When compared with the myriad of universes that might have been under a truly random scenario, with the fundamental forces of physics set at even slightly different values, this uniquely anthropic universe we live in is, indeed, miraculous. This is one area that is an undeniable witness to providence.
Here’s a short follow-up with one puzzled, committed agnostic astronomer narrating the way…
In the current, most mainstream understanding of cosmology, the multiverse is indeed extremely fine-tuned. However, I think that it is hard to think of it as fine-tuned for life. Indeed, I would think that the cosmos, fine-tuned as it is, is not friendly towards life and is more misanthropic than anthropic. Our bubble of a universe in which life is known to be possible is suppressed by at least 10^(-10^55) by volume!
And that small bit is find tuned for beetles…
I’m about 45 minutes through. It is all very intriguing and through my own studies I’ve discovered what seems to be a lot of fine tuning in nature. Not just the initial conditions and parameters of the universe, but also star formation and supernovae, chemistry, biology, geology. It’s all very intriguing. I struggle with the more local-fine tuning stuff because there are just so many planets. It seems likely to me that at least one will get it right. But I do find it interesting that the conditions that allow for the evolution of complex life are also the conditions that allow the universe to be observed and discovered. This is the kind of stuff im working on now so thank you for posting it
In light of inflation, this is also true for the non-local stuff. There are so many Universes, at least one will be fit for life.
But doesn’t inflation need very special conditions to get started? So just kicking the fine-tuning back a step? So the very mechanism that produces the multiverse has to be fine-tuned itself? I’ve seen this mentioned by Sean Carroll, Robin Collins, among others. I’m a fan of the MV but I dont think it solves the FT problem
Yes. As I mentioned in my first post in this thread, the current mainstream understanding of cosmology requires and extremely fine-tuned multiverse.
However, this multiverse is fine tuned towards producing the cosmological observables that we have today, not life. As I mentioned, this fine-tuning produces a multiverse in which our universe (which we know can produce life) is suppressed in volume by at least 10^(-10^55). Chances are, most of the other universes in this multiverse cannot produce life. This is what I meant by the statement that there are so many Universes that one of them probably will be a fit for life.
If the cosmos is truly fine tuned towards life, why can’t it has cosmological observables that is compatible with an initial condition where most of the Universes can produce life?