Far out cosmology: Before the big Bang (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, February 14, 2016, 13:04 (3204 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Will we ever understand why there is anything. This essay suggests we are following lots of dead ends:
https://aeon.co/essays/will-we-ever-understand-the-beginning-of-the-universe
Comment: Steinhardt is dismissing the string theorists. He is looking for a Big Bounce theory. This long essay is rich in description of the current battles of ideas. I've shown the beginning and the end, sort of.-Thank you for this important essay, which generally confirms the point I keep making, which is that for all the sensational new discoveries trumpeted every month or so, we are no nearer to solving any of the mysteries of the universe. I have picked out a couple more quotes:-QUOTE: This whole BICEP2 thing has made some people more aware of it. It's been nice to have that aired out. But most people give us too much respect. They think we know what we're doing. They take too seriously these voices that say inflation is established theory.'-A boost for us sceptics!-QUOTE: When fine-tuning is used as evidence for a grand metaphysical apparatus capable of making anything and everything, it usually means that something has gone amiss.-This is part of an argument against God, further developed below:-QUOTE: There are other reasons one might be suspicious of the multiverse. This idea that the very existence of observers tells us something deep about the cosmos bears a disturbing resemblance to ancient anthropomorphic thinking. Once again, we find ourselves making grand, cosmic extrapolations from our own existence. Once again, the world is made in our image. The British philosopher Bertrand Russell had a great line on this sort of thinking: ‘All such philosophies spring from self-importance, and are best corrected by a little astronomy.'-It seems to me that when a scientist admits that scientists are given too much respect, with the implication that they don't in fact know what they're doing, perhaps it is a little premature for him to assume that there is no grand metaphysical apparatus responsible for fine tuning. On the other hand, Bertrand Russell's line is a wonderful summing-up of my point about the immensity of the universe as a major obstacle to belief in a universal mind controlling it all - let alone manipulating it for the sake of us humans.