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The Anthropic Principle


Silly Druid

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This time we're going to figure out if there's anything special about our universe, but let's start with another question: Do we live in a typical place in it? By 'typical' I mean the kind of place that we will most likely end up with if we pick one at random. The answer is of course not, because a typical place in our universe is just empty space. And we happen to live on a planet where there are good conditions to support life. And the reason why it is so is obvious: as far as we know, in the empty space there are no intelligent beings that would ask such questions.

So, if you believe (like me) that there are multiple universes, is the one we live in a typical one? Analogically to the previous question, the answer is no, because most universes probably don't have any intelligent life. It requires very precise fine-tuning of the physical constants to make a universe suitable to support life, and according to the current scientific knowledge there's no reason that the constants must have these specific values. So it seems likely to me that there are universes where the constants or even the laws of physics are different, but most of them don't have any complex structures in them. I'm not saying that our universe is the only possible one that can support life, probably there are many combinations of laws and constants that enable it, but still these are only a small minority of all possible universes. So our universe is one of these 'special' ones, just because it makes it possible for us to live in it.

But what really is the thing that differentiates these special kind of universes from all the rest? Is it the existence of life, intelligence, or something else entirely? I'll answer this question next week.

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this post makes me think of this :) 

 

Anyway, I don't know about multiple universes (I just can't imagine what that means :( ) and I am not sure there's anything special about the bit of ours that has us in it, other than to us :P Our whole planet is like an intricate pattern woven out of elements. If it was too hot or cold or made of different elements then the pattern would be much less intricate I suppose. Of course, we're part of the pattern ourselves, so we can't help but think it is special.

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@Starforce That's the so-called "measure problem", comparing infinite sets can be problematic indeed, but I believe there is a way to do it. For example, if our universe is infinite, but it's uniform in large scales, we can still assume there are more places with empty space than with life-supporting planets (in a specific radius, if you want to be precise), even if the quantities of both are infinite. The same applies to the "space of all universes", I don't know all the mathematical details, but I believe there should be a way to compare the quantities of universes that have specific properties.

I agree with you about different forms of life, I believe there are things out there that no one ever thought were possible. Too bad the distances are so long that it's hard to explore it all, at least with the current level of science and technology. Maybe someday the humanity will develop a "trick" that allows travel faster than light, there are some theoretical proposals but none of them seem feasible for now. So astronomical observations are the only way to find "interesting" planets, and, since we don't know what conditions are required for these exotic forms of life, we mostly search for something similar to our own.

Edited by PawelS
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