We Are, So It Is
The anthropic principle
Anthropic Principle stresses that we can draw conclusions about the apparent laws of physics based on the fact that we exist.
Antrhopic Principle (AP) says that, we live in a Universe that has systematically set itself up to ensure our existence as intelligent beings. That means, if the laws of the Universe were any different from what they are today, we wouldn't be here to study them. Developed in 1973 by physicist Brandon Carter AP, as a philosophical argument is applied in physics and cosmology to shed light on issues like why the Universe has age, how the randomness of events in the cosmos allowed the development of intelligent life on Earth as well as the fundamental physical constants that are essential to understand conscious life-forms. Consider a few examples. The protons, the positively charged sub-atomic particles, happen to be 1,836 times heavier than electrons. If they were a little bit bigger or smaller, we wouldn't be here today. The Earth's albedo (the total amount of light reflected off the planet versus the total amount of light absorbed) was much greater than what it is, then the Earth would have experienced a runaway freezing, a process which freezes all liquids. And if it was any less, then the same runaway greenhouse effect would be inevitable. If our Earth's magnetic field was weaker, it would've been devastated by cosmic radiation and if it were stronger, we would've been eliminated by electromagnetic storms. Same is true of the planet's place in the solar system and the solar system's place in the galaxy as well as the very color of our Sun, all of which just had to be right for life to thrive on this green planet. There are two Anthropic principles which explain the whole idea. They are strong AP and weak AP. The strong AP (SAP) states that, the Universe had to bring intelligent life into existence at some particular point and specifically housed those particular properties that allowed life to develop at some point of its 14 billion or so years of history. And the weak AP (WAP) states that only a Universe with an appropriate structure is likely to sustain intelligent life-forms. According to WAP, our existence on Earth, as carbon-based intelligent life-forms, imposes a sort of selection effect on the Universe, where our knowledge of our existence imposes rules that select, out of all possible environments, only those particular environmental settings with exclusive characteristics that allow the sustenance of life. Basically, the first idea states that, we're here because our Universe is here and the second one tells that our Universe is here because we're here. And it is the SAP that suggests that once intelligent life has appeared, it'll never die out.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments