The Anthropic Principle - Cosmology Lovers dive-in
In 1973, Brandon Carter published a paper (attached below) which tries to explain the "coincidences" in Physics of our universe from an Anthropic (human-centered) point of view.
Very crudely, he insists that although we as living creatures have no "special" status in this universe (Copernican Theory), we are still "privileged". So many universal constants in physics are just right so as to promote life (the gravitational constant, the binding force or coupling constant, etc). If the gravitational constant were slightly larger or smaller than it actually is, stars and planets would not exist in a fashion so as to promote life. The coupling constant is "marginally strong enough", to bind protons and neutrons in a nucleus. Had it been slightly weaker, only Hydrogen would exist and no life was possible. His theory says that: it is no coincidence that these constants are just right in our universe; for if they were not, we would not exist to notice the difference!
That is, we exist because of the rightness of these constants and hence it should be no surprise to find them "just right"!
That makes some sense. He makes a strong argument. But it also raises the questions of "multiverses". Assuming that there are infinite universes each with a set of its own universal constants, obviously, very few of them would be "right" for life existence, and the rest of them would go unnoticed for the lack of life. Of course, I assume, "multiverse" was not a widely accepted idea at that point in time (recent developments have divided physicists and some of them believe it to be a possibility, thanks to String/M-theory, etc.)
This makes a good read, all lovers of basic sciences, dive in. Let us discuss our views and ideas. Of course, if you do not agree with this principle/idea, you would join the league with Leonard Susskind, one of the greatest minds alive! You cannot go wrong on either side 😀
Very crudely, he insists that although we as living creatures have no "special" status in this universe (Copernican Theory), we are still "privileged". So many universal constants in physics are just right so as to promote life (the gravitational constant, the binding force or coupling constant, etc). If the gravitational constant were slightly larger or smaller than it actually is, stars and planets would not exist in a fashion so as to promote life. The coupling constant is "marginally strong enough", to bind protons and neutrons in a nucleus. Had it been slightly weaker, only Hydrogen would exist and no life was possible. His theory says that: it is no coincidence that these constants are just right in our universe; for if they were not, we would not exist to notice the difference!
That is, we exist because of the rightness of these constants and hence it should be no surprise to find them "just right"!
That makes some sense. He makes a strong argument. But it also raises the questions of "multiverses". Assuming that there are infinite universes each with a set of its own universal constants, obviously, very few of them would be "right" for life existence, and the rest of them would go unnoticed for the lack of life. Of course, I assume, "multiverse" was not a widely accepted idea at that point in time (recent developments have divided physicists and some of them believe it to be a possibility, thanks to String/M-theory, etc.)
This makes a good read, all lovers of basic sciences, dive in. Let us discuss our views and ideas. Of course, if you do not agree with this principle/idea, you would join the league with Leonard Susskind, one of the greatest minds alive! You cannot go wrong on either side 😀
Replies
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durga chNot to sound like a narcissist but I would love to elaborate the quote in my signature here. Einstein for the one - apologised to a photo of Newton for disrupting classical physics by introducing relativity. Theory of relativity worked well as long as the mass of the object is high, but as soon as the theory was applied to inter nuclear particles, things just did not fit in. Thats when quantum mechanics was being studied and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle , the dead-cat in a box anagram were being discussed and Einstein was very uncomfortable with the notion of uncertainty. He did not want to accept that the quantum principles were so uncertain and during one debates - he blurted out " god does not play dice" to which Neil's Bohr replied -"Einstein don't tell god what to do".
I think physics works in such way. Its like clogs, you get one peg of a clog wrong and nothing moves. everything has to be perfect for the machine to run.
As such in multiverses, there might be universes which just took birth and puff went off, insense unstable.The question is - do different universes have different laws of physics?
Havenot read the paper - will save it for the weekend. -
Shashank MogheWell, if you beleive in the M-brane theory, or this theory, different universes have different laws of physics. QM was and still is a non intuitive, but correct science. String theory is our hope for unifucation of GR and QM. But personally, I believe that just coz a theory privides a mathematical structure to accomodate GR and QM doesnt mean it has to be true. And that is why I still am more moved/fascinated by ideas which limit themselves to GR/QM or some totally new theory than the theories which necessitate one-dimensional < Planck length entities which are established to perennially be beyond the scope of practical measurement. I mean, the moment they said the basic entity is a string (one dimensional!) so small we can never detect it and that this theory needs higher dimensions (eleven!) to provide a sustainable mathematical structure to unify GR and QM, they lost my interest. That being said, I am a nobody to even come close to "judging" the work of the likes of contemporary greats like Brian Greene and Leonard Susskind. The String theory might be completely true, but till the time I get enough handle to learn the beauty of it, these less imaginary (not to be confused with less beautiful) theories will continue to get my money.
Future holds the key, all we can do is sharpen our tools to understand what theyll speak 😀
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