September 28, 2005
PERSPECTIVES ON THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE
Thinking about what Ogre said regarding the "
fine tuning" of physical constants in the universe being evidence of intelligent design, I think we're having a difference of perspective.
Ogre imagines himself in a pre-universe lawn chair, watching God drawing up plans for a universe capable of sustaining human life.
Me? I come at it quite differently.
I start with the fact that the time is now, the universe exists, and I'm in it. Then I use what I know about the universe as it is to look backwards towards the beginning of time.
Trouble is, there's a wall that I can't see past.
If I remember my Hawking correctly, the physical constants on which I'm basing my mental time-travel assumed their current properties at 3x10-14 seconds after the Big Bang. Before that, they were... different... and there's no way of knowing - under current theory - HOW they were different.
So my vision is limited. Any pronouncements by me of what things were like before that would be speculation of the "guess what's in the mystery box" sort.
Ogre says it's God.
Me? I'm not even sure there IS a box.
Anyway, if such guesswork intrigues you, here's an interesting (if somewhat dry and acronym-laden) essay on it.
Posted by: Harvey at
07:57 AM
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1
Now, now, I never said it was God, did I? I just said it was an intelligent design. For all I know it was Horton placing stuff in a dandelion -- I'm just saying it doesn't appear to be random chance, and simply has to be on purpose.
Posted by: Ogre at September 28, 2005 07:36 AM (/k+l4)
2
P.S. Nice Bucs logo over there...
Posted by: Ogre at September 28, 2005 07:38 AM (/k+l4)
3
Ogre - no, you didn't say God.
But you would if I asked, right? :-)
As for the Bucs... yeah, well... there's a REASON it's called "gambling" :-)
Posted by: Harvey at September 28, 2005 08:21 AM (ubhj8)
4
My favourite use of the anthropic principle was made by Fred Hoyle. Hoyle had been studying the nucleosynthetic formation of heavier elements through stellar fusion, but couldn't find a way that C-12 could be formed. Just as Gamow had gone through, there looked like no way to explain the existence of any element heavier than helium.
There seemed two ways, both impossible, of carbon-12 being created: 1)the fusion of three helium-4 atoms into a carbon-12 atom, or 2)the fusion of two helium-4's into a beryllium-8, and then a fusion of the Be-8 with a He-4 into C-12. The first is impossible because there could not be enough energy at impact for fusion. The second is impossible because the result predicted is heavier than carbon-12. There seemed no way to explain how Carbon came into existence, and thus no way to explain any of the heavier elements.
Hoyle solved the problem thus:
A. Fred Hoyle exists in the universe.
B. Fred Hoyle is a carbon-based lifeform.
C. Therefore Carbon exists in the universe.
D. Therefore there must be a way of creating carbon.
E. The only way to create carbon must involve an exact excited (and via e=mc^2, heavier) state which is attainable through fusion.
F. Therefore there must exist this exact excited state of carbon.
In short, "he is partly made from the c-12 nucleus, so the correct excited state of carbon must exist, or otherwise neither c-12 nor Fred Hoyle would exist." (Simon Singh's "Big Bang")
In the end, Hoyle calculated that the excited state would have to be 7.65 MeV's above the normal state, and this was found to exist by Willy Fowler at the Kellog Radiation Lab within a brief time.
As far as I know, this was the only use of the anthropic principle which yielded empirically falsifiable results (Martin Rees' "Just Six Numbers," though brilliant it, as Harvey states, does not tell us enough to test)
Posted by: Tom at September 28, 2005 09:28 AM (iinH5)
5
You never know. I might believe that earth was created by aliens...but Horton sounds much more friendly, doesn't he?
Posted by: Ogre at September 28, 2005 02:47 PM (/k+l4)
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