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The Fine-Tuning Argument: Why the Universe Looks “Just Right” for Life — Transcript

by Stephen Meyer · 2,312 words · 344 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Well, that neatly segus into our next um
0:02sort of argument then, which is of
0:05course the finetuning of the universe
0:06for life. Um again, if you could in
0:09layman friendly terms sketch out what
0:11this particular phenomenon is and and
0:13again how it's changed our understanding
0:15of the universe and our place in it in
0:17the last several decades.
0:18>> Sure. I mean, there's a little easier to
0:19st understand than quantum cosmology.
0:21So, I'll try try to do better than my
0:22last answer. Sorry. Um so um yeah Hy is
0:27actually one of the the first maybe the
0:29first physicist who who stumbles across
0:33this phenomenon of the finetuning. He's
0:36thinking about
0:38the importance of carbon and some of the
0:40other heavier elements but in particular
0:42carbon. Carbon has unique properties
0:44forms longchain like molecules that can
0:46store information. It's critical to all
0:48biological life that we know. and he's
0:51trying to think how could we get the how
0:53can we explain the abundance of carbon
0:55and he he for the life of him can't
0:58really come up with a solution. He knows
1:01the atomic weight. So he's trying to
1:02think of how it could be built up from
1:04smaller elements and he ends up coming
1:07up with an idea that if he combined
1:10burillium
1:11burillium atom with a helium atom that
1:15that would form a carbon 12. But he
1:17realized that the the energy level of
1:19that molecule, the what's called the
1:21resonance would be higher than what
1:24normal carbon has. And so he's wondering
1:26if that resonance level exists. He goes
1:29out to Caltech. He gets some guys to run
1:31some experiments there. And lo and
1:32behold, the resonance level that he
1:34predicted on purely theoretical
1:35cosmological grounds turns out to exist.
1:39And that's that's a kind of fine-tuning
1:41in itself, but it's actually the tip of
1:43an iceberg of a whole series of other
1:45fine-tuning parameters. And what
1:47fine-tuning is is is if you could think
1:49of it as a sort of a Goldilocks zone
1:51that we live in a Goldilocks universe
1:53where there are all these fundamental
1:55parameters that are not too heavy where
1:57you know the atomic weights of things
1:58are not too heavy, not too light. The
2:00speed of light not too fast, not too
2:02slow. The expansion rate of the universe
2:03same, not too fast, not too slow. Um and
2:08everything is is just right to allow for
2:10the possibility of life that with
2:13multiple different parameters. If things
2:15fall outside very narrow ranges or
2:18tolerances then life for various reasons
2:21would not be possible. In fact even
2:23stable galaxies, planetary systems and
2:26in and for many of the finetuning
2:28parameters even atoms heavier than
2:30helium would not be possible. And so you
2:33have this kind of stunning recognition
2:36and and this hits H oily and other
2:38physicists at a really fundamental level
2:40because they understand how fundamental
2:42these parameters are to the universe we
2:44live in. And yet in opposition to their
2:48expectation,
2:49the the the the conditions that are
2:52necessary for life to exist are not
2:54common. They're not easy to to to
2:56produce. They're extremely improbable
2:59and they they fall within narrow ranges
3:01among very much much much much wider
3:04possible ranges or natural ranges as
3:06they put it. And so Hy ends up shifting
3:09his point of view on on the big
3:11metaphysical questions from his staunch
3:13atheism to a kind of quasi theism and is
3:16quoted as saying physics and chemistry
3:18look as if they've been monkeyed with he
3:20says and and to make life possible. And
3:24so he ends up u writing about this and
3:28and and having a major shift in
3:30worldview. Many other physicists end up
3:33adopting the same perspective. Uh the
3:35great physicist at Cambridge University
3:37John Pulkinghorn who was um late in life
3:41also invol took on holy orders and was
3:45became part of the Anglican church who
3:46was a spokesman for the science science
3:49and faith issues. he was a a very a
3:52capable advocate of this fine-tuning
3:54argument that fine-tuning suggests a
3:56fine-tuner. And so that's been that's
3:58been a big shift. And there have been
3:59more and more of these fine-tuning
4:01parameters discovered in in recent
4:03years. Uh the young physicist Luke
4:05Barnes who did his PhD at Cambridge uh
4:08did a a joint book with his PhD
4:10supervisor called the fortunate
4:12universe. Supervisor was an atheist.
4:15Barnes is a theist. They they describe
4:18the fine-tuning parameters that are
4:19known and list at the end of the book
4:22all the different physicists who accept
4:23that finetuning is a real phenomenon
4:24that needs to be explained and then they
4:26have a dialogue between them the two of
4:28them about how best to explain them the
4:30fine-tuning. Bards argues for theistic
4:32design and his supervisor uh poses other
4:38explanations. One of the most popular
4:39right now is something called a
4:40multiverse we can which we can talk
4:41about. Well, well, well, let let's let
4:43before we get to the multiverse, um, you
4:46know, let's deal with maybe a few common
4:48objections to this. Um, sometimes
4:50philosophical objections of one sort or
4:52another. Um perhaps u at one level
4:56you've got the Douglas Adams sort of uh
4:59objection which is well um life is
5:02rather like you know claiming that life
5:04is fine-tuned for the universe is a bit
5:06like saying that this um puddle is
5:09fine-tuned for the shape of the water in
5:12it. Um the point being that if you like
5:15the the the when the puddle says look
5:18look how perfectly formed I am to
5:20contain this water it's obviously just
5:22happens to be it just the water fills
5:25the available space and takes the shape
5:27it does and I think people kind of make
5:28a similar argument for life look uh you
5:31know life will find a way there there is
5:33a sort of sense in which you know um
5:36it's it's arrogant for us to claim that
5:38we we were always the intended outcome
5:41of this universe It could have been
5:42something different. Some a different
5:44sort of set of circumstances might have
5:45produced some completely different life
5:47form. Who knows? Um what what do you say
5:49to that kind of an objection?
5:50>> Right. Well, I've had exactly that an
5:53argument about exactly that objection
5:55with Lawrence Krauss in the journal
5:57Inference. And Krauss's way of putting
5:59it is very crisp. He says that um uh
6:03life didn't um life isn't possible
6:05because there was pre-existing
6:07fine-tuning. rather life evolved in
6:09accord with the fine-tuning parameters
6:11that had been pre-established. And so
6:14there's nothing special about life. Uh
6:16the fine-tuning was uh life life simply
6:20took advantage of and evolved in in in
6:24accord with the universe that was
6:26produced by the fine-tuning parameters.
6:28The problem with that is that you don't
6:31get with many of the fine-tuning
6:32parameters, you can't get stable
6:35galaxies, you can't get planetary
6:37systems, you can't get even you can't
6:41even get atoms heavier than helium. That
6:43the finetuning is necessary a necessary
6:47condition of there being any subsequent
6:49evolution at all. So the in other words,
6:52the finetuning is more primary more
6:54prior. it's it's prior to any even
6:56possible evolutionary process. So you
6:58can't say that well of course evolution
7:01uh accommodated what was was present.
7:05There wouldn't be anything
7:07uh present to make evolution possible if
7:10it weren't for the finetuning. It's it's
7:12that primary and that fundamental. Yeah,
7:15you don't you don't have chemistry full
7:16stop to be able to mess with if you
7:19don't have the finetuning to enable uh
7:21atoms and you know
7:22>> there are multiple types of finetuning.
7:24There's the finetuning of the of the
7:25laws and constants of physics, but and
7:28there's the fine-tuning of the planetary
7:30system, but then even at a very very
7:33fundamental level, there's the
7:35finetuning of the initial conditions of
7:37the universe, sometimes called the
7:38initial entropy finetuning, which is the
7:41arrangement of mass energy in the
7:43initial plasma state of the universe.
7:46Turns out that it's exquisitly finely
7:48tuned. This is the number that Roger
7:49Penrose uh the calculation that he made
7:51that is hyper exponentially fine-tuned
7:54one part and 10^ the 10 to the 123. So
7:57you you've got stuff that's set from the
7:59very beginning that's necessary to even
8:02getting basic chemistry off the ground.
8:03So uh I don't think that objection
8:05works. I think it it's fasile in a way.
8:08Sounds to me it's like the old Abraham
8:09Lincoln thing about isn't it great that
8:11the man's legs are just long enough to
8:13reach the ground? But no, that that
8:15that's not that's funny because the law
8:17of gravity is actually what we would say
8:19is responsible for that. But the law of
8:21gravity is finely tuned to make carbon
8:23and and other things are finely tuned
8:26even to make more simple molecule or
8:28atoms. So I think that's that's the I
8:31think there's a decisive response to
8:32that objection.
8:34>> Yeah. I mean that that number from
8:35Penrose one one in whatever it was 10 to
8:38the 10 to the 1 2 3 but the um I heard
8:42it said that if you I mean if you put a
8:45zero on every single particle in the
8:47universe you still wouldn't have a
8:49number big enough. I mean it's it's a
8:51extraordinarily
8:53I mean it even even to call it fine
8:56tuning doesn't do it justice really. But
8:57anyway um okay let's talk about um
9:00>> just one one more riff on that.
9:02cosmological constant you know which is
9:04the the degree of finetuning of the
9:06force that's causing the expansion of
9:07the universe that's accepted at about
9:10one part 10 to the 90 I think is an
9:12accepted u you know uh and so that would
9:15be and that if that's off then you get a
9:19recolapse of the universe and no no
9:22evolution is possible at that point if
9:24or you get a heat death okay if it's off
9:26in either direction and just to put that
9:28in perspective there's 10 to the 80th
9:31elementary particles in the universe by
9:33many estimates. So getting that the the
9:36the cosmological constant fine-tuning
9:39right would be equivalent to the odds of
9:43a blindfolded person floating in free
9:46space trying to find one marked
9:48elementary particle but having to search
9:50not just one universe not just our
9:52universe but 10 billion our size. So it
9:56the the degree of fine-tuning with some
9:58of these parameters is beyond exquisite.
10:00we just we simply don't have um
10:02modifiers and adjectives to to capture
10:05this. So,
10:06>> one one other quick objection before we
10:08get to the big one, the the multiverse.
10:10Um
10:11>> multiverse. Yeah,
10:13>> this is again a sort of a philosophical
10:14objection. Um which just says, well,
10:16look, of course it's unsurprising that
10:19we live in a fine-tuned universe because
10:20we're here to observe it. We wouldn't be
10:22observing a fine-tuned universe if it
10:24wasn't fine-tuned for us to be able to
10:26be here. Um what what do you make of
10:28that particular objection? two different
10:30versions of that. There's one thing, one
10:32called the weak anthropic principle and
10:33the strong anthropic principle. I deal
10:35with both in the book. The strong
10:37anthrop anthropic principle trades on
10:39the old uh kind of sophomore
10:42philosophical uh saw. If a tree falls in
10:45the forest and there's no one there to
10:47hear it, did it make a sound? And the
10:48idea is that that there you really
10:50couldn't have a universe unless there
10:52was someone there to observe it. And
10:54since um and there therefore the
10:56universe had to be finally tuned at the
10:58beginning. So it would evolve to produce
11:01um uh observers long after the fact. And
11:04that's the strong anthropic principle.
11:06The obvious problem with that is that if
11:08the observers are the ultimate cause of
11:10the universe and the observers are are
11:12evolving after the universe has evolved
11:14to produce them. So you've got the cause
11:16after the alleged effect that the cause
11:18explains which is I think simply
11:21irrational because cause and effect
11:23don't work that way. It's cause precedes
11:25the effect. U the weakanthanthropic
11:27principles a little more subtle. Um you
11:30may remember also that Martin Gardner
11:32the former editor of uh I think
11:34Scientific American you he talked about
11:36the all the different anthropic
11:38principles and when he got to the strong
11:40anthropic principle he he said that he
11:42he called that not the SAP for strong
11:44anthropic principle he called it the the
11:47completely ridiculous anthropic
11:48principle and uh gave it the name crap.
11:52So um the weak anthropic principle is a
11:55little more subtle. It says that that um
11:59uh yeah, we shouldn't be surprised
12:01because uh of course we live in a
12:04universe that is consistent with prior
12:07conditions that are consistent with our
12:09existence. If we didn't, we wouldn't be
12:12here. Doesn't make the observers the
12:13cause. It just says we shouldn't be
12:15surprised. Uh problem with that though
12:18is that it it still doesn't explain the
12:21origin of the fine-tuning. It explains
12:24um it it cites a necessary condition of
12:28our existence that is the fine-tuning
12:29parameters are necessary for us to exist
12:33without explaining what caused the
12:35fine-tuning parameters themselves. So
12:37there's a logical dis confusion between
12:40necessary condition and cause. Those
12:42aren't the same thing. And it also
12:44explains the wrong thing. We're not
12:45trying to explain our surprise or lack
12:48thereof of being here or even why we are
12:52here given that there is fine-tuning.
12:54Rather, we're trying to explain how the
12:56fine-tuning came to be. And there the
12:58design hypothesis provides a causal
13:00explanation. We're simply saying, "Hey,
13:03we're not surp we shouldn't be
13:04surprised." provides no such causal
13:06explanation.

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