Inge Frette wrote:
>
> Hello folks,
>
> first I want to thank Glenn for posting his notes to the
> ASA list. I'm very glad I can be updated on what happened
> in Waco.
>
> In one of the e-mails Glenn writes this :
>
> >Weinberg stated that the anthropic principle is in enormous retreat now and
> >that the beginning of life, and consciousness will be explained, although he
> >did allow for the possibility that consciousness may simply be too hard for
> >us.
>
> Is it true that the anthropic principle is in retreat among scientists now ?
> Anyone that can confirm that this is so ?
The plural, anthropic principle_s_, really ought to be used because there are
a number of versions. In any case APs have been controversial ever since they were
first suggested explicitly.
The suggestion that APs will go away when the beginning of life & consciousness
is explained scientifically misses the point. The question may still remain, why the
conditions of the universe are such as to allow the emergence of life - for it is
certainly the case that in many possible universes live would _not_ have emerged.
To make that clearer, consider a problem at a "lower" level, something which is
a necessary but not sufficient condition for the emergence of life, the formation of
C-12 in stellar nucleosynthesis. That is understood quite well in the sense that, given
the strengths of strong & electromagnetic interactions, the relevant chain of nuclear
reactions can be worked through & the production of C-12 & other nuclei can be
calculated. But that does not answer the question _why_ the strong & EM interactions
have just the strengths they do, so that C-12 can form in appreciable quantities & not
quickly burn through to O-16. & if we can eventually explain why the interactions have
those strengths in terms of conditions in the first fractions of a second of the big
bang, were still left with the remarkable fact that those conditions were such as to
allow, billions of years later, the formation of organic molecules.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Apr 27 2000 - 07:43:45 EDT