All that is

Monday February 11, 2008

The perfectly good word "universe" has been tainted by scientists and science fiction writers who talk about "alternate universes" and "parallel universes" and all the rest. The universe used to stand for something - namely, everything - but nowadays the universe might just as well be a planet with a particularly crunchy atmosphere.

I propose that there should be a word for what I think the universe used to mean: everything that is. This word should include in its meaning any and all universes that exist, whether or not communication of any sort is possible or actually happens between them.

"The verse" might be a good word, having the sense of "universe" without the unitary, singular bit. I don't know if anyone would take it seriously. It's what they say in Firefly, a defunct television show. I think it was just meant to be future slang there.

Actually, if communication of any sort were possible between two universes, wouldn't they be the same universe? Maybe we could call the two chunks "continents" or something.

That is all.

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