In Which Abstruse Physics Principles Provoke A "Neener Neener Neener" from Your Obedient Serpent

[athelind]

Evidence Emerges That Laws of Physics Are Not Fine-Tuned For Life

I admit it: even the weak versions of the Anthropic Principle make me twitch. Yes, if we're observing the universe, its physical conditions must allow us to exist; fine, that's kind of a "duh". Stronger versions get increasingly ... problematic ... as their proponents start dwelling on what a "fortunate coincidence" it is that all of these underlying physical constants line up just right for the perfect bowl of porridge rise of Life As We Know It ...

... and then they start talking about how the Universe must have arisen in such a way ...

... and then they just lapse into "GLAARGLE BARGLE PROOF OF GOD" and start speaking in tongues.

Yes, there are more sophisticated and defensible versions of the Anthropic Principle out there, but nevertheless, the concept has turned into something of a buzzword for those who want to dress up "intelligent design" in a costume that will get them into big science conferences as well as Kansas school board meetings.¹

These are the people most likely to start harping on how amazing it is that the value of little terms buried deep in complex equations like the cosmological constant are exactly perfectly optimally perfectly wonderfully exact to promote the development of blah blah blah blah blah.

This is why Your Obedient Serpent uttered a joyous and most undraconic "squee" when Futurismic pointed out this article that indicates, hey, you know what, Doctor Pangloss? This may not be the Best of All Possible Worlds, after all!

Of course, as a militant agnostic, I'm just going to sit back and make popcorn as this news prompts a stampede of would-be Oolon Colluphids to get themselves run over at the next zebra crossing.

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¹A similar fate has befallen James Lovelock's "Gaia hypothesis", which has been Flanderized by both detractors and some proponents into "WOO GODDESS". The elegant systems mechanics behind the Gaia principle play an important part in my own weird version of pantheism, but that just makes it that much worse when Princess Priestess Raven Shadowscroft in beads and sequins spouts the words in the middle of some pompous Aquarian rant.

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Comments

[paka.livejournal.com]

I thought Einstein was the person who first said that if you go looking for God out there in the universe, you will find Him - not necessarily because God exists so much as due to observer bias?

[scarfman]

What gets me is the subtitle of the article, stating that the article's subject claims to have shown "the value of the cosmological constant suggests that the laws of nature could not have been fine-tuned for life by an omnipotent being". Granted, the given he's proceeding from is that the intent of the Creator(s) was to set conditions for life to develop independently instead of to create life Itself. But it's still an assumption, and which part of "omnipotent" didn't he understand?

He hasn't proven the universe wasn't created by Yahweh; he's just shown that, if it was, Yahweh could have done a better job. A supreme being who constantly gave Pharoah mood swings to better showcase how much assistance the Isrealites were getting is a supreme being arbitrary enough to say, "It's the second evening. I wanted to get to the earth and the seas tomorrow so I need to wrap up the firmament and the waters now. I don't need the cosmological constant to be perfect, it's within tolerances if it's here. That'll do."

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

As well as when they start saying that if you disagree with them, you're not fit to be an American citizen *coughBushtheelderandBushtheyoungercough*

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I'm cool if religious people want to square the Bible up with science that way, that's fine, it's when they start talking about the literal existence of Hell and the Earth being 6000 years old and so forth that I have a problem.

Pretty much.

[soreth.livejournal.com]

My first thought on the matter is something along the lines of "Not optimized? Well, the universe has already shown a general tendency to favor producing uphill struggles instead of any kind of friendliness." If there's a creator, it doesn't want to make things easy for anybody.

[castleclear.livejournal.com]

Gosh! Interpretation of Science in terms of cultural beliefs and/or even filtering otherwise scientific observation based on the observer(s)' cultural prejudices*, that could never happen here, right? That only happens in theocratic nation-states where the Quran is the basis of belief, right? I mean, I've seen the latter addressed in a magazine published in English, where the article was about how lamentable and deplorable it was that science was being suppressed if it didn't match up to what the religious leaders thought it should. I think I remember the article likening it Dark Ages Europe.

*see BIOLOGICAL EXUBERANCE by Canadian Zoologist, Bruce Bagemihl.