The Witcher universe, which emerged with Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, the first of which was published in 1983, and enlarged its fan base with video games, the first of which was released in 2007, is the most popular since the first book was released, together with the Netflix series The Witcher, which was published in 2019 and published its second season this week. living in its popular age. The Witcher universe has worlds where many different life forms coexist, such as Skyrim and the legendary LOTR universe. How scientifically possible is the emergence of such a world?
To answer this question, The Verge conducted an interview with physicist and cosmologist Brian Keating. While some scientists think that the concept of ‘multiverse’ belongs to philosophy or religion rather than the positive sciences, others are in favor of not dismissing an undisproved theory. So, with the multiverse, “Can a universe like The Witcher exist?” what’s the question? Let’s ponder a bit with Keating’s answers.
How are multiverses handled in The Witcher?
In The Witcher universe, there is a process called “Unification of the Spheres” and takes place 1500 years before the main story. During this period, several different realities collide and elves, dwarves, humans and many different creatures begin to live in the same world. The possibility of such an event is debatable. Here are the answers we can get from The Verge’s interview with Brian Keating:
The Witcher isn’t the only one to popularize the multiverse theory. This issue, which Star Trek also handles, is now used in Marvel movies. Some physicists say it’s just science fiction. So why do others think otherwise?
The multiverse theory is a post-observational prediction based on Copernican principles. In these principles it does not matter what, where and who we are; trying to look at the world and the universe with non-human glasses. Therefore, it is thought that just as there are multiple planets, stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters, the same can happen in the universe(s). We have no proof that there is only one universe. According to Professor Andrei Linde, one of the leading supporters of this theory, the first possibility we should assume when thinking about this is the possibility of multiple universes rather than a single universe.
Productions of multiverses deal with this theory in different ways. The story presented by The Witcher, on the other hand, deals with not only the universes that exist in their own right, but also the intertwining of these universes. This leads to unification in historical events. So, is it possible for such a merger to occur, according to the theory of multiple universes?
Since the theory of multiverses is not yet based on concrete evidence, we are free to make assumptions about it. Another reason for this is that everything is possible if there are different universes. A law of nature in one universe may not be in another. That’s why when we talk about this theory, we always make hypothetical statements.
As for the unification of the universes; it could be just as light travels at a finite speed. The sun may disappear right now and we may not see it for eight minutes. Galaxies also collide, but not all stars in two galaxies collide. Most of them don’t even touch each other, as predicted. If there is more than one universe, it may be possible for the universes to be intertwined like this. However, we do not know how much they affect each other.
We see that the concept of multiverse is handled somewhat differently and metaphorically in science-fiction movies. Same with Witcher. A being in one universe finds himself in another universe, etc. However, they do not survive for long due to the difference.
In my book ‘Losing the Nobel Prize’, I made an analogy with the ‘petri-universe’. Consider bacteria kept in a petri dish. Even if these bacteria were smart enough to think, they wouldn’t be able to detect the existence of another bacterial colony. Even when they are within a few inches of each other, these bacteria produce toxins that prevent their space from being invaded and repel other bacteria. This is like a barrier that is an obstacle or support in the transition between universes.
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