Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse


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A Thing of Eternity
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Shaitan wrote:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:Even rearranging the words might help, the "The Multiverse Ends" or some such.
Well, see, part of the appeal of the original phrasing was that it was deliberately ambiguous as to whether it references an "end" as in a location or "end" as in the ceasing of its existence or both....and yet isn't quite as pretentious as, say, The Event (don't even get me started!).

The phrasing you're suggesting removes that ambiguity. Then again, I'm pretty much resolved to dropping that approach to the title at this point and trying another tack; problem is, I've already been at this for so long that I'm nervous it will take me a while to come up with something better. Alas, I'd rather wait than suck so I'm trying to remind myself that patience is a virtue....
I see what you're saying with that, if it helps you decide, you might want to know that while your original idea is technically ambiguous, 95% of people will interpret that "end" as "to cease to be" - because the "end" being a location implies a linear journey/path/objectorplacebeingtranversed - you get to the end of the road for example, but you do not get to the end of the continent, you get to the edge, you don't get to the end of the solar system, again, it's "edge" and so forth and so on as you scale the example up. So it's highly unlikely in my personal opinion that anyone would interpret that "end" to mean "edge" - long story short, I wouldn't worry about losing that ambiguity, because I don't think you had any in the first place (and, just in case I'm talking out my ass, try polling some people - say that sentence to them and ask them what they think it means. I'm fairly certain every person you ask will think it means "to end").
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inhuien
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by inhuien »

How about A Multiverses End.
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by Shaitan »

inhuien wrote:How about A Multiverses End.
An interesting suggestion, though that comes with its own set of potential interpretations which I'm not sure necessarily all fit what I'm planning (which is, deliberately, open for revision even after it's initially "published" but I'm also striving for maximum consistency and changing the title down the line is infinitely harder than changing any number of details of the story!). I also dislike how the word "Multiverse" rolls off the tongue, so "Multiverses" is even more of a tongue-twister and I'm doing my best to avoid that.

I may come back around to deciding that the title I've already picked is my best bet and that I don't want to wait forever dithering over it....but right now I'm still looking for something a bit different. It could end up being evocative of the same basic idea....but I'd like it to sound more elegant if nothing else. Perhaps that's my musical/poetic side talking, but right now I'm going with it.

So far, despite its awkward flow as a word, multiverse seems to be the winner on the terminology end of things.
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

I prefer omniverse of multiverse personally, for what it's worth.
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by DuneFishUK »

Multiverse and ommiverse are both good words as a pieces of pseudo-technical lingo (although I like Lundse's point that as soon as you connect things they just become extensions of the same universe :P). I've always used multiverse myself, but omniverse actually does sound better, and perhaps fits more snugly with your scenario...

Title wise I think you're right in wanting something more elegant - many of the best titles are a bit round-about or allusions rather than flat descriptions. :think:
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by Shaitan »

DuneFishUK wrote:Multiverse and ommiverse are both good words as a pieces of pseudo-technical lingo (although I like Lundse's point that as soon as you connect things they just become extensions of the same universe :P). I've always used multiverse myself, but omniverse actually does sound better, and perhaps fits more snugly with your scenario...

Title wise I think you're right in wanting something more elegant - many of the best titles are a bit round-about or allusions rather than flat descriptions. :think:
Indeed.

You guys have me going back and forth on Multi vs. Omni and of course the notion that it's all just one Universe.

That issue came up recently when I read some new research suggesting that membranes become populated with matter-energy primarily through the creation of black hole singularities in "parent" membranes, branching out in quite possibly infinite fashion (which helps explain why a single black hole in an upstream membrane might be able to push through enough mass-energy to produce the sort of visible universe we see out there; essentially a form of "pressure" pushing outward from the most central/most massive membranes in the larger structure, driving the branching process). That the "Big Bang" was such an event, a hypermassive black hole driving a burst of mass-energy through into our membrane instead of the alternate theory that a "collision" between membranes produced the Bang. The theories need not necessarily be mutually exclusive, and there is the potential for repeat events at any arbitrary moment even overlapping with the expansion of the current event.

If universes are indeed created mostly or entirely in this fashion, then that suggests that the variation in physics and the properties of matter/energy between membranes may be much smaller than previously suggested by the notion of an infinite multi/omni/whatever-verse. This still leaves plenty of psychedelic higher-dimensional realms to explore, but helps make the larger conflict across other universes rather more understandable and less esoteric.

Anyhow, thanks again all for offering up your ideas and feedback, and for humoring me in all this series project babbling. If there's ever anything that comes to mind that I can do to make it something that you'd want to read/watch, never hesitate to let me know. Hit me over the head with it, if necessary 8)
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by Shaitan »

Freakzilla wrote:I like The End. How about just End?
I've gone down that line of thought more than once; brief and preferably 1-word titles certainly do have an elegance about them when done well.

One has to look no further than Dune to see a perfect example of this.

The problem with "End" or "The End" is that in cutting "of the Multiverse" out of the title, you're left with something exceedingly generic. Not to mention very difficult to find a good, memorable, available domain for.

endofthemultiverse.com was available, I grabbed it. Whatever else I pick, no matter how elegant, should be available as a decently memorable/easily typed domain name so I have to run that check on everything before I decide to use it. I can, of course, always stick with a good name and simply host it as a subdomain on one of my existing domains. But that's not optimal if I want the project to be a successful one and become self-sustaining so that no matter what happens with my health in the coming years, that the story can continue. Without me, if need be.
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by Hunchback Jack »

The End of All Things.

Maybe that's been done, though.

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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Shaitan wrote:
Freakzilla wrote:I like The End. How about just End?
I've gone down that line of thought more than once; brief and preferably 1-word titles certainly do have an elegance about them when done well.

One has to look no further than Dune to see a perfect example of this.

The problem with "End" or "The End" is that in cutting "of the Multiverse" out of the title, you're left with something exceedingly generic. Not to mention very difficult to find a good, memorable, available domain for.

endofthemultiverse.com was available, I grabbed it. Whatever else I pick, no matter how elegant, should be available as a decently memorable/easily typed domain name so I have to run that check on everything before I decide to use it. I can, of course, always stick with a good name and simply host it as a subdomain on one of my existing domains. But that's not optimal if I want the project to be a successful one and become self-sustaining so that no matter what happens with my health in the coming years, that the story can continue. Without me, if need be.
Hey, not sure if you realized this, but that URL drops the first "the" from the title you were talkingabout earlier. "End of the Multiverse" is FAR more pleasant to hear/say than "The End of the Multiverse" in my personal opinion. I can't believe I didn't think of that earlier, but I think that actually renders the title pretty darned usable. :)
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by Shaitan »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:Hey, not sure if you realized this, but that URL drops the first "the" from the title you were talkingabout earlier. "End of the Multiverse" is FAR more pleasant to hear/say than "The End of the Multiverse" in my personal opinion. I can't believe I didn't think of that earlier, but I think that actually renders the title pretty darned usable. :)
Well, I'm the one who registered it after all! 8-) As I said on the first page of the thread:
Myself wrote:I guess I'll just come out with it: my working title for a while now has been "End of the Multiverse" or "The End of the Multiverse."
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Shaitan wrote:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:Hey, not sure if you realized this, but that URL drops the first "the" from the title you were talkingabout earlier. "End of the Multiverse" is FAR more pleasant to hear/say than "The End of the Multiverse" in my personal opinion. I can't believe I didn't think of that earlier, but I think that actually renders the title pretty darned usable. :)
Well, I'm the one who registered it after all! 8-) As I said on the first page of the thread:
Myself wrote:I guess I'll just come out with it: my working title for a while now has been "End of the Multiverse" or "The End of the Multiverse."
Whoops, I totally misread that!
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by DuneFishUK »

"End of the Multiverse" is pretty good, but to my ears at least it still sounds a little mechanical. Wouldn't worry about it though - content is king, and you seem to be doing ok on that front :)


(oh, and damn you - you gave me the fear and I finally got around to buying a couple of key domain names for my own "big idea" (Guess I should get back onto that whole content thing) :P )
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Re: Terminology: Multiverse versus Omniverse

Post by Shaitan »

DuneFishUK wrote:"End of the Multiverse" is pretty good, but to my ears at least it still sounds a little mechanical. Wouldn't worry about it though - content is king, and you seem to be doing ok on that front :)


(oh, and damn you - you gave me the fear and I finally got around to buying a couple of key domain names for my own "big idea" (Guess I should get back onto that whole content thing) :P )
Yeah, don't even get me started. I've been running significant web sites pretty much since there was a Web, and I've seen it all; had extremely valuable domains sniped out from under me while I was on vacation and forgot they were up for renewal....waited just long enough to move on an idea that all the relevant domains were already snapped up.....had ideas that just couldn't be matched to anything available and had that scuttle the entire project....you name it. You were wise to take the opportunity to cover your ass upon being reminded.

Thanks for the kind words. I'd still like to do better if I can manage it, but the fact that you folks didn't completely eviscerate the notion of that being a palatable title has me much more comfortable with the possibility that I might end up falling back on it rather than continuing the indefinite procrastination process.

Now if I can just settle on enough of the other elements of the outline/notes/dramatis personae that I'll be able to bang out a pilot script before the end of the winter (even if it's just a draft)....that would make me very, very happy.
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