Anthropic Principle

Starting Points

The starting points could be divided in at least two related groups: the existential and epistemo-logical causes of the anthropization of the universe. The existential sources could be briefly characterized by the word surprise: surprise of human beings at the “starry sky above,” astonishment provoked by the organization of the surrounding world, as if waiting for guests at a prepared table. The surprise does not diminish with the increasing knowledge of nature and its laws; rather, the surprise is increased by the fact that humans do not deal with a single improbability but with a chain of improbable events during the whole history of the universe, starting with the big bang until the present. For example, the elements and anti-elements' ratio during the moments close to the beginning of the expansion of the universe had to allow, after reciprocal annihilation and radiation, precisely the quantity of elements remaining as the building material for the universe. This universe can be neither too dense (it would collapse again to the singularity) nor too thin (the matter would then spread out quickly and there would be no material for construction). At the same time, the presently observed stars had to be preceded by the stars of the first generation that created heavier chemical elements and dispersed them after their annihilation to the surrounding space where these elements could become building stones of emerging planetary systems. The created planets must be at an optimal distance from the central star, which must have a relatively stable form. Tolerated deviations—the range enabling the creation of life and basic physical interactions—are expressed by fractional parts of a percentage, while the physical possibility of these deviations is expressed in tenths of a percent. The real macrospace must have exactly three dimensions; no other physically possible case allows the existence of life. There is also the numerical coincidence: the size of proton 1027 centimeters and the size of the observed universe 10−27 centimeters.

As it concerns the accuracy of the “setting” of the speed of the expansion of the universe (for example), even a deviation that ranges from 1:1030 to 1:1029 would mean the existence of the universe without life. Is it all just a coincidence, very [Page 20]improbable, yet still a coincidence? Or is it an impact of something that is beyond reach, something humans are not able to embrace with knowledge, which, despite all progress, is still limited?

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