How many universes are necessary for an ice cream to melt? Asks Professor Milan M. Ćirković [pictured] of the Astronomical Observatory Belgrade, Serbia, in the Serbian Astronomical Journal, Vol. 166, page 55-59. His paper considers the possibilities of other universes where a soft ice cream, left to its own devices, might be generally more likely to freeze rather than to melt. In other words one (or more) where the arrow-of-time might point in a different direction than it does here. But although the author goes into substantial cosmological and mathematical detail, those readers hoping to find a purely numerical answer to his question (viz. expressed as an integer, e.g. 42) will probably, in this universe at least, be disappointed. Rather:
“Only on the truly global scale – i.e. in the multiverse – there is no thermodynamical asymmetry, no arrow of time. Only through an anthropic selection effect do we perceive one in our own cosmological domain. In a sense, the ice cream melts because such [a] state-of-affairs is necessary for life and intelligence (no to mention ice-cream makers!) to occur.” [author’s emphasis]
Also see (many-worlds related): ‘Would this paper exist if I hadn’t written it?’
Question: Can the word ‘universe’ legitimately have a plural – given that the ‘uni’ prefix asserts that there’s just one?