anthropic principle

The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

by David Deutsch  · 30 Jun 2011  · 551pp  · 174,280 words

known as ‘anthropic reasoning’. It is said to follow from a principle known as the ‘weak anthropic principle’, though really no principle is required: it is just logic. (The qualifier ‘weak’ is there because several other anthropic principles have been proposed, which are more than just logic, but they need not concern us here

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the SETI project, only much faster and more reliably – whether there are astrophysicists in the universe. She is hoping to test the predictions of the anthropic principle. But she can only ever visit a finite number of universes, and she has no way of telling whether those are representative of the whole

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reasoning about probabilities – and about how rare or common, typical or untypical, sparse or dense, fine-tuned or not anything is. And so now the anthropic principle can make testable, probabilistic predictions. What has made this possible is that the infinite set of universes with different values of D is no longer

A Brief History of Time

by Stephen Hawking  · 16 Aug 2011  · 186pp  · 64,267 words

were capable of asking the question: why is the universe so smooth? This is an example of the application of what is known as the anthropic principle, which can be paraphrased as “We see the universe the way it is because we exist.” There are two versions of the

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anthropic principle, the weak and the strong. The weak anthropic principle states that in a universe that is large or infinite in space and/or time, the conditions necessary for the development of

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. It is a bit like a rich person living in a wealthy neighborhood not seeing any poverty. One example of the use of the weak anthropic principle is to “explain” why the big bang occurred about ten thousand million years ago—it takes about that long for intelligent beings to evolve. As

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to beings who are capable of measuring time back to the big bang. Few people would quarrel with the validity or utility of the weak anthropic principle. Some, however, go much further and propose a strong version of the principle. According to this theory, there are either many different universes or many

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a divine purpose in Creation and the choice of the laws of science or as support for the strong anthropic principle. There are a number of objections that one can raise to the strong anthropic principle as an explanation of the observed state of the universe. First, in what sense can all these different

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another. In this case the only difference between the regions would be their initial configurations and so the strong anthropic principle would reduce to the weak one. A second objection to the strong anthropic principle is that it runs against the tide of the whole history of science. We have developed from the geocentric

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outer suburbs of an ordinary spiral galaxy, which is itself only one of about a million million galaxies in the observable universe. Yet the strong anthropic principle would claim that this whole vast construction exists simply for our sake. This is very hard to believe. Our Solar System is certainly a prerequisite

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other galaxies, nor for the universe to be so uniform and similar in every direction on the large scale. One would feel happier about the anthropic principle, at least in its weak version, if one could show that quite a number of different initial configurations for the universe would have evolved to

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part of the universe that we inhabit did not have to be chosen with great care. So we may, if we wish, use the weak anthropic principle to explain why the universe looks the way it does now. It cannot be the case, however, that every initial configuration would have led to

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not tell us why the initial configuration was not such as to produce something very different from what we observe. Must we turn to the anthropic principle for an explanation? Was it all just a lucky chance? That would seem a counsel of despair, a negation of all our hopes of understanding

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it as well, including any complicated organisms like human beings who can observe the history of the universe. This may provide another justification for the anthropic principle, for if all the histories are possible, then so long as we exist in one of the histories, we may use the

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anthropic principle to explain why the universe is found to be the way it is. Exactly what meaning can be attached to the other histories, in which

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the universe is expanding rather than contracting. In this chapter I shall argue that the no boundary condition for the universe, together with the weak anthropic principle, can explain why all three arrows point in the same direction—and moreover, why a well-defined arrow of time should exist at all. I

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question of why we should be in the expanding phase rather than the contracting phase. One can answer this on the basis of the weak anthropic principle. Conditions in the contracting phase would not be suitable for the existence of intelligent beings who could ask the question: why is disorder increasing in

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curved. Why did one time dimension and three space dimensions flatten out, while the other dimensions remain tightly curled up? One possible answer is the anthropic principle. Two space dimensions do not seem to be enough to allow for the development of complicated beings like us. For example, two-dimensional animals living

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-time in which one time dimension and three space dimensions are not curled up small. This would mean that one could appeal to the weak anthropic principle, provided one could show that string theory does at least allow there to be such regions of the universe—and it seems that indeed string

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Absolute zero: The lowest possible temperature, at which substances contain no heat energy. Acceleration: The rate at which the speed of an object is changing. Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to observe it. Antiparticle: Each type of

In Our Own Image: Savior or Destroyer? The History and Future of Artificial Intelligence

by George Zarkadakis  · 7 Mar 2016  · 405pp  · 117,219 words

merciful wholeness. The verdict is out whether this would be heaven or hell. Teilhard has also been very influential on the authors of the Anthropic Principle.20 The Anthropic Principle tries to make sense of why the universe is so finely tuned for life to emerge and evolve. This fact is profoundly evident from

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AI. So how come the Plank constant is exactly right for life? Why doesn’t it have any other value but this ‘right’ one? The Anthropic Principle claims, somewhat tautologically, that the universe is finely tuned because we are here to observe it. There simply could not have been any other way

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, one that Teilhard would recognise and rejoice in: that the universe is compelled to allow conscious life to emerge eventually. This is where the Strong Anthropic Principle meets the AI Singularity: Kurzweil, Barrow and Tippler believe that there must be a purpose for intelligence in the universe. That intelligence cannot be a

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of Artificial Intelligence. It may appear that body–mind duality supports the evolution of AI. In fact, if you take the position of the Strong Anthropic Principle or the AI Singularity, you may think that dualism compels the evolution of AI. Alas, as we will see, this is far from true. Dualistic

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algorithms 210–11 Al-Jazari 34 alternative therapies 40 Amazon 233, 246 androids 53–9, 66–73 Andronicus of Cyrrhus 30, 31 animal magnetism 40 Anthropic Principle 126–9 anthropomorphism 19–23, 25–7 antibody recognition system 282–3 Apple 81–2, 233 application programming interface (API) 265 Archimedes (287–212 BCbc

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54–5, 57, 80, 82, 278 steam engine 31 Stoker, Bram 62 stone tools see tool-making stories see narratives string theory 92, 105 Strong Anthropic Principle 127–9 structuralism 74–5 subjective experience 120–3, 157–8 swarm intelligence 287–8 syllogisms 195–6 symbolic logic, limitations of 275–6 systemic

Giving the Devil His Due: Reflections of a Scientific Humanist

by Michael Shermer  · 8 Apr 2020  · 677pp  · 121,255 words

were larger, it would have prevented stars and galaxies from forming.2 The most common reason invoked for our universe’s “fine-tuning” is the “anthropic principle,” most forcefully argued by the physicists John Barrow and Frank Tipler in their 1986 book The Anthropic Cosmological Principle: It is not only man that

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a few percent one way or the other? Man could never come into being in such a universe. That is the central point of the anthropic principle. According to the principle, a life-giving factor lies at the center of the whole machinery and design of the world.3 So in addition

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least somewhat comfortable with the idea that photons can be created from nothing without cause, but not whole universes?”19 Explanations for Our Universe The anthropic principle invoked to explain our universe troubles most scientists because of its antithesis known as the “Copernican principle,” which states that we are not special. The

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anthropic principle puts humans right back in the center of the cosmos, not geographically but anthropocentrically – it is all about us. There are a number of counterexplanations

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a few million years. In neither case would it have lasted long enough for life to develop. Thus one either has to appeal to the anthropic principle or find some physical explanation of why the universe is the way it is.31 Hawking’s collaborator Roger Penrose layered on even more mystery

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Alternative Facts, 8 altruism, 106 Alvy’s error meaning of life and, 108–109 American Revolution, 72 Amis, Martin, 279 Anonymous (group), 93, 99–101 anthropic principle, 112, 120 anti-fragility, 74 anti-Semitism, 30–31Holocaust denial, 38–43 anti-something movements likelihood of failure, 90 Apple, 206 Applebaum, Paul, 166, 172

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

by Michael Shermer  · 1 Jan 1997  · 404pp  · 134,430 words

same subjects and not only is there overlap and conciliation but someday science may subsume religion completely. Frank Tipler's cosmology (1994), based on the anthropic principle and the eventual resurrection of all humans through a supercomputer's virtual reality in the far future of the universe, is one example. Many humanists

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of California, Berkeley, where he met British cosmologist John Barrow, also a postdoc. Tipler and Barrow discussed a manuscript by Brandon Carter which described the Anthropic Principle. "We thought it would be a good idea to take the idea and expand it out. And that became the Anthropic Cosmological Principle. In our

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of a hundred billion (or more) galaxies in the known universe that cares not one iota for humanity. By contrast, Carter, Barrow, and Tipler's Anthropic Principle insists that humans do have a significant role in the cosmos, both in its observation and its existence. Carter (1974) takes the part of Heisenberg

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level: "What we can expect to observe must be restricted by the conditions necessary for our presence as observers." In its weak form—the Weak Anthropic Principle—Barrow and Tipler contend quite reasonably that for the cosmos to be observed, it must be structured in such a way as to give rise

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. Obviously. Who would disagree? The controversy generated by Carter, Barrow, and Tipler lies not with the Weak Anthropic Principle but with the Strong Anthropic Principle, the Final Anthropic Principle, and the Participatory Anthropic Principle. Barrow and Tipler define the Strong Anthropic Principle as "The Universe must have those properties which allow life to develop within it at some stage in

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its history" and the Final Anthropic Principle as "Intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the Universe, and, once it comes into existence, it will never die out" (pp. 21-23).

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be exactly like it is or there would be no life; therefore, if there were no life, there could be no universe. Further, the Participatory Anthropic Principle states that once life is created (which is inevitable), it will change the universe in such a way that it assures its, and all life

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alter life in such a way that its universe and world would appear as it must be for that observer, and no other. The Weak Anthropic Principle says the universe must be as it is to be observed, but it should include the modifier "by its particular observers." As Richard Hardison noted

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. He first assumes the existence of God and immortality toward the end of time (his Omega Point boundary conditions—what he previously called the Final Anthropic Principle) and then works backward to derive what he has already assumed to be true. Tipler claims this is how all general relativists work (i.e

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Capital. Time, November 13. Carporael, L. 1976. Ergotism: Satan Loosed in Salem. Science, no. 192:21-26. Carter, B. 1974. Large Number Coincidences and the Anthropic Principle in Cosmology. In Confrontation of Cosmological Theories with Observational Data, ed. M. S. Longair. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Reidel. Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., and F. Cavalli-Sforza

From eternity to here: the quest for the ultimate theory of time

by Sean M. Carroll  · 15 Jan 2010  · 634pp  · 185,116 words

like they are in equilibrium? Boltzmann, naturally, has foreseen your objection. And at this point he makes a startlingly modern move—he invokes the anthropic principle. The anthropic principle is basically the idea that any sensible account of the universe around us must take into consideration the fact that we exist. It comes in

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of physics had to take the form they do because the existence of life is somehow a necessary feature.” Arguments over the status of the anthropic principle—Is it useful? Is it science?—grow quite heated and are rarely very enlightening. Fortunately, we (and Boltzmann) need only a judicious medium-strength version

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of the anthropic principle. Namely, imagine that the real universe is much bigger (in space, or in time, or both) than the part we directly observe. And imagine further

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” in a universe that lasts forever. The idea that the universe spends most of its time in thermal equilibrium, but we can appeal to the anthropic principle to explain why our local environment isn’t in equilibrium, makes a strong prediction—and that prediction is dramatically falsified by the data. The prediction

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.185 We can be more specific about what the universe would look like if it were an eternal system fluctuating around equilibrium. Boltzmann invoked the anthropic principle (although he didn’t call it that) to explain why we wouldn’t find ourselves in one of the very common equilibrium phases: In equilibrium

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so much stuff in the universe, and why was it packed so smoothly at early times? One possible answer would be to appeal to the anthropic principle. We can’t live in empty space because, well, it’s empty. There’s nothing there to do the living. That sounds like a perfectly

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manifestations of the laws of physics will vary from universe to universe. You might hope to make some statistical predictions, on the basis of the anthropic principle; “sixty-three percent of observers in the multiverse will find three families of fermions,” or something to that effect. And many people are trying hard

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are very interested in the multiverse, but not so much in the details of the landscape of many different vacua, or attempts to wrestle the anthropic principle into a useful set of predictions. Our problem—the small entropy of the observable universe at early times—is so very blatant and dramatic that

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there’s no hope of addressing it via recourse to the anthropic principle; life could certainly exist in a universe with a much higher entropy. We need to do better, but the idea of a multiverse might very

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witnessing its relaxation to a state of high entropy. The question of why the Past Hypothesis is true belongs to the realm of cosmology. The anthropic principle is woefully inadequate for the task, since we could easily find ourselves constituted as random fluctuations (Boltzmann brains) in an otherwise empty de Sitter space

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. H., and Olum, K. D. “Energy Momentum Restrictions on the Creation of Gott Time Machines.” Physical Review D 50 (1994): 6190-6206. Carter, B. “The Anthropic Principle and Its Implications for Biological Evolution.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A310 (1983): 347-63. Casares, J. “Observational Evidence for Stellar-Mass

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du temps perdu (Proust) Albert, David Albrecht, Andreas algorithmic complexity “All You Zombies” (Heinlein) Alpher, Ralph Amis, Martin anisotropies Annalen der Physik Annie Hall (1977) anthropic principle and arrow of time and Boltzmann brains and the current state of the universe and multiverse hypothesis and natural theology and recurrence anti-de Sitter

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theory thermodynamic analogy and uncertainty principle uniformity of The Black Hole Wars (Susskind) block time/block universe perspective Bohr, Niels Boltzmann, Emma Boltzmann, Ludwig and anthropic principle and arrow of time and atomic theory and black holes death and de Sitter space and entropy and the H-Theorem and initial conditions of

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symmetry and testing hypotheses chemistry Chen, Jennifer choice Chronology Protection Conjecture circles in time. See closed timelike curves (CTCs) circular-time universe classical mechanics and anthropic principle and black holes and conservation of energy and creation of the universe and elementary particles and Laplace and light cones and loops in time and

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time symmetry/asymmetry and usable energy and vacuum energy variations of Von Neumann on and white holes “Entropy” (Pynchon) Epicurus EPR paradox equations equilibrium and anthropic principle and the biosphere and Boltzmann brains described and entropy and fate of the universe and multiverse model and recurrence theorem and usable energy equivalence principle

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time reversal and uncertainty principle Moncrieff. K. Scott monopole problem Morley, Edward Morris, Michael motion. See also velocity Mount Stromlo Observatory multiplication multiverse model and anthropic principle and baby universes and the Boltzmann-Lucretius scenario and bubbles of true vacuum and empiricism and entropy and equilibrium and inflationary cosmology and philosophical implications

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energy budget of Earth and general relativity matter contrasted with and reconstruction of the past Ramis, Harold randomness r e-collapsing universe recombination recurrence and anthropic principle and Boltzmann brains and Boltzmann-Lucretius scenario and Boltzmann’s death and equilibrium and Nietzsche and Poincaré proof of “recurrence paradox,” and three-body problems

The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

by Ray Kurzweil  · 14 Jul 2005  · 761pp  · 231,902 words

Revisited. Bigger or Smaller. Expanding Beyond the Solar System. The Speed of Light Revisited. Wormholes. Changing the Speed of Light. The Fermi Paradox Revisited. The Anthropic Principle Revisited. The Multiverse. Evolving Universes. Intelligence as the Destiny of the Universe. The Ultimate Utility Function. Hawking Radiation. Why Intelligence Is More Powerful than Physics

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complexity) that one wonders how such an extraordinarily unlikely situation came about. Where some see a divine hand, others see our own hands—namely, the anthropic principle, which holds that only in a universe that allowed our own evolution would we be here to ask such questions.7 Recent theories of physics

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of laws of physics and related physical constants, so exquisitely, precisely what is needed for the evolution of life to be possible. But by the anthropic principle, if the universe didn't allow the evolution of life we wouldn't be here to notice it. Yet here we are. So by a

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similar anthropic principle, we're here in the lead in the universe. Again, if we weren't here, we would not be noticing it. Let's consider some

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civilizations, it seems unlikely that all of them have made the same decision to stay out of our way. The Anthropic Principle Revisited. We are struck with two possible applications of an anthropic principle, one for the remarkable biofriendly laws of our universe, and one for the actual biology of our planet. Let's

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first consider the anthropic principle as applied to the universe in more detail. The question concerning the universe arises because we notice that the constants in nature are precisely what

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there.92 The perplexity of how it is that the universe is so "friendly" to biology has led to various formulations of the anthropic principle. The "weak" version of the anthropic principle points out simply that if it were not the case, we wouldn't be here to wonder about it. So only in

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a universe that allowed for increasing complexity could the question even be asked. Stronger versions of the anthropic principle state that there must be more to it; advocates of these versions are not satisfied with a mere lucky coincidence. This has opened the door

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that this is the proof of God's existence that scientists have been asking for. The Multiverse. Recently a more Darwinian approach to the strong anthropic principle has been proposed. Consider that it is possible for mathematical equations to have multiple solutions. For example, if we solve for x in the equation

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production and that of optimizing intelligence are one and the same. Why Intelligence Is More Powerful than Physics. There is another reason to apply an anthropic principle. It may seem remarkably unlikely that our planet is in the lead in terms of technological development, but as I pointed out above, by a

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weak anthropic principle, if we had not evolved, we would not be here discussing this issue. As intelligence saturates the matter and energy available to it, it turns

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, which are the servers hosting Web sites. That number represents only a subset of the total number of nodes. 7. At the broadest level, the anthropic principle states that the fundamental constants of physics must be compatible with our existence; if they were not, we would not be here to observe them

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. In other words, if this single constant strayed outside an extremely narrow range, molecules would not form. Our universe, then, appears to proponents of the anthropic principle to be fine-tuned for the evolution of intelligent life. (Detractors such as Victor Stenger claim the fine-tuning is not so fine after all

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; there are compensatory mechanisms that would support a wider window for life to form under different conditions.) The anthropic principle comes up again in the context of contemporary cosmology theories that posit multiple universes (see notes 8 and 9, below), each with its own set

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multiverse theory as an interpretation of quantum mechanics was developed to solve a problem presented by quantum mechanics and then has been combined with the anthropic principle. As summarized by Quentin Smith: A serious difficulty associated with the conventional or Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics is that it cannot be applied to

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—the set of universes—will include ones both suitable and unsuitable for life, Smith continues, "At this point it can be stated how the strong anthropic principle in combination with the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics can be used in an attempt to resolve the apparent problem mentioned at the beginning

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surprising that this world is actual but is something to be expected." Quentin Smith, "The Anthropic Principle and Many-Worlds Cosmologies," Australasian Journal of Philosophy 63.3 (September 1985), available at http://www.qsmithwmu.com/the_anthropic_ principle_and_many-worlds_cosmologies.htm. 10. See chapter 4 for a complete discussion of the brain

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the Architect of the Universe (Maui: Inner Ocean, 2003). 93. Lee Smolin in "Smolin vs. Susskind: The Anthropic Principle," Edge 145, http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge145.html; Lee Smolin, "Scientific Alternatives to the Anthropic Principle," http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0407213. 94. Kurzweil, Age of Spiritual Machines, pp. 258–60. 95

Big Bang

by Simon Singh  · 1 Jan 2004  · 492pp  · 149,259 words

of a specific excited state of carbon. Consequently, such an excited state must exist. Hoyle was rigorously applying what would later become known as the anthropic principle. This principle can be defined and interpreted in various ways, but one version states: We are here to study the universe, so the laws of

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.65 MeV, exactly where Hoyle said it should be. This was the first and only time that a scientist had made a prediction using the anthropic principle and had been proved right. It was an instance of extreme genius. At last, Hoyle had proved and identified the mechanism by which helium could

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the universe in some sense must have known we were coming.’ This harks back to the anthropic principle mentioned in Chapter 5, which Fred Hoyle exploited to work out how carbon is created within stars. The anthropic principle states that any cosmological theory must take into account the fact that the universe has evolved

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. It implies that this should be a significant element in cosmological research. The Canadian philosopher John Leslie devised a firing squad scenario to elucidate the anthropic principle. Imagine that you have been accused of treason and are awaiting execution in front of a firing squad of twenty soldiers. You hear the command

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and just count ourselves extremely lucky, or do we look for special meaning in our extraordinarily good fortune? According to the extreme version of the anthropic principle, the fine-tuning of the universe which has allowed life to evolve is indicative of a tuner. In other words, the

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anthropic principle can be interpreted as evidence for the existence of a God. However, an alternative view is that our universe is part of a multiverse. The

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ejected during certain kinds of radioactive decay. The particle, consisting of two protons and two neutrons, is identical to the nucleus of a helium atom. anthropic principle The principle that states that, since humans are known to exist, the laws of physics must be such that life can exist. In its extreme

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form, the anthropic principle states that the universe has been designed to allow life. arcminute A unit used in the measurement of very small angles, equal to 1/60

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distance measurement 223—6, 374—7; novae in 191-3, 222-3, 224 Annalen der Physik 107 Annates de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles 160 anthropic principle 395, 396, 487-8 Arabs 32-3,36 Archimedes 22 Arcturus 239 Argonne National Laboratory 317 Aristarchus 15—17, 17; Sun-centred universe 22-7

The God Delusion

by Richard Dawkins  · 12 Sep 2006  · 478pp  · 142,608 words

4 WHY THERE ALMOST CERTAINLY IS NO GOD The Ultimate Boeing Natural selection as a consciousness-raiser Irreducible complexity The worship of gaps The anthropic principle: planetary version The anthropic principle: cosmological version An interlude at Cambridge 5 THE ROOTS OF RELIGION The Darwinian imperative Direct advantages of religion Group selection Religion as a

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should be nothing particularly unusual about the place where we happen to live. Unfortunately, the principle of mediocrity is in its turn emasculated by the ‘anthropic’ principle (see Chapter 4): if our solar system really were the only one in the universe, this is precisely where we, as beings who think about

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seem beautifully ‘designed’ to catch prey animals, while the prey animals seem equally beautifully ‘designed’ to escape them. Whose side is God on?66 THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE: PLANETARY VERSION Gap theologians who may have given up on eyes and wings, flagellar motors and immune systems, often pin their remaining hopes on the

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a few special cases), cannot have been very improbable. This distinction may seem puzzling, and I must explain it further, using the so-called anthropic principle. The anthropic principle was named by the mathematician Brandon Carter in 1974 and expanded by the physicists John Barrow and Frank Tipler in their book on the subject

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to be on one of that minority, because here we are thinking about it. It is a strange fact, incidentally, that religious apologists love the anthropic principle. For some reason that makes no sense at all, they think it supports their case. Precisely the opposite is true. The

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anthropic principle, like natural selection, is an alternative to the design hypothesis. It provides a rational, design-free explanation for the fact that we find ourselves in

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a situation propitious to our existence. I think the confusion arises in the religious mind because the anthropic principle is only ever mentioned in the context of the problem that it solves, namely the fact that we live in a life-friendly place. What

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the religious mind then fails to grasp is that two candidate solutions are offered to the problem. God is one. The anthropic principle is the other. They are alternatives. Liquid water is a necessary condition for life as we know it, but it is far from sufficient. Life

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the proverbial needle in a haystack. But we don’t have to go out of our way to find a needle because (back to the anthropic principle) any beings capable of looking must necessarily be sitting on one of those prodigiously rare needles before they even start the search. Any probability statement

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low as one in a billion would still predict that life would arise on a billion planets in the universe. And the beauty of the anthropic principle is that it tells us, against all intuition, that a chemical model need only predict that life will arise on one planet in a billion

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phenomenon, not a piece of statistical luck recognized with hindsight. And, thanks to Darwin, we know how it is brought about: by natural selection. The anthropic principle is impotent to explain the multifarious details of living creatures. We really need Darwin’s powerful crane to account for the diversity of life on

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illusion of design. The origin of life, by contrast, lies outside the reach of that crane, because natural selection cannot proceed without it. Here the anthropic principle comes into its own. We can deal with the unique origin of life by postulating a very large number of planetary opportunities. Once that initial

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stroke of luck has been granted – and the anthropic principle most decisively grants it to us – natural selection takes over: and natural selection is emphatically not a matter of luck. Nevertheless, it may be that

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consciousness might be another major gap whose bridging was of the same order of improbability. One-off events like this might be explained by the anthropic principle, along the following lines. There are billions of planets that have developed life at the level of bacteria, but only a fraction of these life

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-off events, we are not dealing with a ubiquitous and all-pervading process, as we are with ordinary, run-of-the-mill biological adaptation. The anthropic principle states that, since we are alive, eucaryotic and conscious, our planet has to be one of the intensely rare planets that has bridged all three

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. Natural selection works because it is a cumulative one-way street to improvement. It needs some luck to get started, and the ‘billions of planets’ anthropic principle grants it that luck. Maybe a few later gaps in the evolutionary story also need major infusions of luck, with anthropic justification. But whatever else

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-friendly planets may be, our planet necessarily has to be one of them. Now it is time to take the anthropic principle back to an earlier stage, from biology back to cosmology. THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE: COSMOLOGICAL VERSION We live not only on a friendly planet but also in a friendly universe. It follows from

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one universe, such as our observable universe, are by-laws. The multiverse as a whole has a plethora of alternative sets of by-laws. The anthropic principle kicks in to explain that we have to be in one of those universes (presumably a minority) whose by-laws happened to be propitious to

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have been going on for ever like a cosmic accordion, we have a serial, rather than a parallel, version of the multiverse. Once again, the anthropic principle does its explanatory duty. Of all the universes in the series, only a minority have their ‘dials’ tuned to biogenic conditions. And, of course, the

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seek will be a version of Darwin’s idea itself: either Smolin’s model or something similar. Or maybe it will be the multiverse plus anthropic principle espoused by Martin Rees and others. It may even be a superhuman designer – but, if so, it will most certainly not be a designer who

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for biology. This kind of explanation is superficially less satisfying than the biological version of Darwinism, because it makes heavier demands on luck. But the anthropic principle entitles us to postulate far more luck than our limited human intuition is comfortable with. We should not give up hope of a better crane

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the absence of a strongly satisfying crane to match the biological one, the relatively weak cranes we have at present are, when abetted by the anthropic principle, self-evidently better than the self-defeating skyhook hypothesis of an intelligent designer. If the argument of this chapter is accepted, the factual premise of

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,1559743,00.html. The quotation from the ‘eloquent blogger’ is at http://www.religionisbullshit.net/blog/2005_09_01_archive.php. 66 Dawkins (1995). The anthropic principle: planetary version 67 Carter admitted later that a better name for the overall principle would be ‘cognizability principle’ rather than the already entrenched term

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‘anthropic principle’: B. Carter, ‘The anthropic principle and its implications for biological evolution’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A, 310, 1983, 347–63. For a book-length discussion

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Barrow and Tipler (1988). 68 Comins (1993). 69 I spelled this argument out more fully in The Blind Watchmaker (Dawkins 1986). The anthropic principle: cosmological version 70 Murray Gell-Mann, quoted by John Brockman on the ‘Edge’ website, http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/smolin.html. 71 Ward (

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really do have a big problem to explain in the apparent fine-tuning of the fundamental constants. * Susskind (2006) gives a splendid advocacy of the anthropic principle in the megaverse. He says the idea is hated by most physicists. I can’t understand why. I think it is beautiful – perhaps because my

Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist

by Richard Dawkins  · 15 Mar 2017  · 420pp  · 130,714 words

argument, and I find myself persuaded by it. On the other hand, the principle of mediocrity is emasculated by another powerful principle, known as the anthropic principle: the fact that we are in a position to observe the world’s conditions determines that those conditions had to be favourable to our existence

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planets in the universe that even these minuscule odds yield an expectation that the universe contains a billion planets bearing life. And (here comes the anthropic principle) since we manifestly live here, Earth necessarily has to be one of the billion. Even if the odds against life arising on a planet are

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entirely satisfying explanation for our existence. There will still plausibly be one life-bearing planet in the universe. And once we have granted that, the anthropic principle does the rest. Any being contemplating the calculation necessarily has to be on that one life-bearing planet, which therefore has to be Earth. This

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application of the anthropic principle is astonishing but watertight. I have oversimplified it by assuming that once life has originated on a planet, Darwinian natural selection will lead to intelligent

…

rich in planets housing complex life but perhaps with only one planet harbouring beings capable of noticing their own existence and therefore of invoking the anthropic principle. It doesn’t matter how we distribute our odds among these three ‘hurdles’ (or indeed other hurdles, such as the origin of a nervous system

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