say humanity somehow manages to survive the billions or trillions of years it would take for our own universe to run its course and begin to collapse (assuming that is going to happen), maybe this creates the possibility that our species could exist forever. Well, we have a lot of things to figure out between now and then obviously. One final thing I learned from this article is that physicists also have a theory of how our universe could have arisen completely spontaneously from nothing at all and without intervention by any external intelligent being. Even that has implications – if it could happen once, does it just continue to happen every now and then somewhere in space and time? The interesting implication there could be that intelligent life has always existed somewhere out there and always will.

There is science fiction about this of course. Starmaker by Olaf Stapledon comes to mind, and of course The Matrix. And of course, Lisa Simpson. There must be others.