Boyko, M. E. Types of Multiverses in Modern Popular Culture

Abstract: Writers, scenarists, movie directors and computer game designers often appeal to the newest scientific concepts in search for fresh ideas. In this regard, the multiverse approach has been especially famous and reflected in the greatest number of products of popular culture. However, these works usually show multiverses (or meta-universes) of a different type compared to what is usually used by cosmologists and physicists. The present article touches upon the following issues: what types of multiverses are usually depicted in modern popular culture and for what purpose. At the first stage of the research the author defines the two logical types of multiverses out of general philosophical concepts – true multiverses and para-multiverses. After that the author applies the comparative-typological method. Based on the analysis of the structural similarities and differences, the author discovers the four types of true multiverses including a multiverse with dispersing universes, travelling back through time, parallel universes and phantom universes. The author offers to base the classification of paramultiverses on the classification of propositional attitudes. The author also describes the four types of paramultiverses: multiverses created by illusions, night dreams, delusions and imagination.

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