Of course their calculations are not that useful since it only looked at life similar to ours. How would
life have evolved in a universe with very different parameters?
SJ: Perhaps you are already familiar with
these examples, such as the inverse-square laws of gravitation and
electromagnetism. Both the exponent of the distance and the coupling
constants in these physical laws can't be varied significantly from their
observed values without jeopardizing the stability of planetary orbits AND
electron states in atoms. These two phenomena observed in our universe
may well be minimal requirements for the existence of life.
Speculative at least.
SZ: Now, having said this, I'm not going to claim that the conclusion of
a designed universe is necessary. Of course, one may avoid that concusion
in a number of ways, most popularly by the "many-universes" assumption (I think
Willaim of Occam would have something to say about that!). There are other
ways too. One can blunt the force of the argument for design from
"fine-tuning" by arguing that the constraints I mentioned still leave room
for combinations of physical laws, coupling constants, etc. that might support
life. One can also argue that there may well be forms of life that we cannot
yet imagine that might flourish in a universe that we think is harsh and
inhospitable to life. But these are speculations with no evidence in their
favor. I would welcome the comments of the list's resident expert on the
Anthropic Principle, Brian Harper, on these options.
There is no evidence one way or the other. However the idea that we can determine all possibilities
of life is an unsupportable one.
SZ: But I write this mainly to dispute your claim that "there must be millions"
of possible physical laws that would support life. It seems to me that
what evidence there is on this topic, even though it is not complete,
points in the opposite direction. So why are you so confident in your
assertion?
As far as WE understand life, it seems that the universe was "designed" with us in mind. Of course
a logical alternative is that we were the result of the universe not the other way around.