Far out cosmology; multiverse (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, January 24, 2014, 01:25 (3955 days ago) @ xeno6696

This is the final solution for many theoretical cosmologists to explain why our universe allows for life by fine tuning. Going from science to philosophical guess work:-"Physics was different until now. Almost everything in the universe could be explained in terms of fundamental laws like Einstein's theory of gravity (general relativity) or the laws of quantum mechanics. If you wanted to explain the shape and structure of a galaxy you could seek the explanation in the precise motion of the various particles governed by the laws of gravity. If you wanted to explain why water is H20 and not H30 you could seek the explanation in the principles of quantum mechanics that in turn dictate the laws of chemical bonding.
 
"But beyond this wildly successful level of explanation seems to lie an impasse. The problem arises when you try to explain one of the most profound facts of nature, the fact that the fundamental constants of nature are fine-tuned to a fault, that the universe as we know it would not exist if these constants had even slightly different values. For instance, it is impossible to imagine life existing had the strength of the strong force binding nuclei together been even a few percent smaller or larger. Scientists have struggled for decades to explain why other numbers like the value of Planck's constant or the electron's mass are what they are. It seems now that they are giving up trying to do this, or at least giving up trying to do it the way they always have.
 
"The point was driven home to me by two books that I read recently. One was Max Tegmark's "The Mathematical Universe". In the book Tegmark takes us on a dizzying journey through modern physics that ends in the fanciful realm of multiple universes. It's hardly the first book to do so. Multiple universes have been invoked to explain many problems in physics, but their most common use is try to explain (or explain away, as some seem to rightly think) the problem of the fundamental constants. The purported "solution" sounds simple; we can stop wondering why the fundamental constants have the precise values that they do if we assume the existence of a potentially infinite number of universes, each of which has a different set of values for the constants. Our universe just happens to have the right combination that allows sentient life to arise and ask such questions in the first place.
 
"Leaving aside the fact that multiple universes still belong to speculation and science fiction rather than science, what is really striking about them to me is that they have finally transported physics into the realm of biology. What physicists are essentially saying is that there have been several universes in the past and there are likely several universes in the present, and our unique universe with its specific combination of fundamental constants is an accident."-http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/2014/01/21/should-physicists-stop-looking-for-fundamental-laws/