SomeMusings.com

“Isn’t it surprising that we live in a universe fine-tuned for life?”

“Surprise” is a subjective emotion, so I can’t blame you for having the emotion, but if you want to tighten your thinking, then you have to ask “Compared to what?”

Is it surprising that gravity was just strong enough to produce our universe after the big bang? I suppose you could call that surprising.

But do you know what would really be surprising? If physicists were able to say “the universe would be exactly the same if you changed all the variables.”

Is it surprising that only the current configuration of the universe could have made life as we know it? I suppose that you could call that surprising.

But do you know what would really be surprising? If humans were able to look at the universe and say “damn, if electrons were just three hundreths of a percent heavier, then it would have been possible for us to exist. Too bad that we don’t exist.”

Come on. Observation requires existence. Existence requires conditions that allow existence. No one acts surprised that 100% of the world’s daisies are planted in soil, that puddles neatly fit into their holes, or that politicians mirror the prejudices of their constituents.

I can think of no position that encourages arrogance, entitlement, or selfishness more than believing that the entire universe was created for you.

Not that there’s anything wrong with being self-centered, but neither arrogance nor entitlement is very attractive.

Yes, life is fragile. Isn’t that what makes it beautiful?

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

-Douglas Adams