The Multiverse in Speculative Fiction, Metaphysics and Natural Science

The multiverse has lately been a very hot topic in speculative fiction, as it has appeared even in some big budget movies such as Everything Everywhere All at Once and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. However, the idea is far from new. In this presentation a short overview of the history of the notion is given. It discusses e.g. the multiverse of Michael Moorcock, the multiverses of superhero comics and the use of the multiverse in utopian fiction. It also looks briefly at the use of the multiverse in serious metaphysical and natural scientific theories such as modal realism and theories of branching space-time in metaphysics, and the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the theory of cosmic inflation in natural science. Lecturer Mika Oksanen