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00:00Our scientific understanding of nature is limited to one universe, the observable one,
00:06which makes up everything we can see in the cosmos surrounding us.
00:10In recent decades, though, experts have wondered if we could extend our scientific theories
00:14past this reality and explore the possibility of a multiverse beyond the stars.
00:20And despite this seeming like a modern concept, it dates back centuries and even thousands
00:26of years.
00:28This is Unveiled, and today we're taking a closer look at what ancient Greek cosmologists
00:33knew about the multiverse.
00:35Do you need the big questions answered?
00:37Are you constantly curious?
00:39Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
00:42And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
00:45Greece is undoubtedly one of the cradles of civilization.
00:48It's a region that humans have lived in since as early as the Paleolithic Era, otherwise
00:52known as the Old Stone Age, which started 3.3 million years ago, running all the way
00:58up roughly to the end of the last Ice Age.
01:02Agricultural societies developed on the land in and around Greece from about 7,000 BCE,
01:07turning the area into a hotspot for Bronze Age civilizations.
01:11This all came to a harsh end during the Late Bronze Age Collapse, however, which happened
01:16in roughly the twelfth century BCE.
01:18The reasons why aren't exactly clear, but it was around this time that Greece entered
01:22into a three-century-long Dark Age.
01:26It was a period of struggle, but it came to an end, and ultimately, what the world now
01:30chiefly thinks of as Ancient Greece emerged and began to flourish, becoming the dominant
01:36Mediterranean culture during the time of Antiquity.
01:39The power of Greece perhaps peaked under the rule of Alexander the Great, whose empire
01:44completely transformed the world at the time.
01:47But after his death, infighting broke out, and Greece endured some of its most tumultuous
01:52years.
01:53Soon came the Roman conquest of Greece, and while the historic lands would continue to
01:58blossom under Roman rule, the wheel of history had turned.
02:02Nevertheless, Greece had had a huge and lasting impact on the human story.
02:07For many, it is the birthplace of modern civilization.
02:10What's not tied together quite so often, however, is the Ancient Greeks and the multiverse.
02:16But actually, there's a good argument to say that the idea of the multiverse was born
02:20in Greece.
02:21So, how do we get there?
02:22In the earliest Greek myths, the cosmos emerged from chaos, an undefined, primordial state.
02:29Chaos perhaps mirrors our modern concept of reality before the Big Bang, when all matter
02:34was confined to a singularity of infinite density.
02:38For the Greeks, however, it was from chaos that the first deities emerged.
02:42In particular, Gaia and Ouranos, the Earth and Sky gods.
02:46Along with a select few other gods, they shaped the universe into an ordered system.
02:51The concept of chaos evolving into structure is a central theme in Greek cosmology, and
02:56a still-popular viewpoint in the modern day, even if contemporary explanations are usually
03:01less divine in nature.
03:03Because of the inherent unknowableness of chaos, though, it's little wonder that some
03:07started to push for further, more rational explanations.
03:11The iconic philosopher Anaximander was one of the first.
03:15He claimed reality was more specifically born from the Apeiron, an infinite, boundless substance.
03:21The Apeiron was the origin of all things, an abstract concept that sought to make sense
03:27of the underlying mechanics of reality.
03:29The problem was that Anaximander's boundless realm actually wasn't all that specific
03:34at all, and so it never really caught on.
03:36But, the search for something other than chaos had begun.
03:41The next great shift came with Empedocles, a century after Anaximander, who established
03:46the four classical elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water.
03:50They were considered to be the building blocks of existence, constantly interacting to form
03:55the material world.
03:57Empedocles' view is in many ways reflective of modern chemistry, albeit with far fewer
04:02elements to play with.
04:03Elsewhere, and the Greeks also believed, in general, in a structured, hierarchical solar
04:08system.
04:09He popularized this geocentric model, with a fixed Earth at the centre, and it went on
04:14to dominate cosmology for centuries.
04:17All these ideas combined to form the basis of our modern, mainstream understanding of
04:22the universe.
04:23This isn't and wasn't where Greek cosmology ends, though.
04:27Some did go further, and proposed a theory that included the possibility of multiple
04:32worlds.
04:33The atomists, chiefly Leucippus and his disciple, Democritus, were some of the most influential
04:39in this field.
04:40As the name of their school implies, they pioneered the concept of the atom.
04:45Their ideas, which were radical at the time, said that everything in the universe was made
04:49up of tiny, indivisible particles.
04:52These particles, the atoms, then moved through an infinite void, combining in countless ways
04:58to form various objects, beings and all the phenomena of reality.
05:04Crucially, though, from the atomists' perspective, there was no one, singular, unique universe.
05:09Instead, Leucippus, Democritus and their followers believed that the vastness of the void, and
05:15the limitless nature of atoms, should lead to infinite worlds.
05:19The nature of these alternate realities varied, with some mimicking our own, and others appearing
05:25completely different.
05:26The worlds could vary in size, composition and presence of life.
05:31Some might be deemed physically better for life than ours, others would be physically
05:36worse.
05:37All manner of combinations and conditions were possible.
05:40Again, this was groundbreaking at the time.
05:43It was a theory of infinite worlds in constant flux, and it challenged the overriding Ptolemaic
05:48notion of a singular, ordered universe centred around the Earth.
05:53Interestingly, though, it was first laid out centuries before Ptolemy was even alive.
05:58The atomists were seemingly far, far ahead of the curve.
06:01They were challenging the status quo before the status quo had even been set.
06:07Epicurus was another key atomist figure.
06:09He lived in the early Hellenistic period, during the era that immediately followed the
06:13death of Alexander the Great.
06:15He founded his own school in Athens, where he continued teaching atomism for a new generation,
06:20in the third century BCE.
06:23Among other things, Epicurus asserted that because atoms moved randomly, colliding in
06:28various ways, the formation of multiple worlds was not only possible, but inevitable.
06:34This idea of spontaneous creation fuelled much of the Epicurean worldview, but it also
06:39closely parallels even the most modern concepts of a multiverse.
06:44Alongside this universe, there are others, and endlessly so.
06:48Importantly, while Epicurus wasn't alone, views like his still weren't the norm.
06:54As today, talk of multiple worlds was met with suspicion and scepticism by many of his
06:58contemporaries.
07:00Most believed in a finite and closed universe, but we can see that the seeds were being sown
07:05for something more.
07:06And, ultimately, perhaps the emerging shoots of this new idea were most famously discussed
07:12a few years before Epicurus.
07:15Anaxacus was another famous atomist, a generation before Epicurus' time, and noteworthy for
07:20his travels with Alexander the Great.
07:23One interaction between him and Alexander went down in history, when Anaxacus is said
07:28to have told the Great King that there were many worlds beyond our own.
07:32Upon hearing this, it's then said that Alexander wept, crestfallen to realize that even though
07:38there were many worlds, he had yet to fully conquer even one.
07:42It's one of the most famous chapters in atomist history, and, as well as demonstrating just
07:48how huge the ego of Alexander must have been, it reveals just how ancient and embedded belief
07:54in the multiverse really is.
07:56Unsurprisingly, and famously, there were always other worldviews along the horizon of ancient
08:01Greek thought.
08:02Notably, Stoicism emerged to rival atomism.
08:06Stoic cosmology instead proposed a cyclic universe, an idea that followers called eternal
08:12occurrence.
08:13It suggests that the cosmos will experience a continued cycle of birth and destruction,
08:18repeating forever.
08:19Clearly, there are modern comparisons to be made here, as well, including in relation
08:23to the Big Crunch and Big Bounce alternatives to the Big Bang Theory.
08:27But the many worlds of an atomist inclination were never disproven or discarded.
08:33Lucretius, for example, was a Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher, who lived in the first
08:38century BCE, and one of his poems, On the Nature of Things, describes a universe teeming
08:45with endless worlds, all shaped by the chaotic movement of atoms.
08:50With today's research, our greater understanding of science fact, and our wide variety of science
08:56fiction, it can all feel like the multiverse is an entirely new and exciting phenomenon.
09:01But clearly it isn't, and our greatest minds have long pondered the possibility of other
09:07worlds and realms, somewhere distant from here.
09:11What do you think?
09:12Is there anything we missed?
09:14Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
09:18subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.