Sci-fi loves a multiverse. Everyone from Rick and Morty to Spider-Man has stepped through a portal and met their alter egos. My personal favorite use of this trope comes from the sitcom Community, where a simple die roll splits our heroes into seven alternate timelines. After the inhabitants of the “darkest timeline” suffer spectacular, meme-worthy misfortune, they turn evil and don fake goatees to match their new dastardly personas.
Screenwriters often deploy this trope to incite interdimensional team-ups or showdowns. But some physicists like the idea of a multiverse for another reason: The existence of many unobserved realms could answer deep questions about our universe. There are, perhaps fittingly,