Evaluating the string-based multiverse research programme from the perspective of the history of science

Recently, many scientific studies have discussed multiverse models based on the string theory landscape. However, from the perspective of the philosophy of science, there has been a great debate on the falsifiability of the multiverse models. As there is no consensus among scientists and philosophers on the criteria of falsifiability, whether the string-based multiverse theory is a legitimate scientific theory or not is found to be inconclusive. In this article, I have used Lakatos's idea of a scientific research programme to evaluate the string-based multiverse theory developed over the past few decades. From the perspective of the history of science, I show that the string-based multiverse research programme is close to being a degenerating research programme, which means that this line of research did not generate any substantial growth of truth content.