skip to main |
skip to sidebar
John Muir
"So abundant and novel are the objects of interest in a PURE WILDERNESS that unless you are pursuing special studies it matters little where you go, or how often to the same place. Wherever you chance to be always seems at the moment of all places the best; and you feel that there can be no happiness in this world or in any other for those who may not be happy here."
The Best Books
About Me
- trogonpete
- Stanford, CA, Tuvalu
- Biped, nearly hairless, primate. Pithy.
8 comments:
pong?
Ping . . .
C.
only two fish in the sea.
how sad that be.
that was me.
P
I'm just an uber-busy fish this week. Month. Year. But count me in too!
Martie
So I request a post on the following subject: what do you think of the anthropic principle and can you explain its scientific, quasi-scientific or metaphysical basis to me? You know, to a lay guy?
C.
I don't know anything about the anthropic principle beyond what I've read in magazines. It's part of the obscure fringe theory that constitutes the public front of physics and which nobody but a few specialized theorists ever talk about. It's certainly not part of the curriculum.
It's a perfect example of pure philosophy applied to physics and run with so far that it starts to inform physics in bizarre ways.
All I know about it is this:
The fact that we exist implies that the laws of the universe are such that we can exist. Truism. Second, this implies--in a purely philosophical sense, not in a causal sense--that the universe's special laws and constants are the way they are BECAUSE we exist. Our existence proves the right conditions. This is not an if and only if statement; our lack of existence wouldn't imply anything.
There is a philosophical reference to theories that posit many, or at least infinite, universes. If there are many, only the few that chance has given the perfect formula for life will have life. We happen to live in one perfect for us only because if it weren't we wouldn't.
Anyway, that's probably not any more or less than you already know. I don't really dig this branch of physics, though it is fun to talk about. Look up Boltzmann Brains for an example of why I have pretty low enthusiasm for quantum speculation.
Sorry for the shoddy answer...
I don't know anything about the anthropic principle beyond what I've read in magazines. It's part of the obscure fringe theory that constitutes the public front of physics and which nobody but a few specialized theorists ever talk about. It's certainly not part of the curriculum.
It's a perfect example of pure philosophy applied to physics and run with so far that it starts to inform physics in bizarre ways.
All I know about it is this:
The fact that we exist implies that the laws of the universe are such that we can exist. Truism. Second, this implies--in a purely philosophical sense, not in a causal sense--that the universe's special laws and constants are the way they are BECAUSE we exist. Our existence proves the right conditions. This is not an if and only if statement; our lack of existence wouldn't imply anything.
There is a philosophical reference to theories that posit many, or at least infinite, universes. If there are many, only the few that chance has given the perfect formula for life will have life. We happen to live in one perfect for us only because if it weren't we wouldn't.
Anyway, that's probably not any more or less than you already know. I don't really dig this branch of physics, though it is fun to talk about. Look up Boltzmann Brains for an example of why I have pretty low enthusiasm for quantum speculation.
Sorry for the shoddy answer...
Post a Comment