The Cosmic Truman Show
On intelligent design, cosmic order and fine tuned parameters.
While looking into the clear night sky, one may start thinking about the secrets and wonders of the cosmos. The Universe seems just too big for an observer to perceive the end of it and just too small to see the tiniest particles.
We know that there is more to discover but it is just beyond our reach. There seems to be a cosmic order that allows us to sense the blurry edges of our bubble, but prevents us to look beyond.
We are held back by laws of physics that stop us from traveling faster than light beams. For that reason we cannot visit other galaxies but conveniently our neighborhood is packed with interesting things that will keep us busy for ages. And when we finally get close enough to the pacific rim we will only find out that there is another horizon behind the first one.
The complexity of life and the beauty of nature leads many discussions into intelligent design. The argument goes something like this: evolution alone cannot be the only explanation to why we (humans) are here. We are simply too complex and too intricate.
Evolution cannot explain why we are conscious about ourselves or about the Universe and it cannot explain how life originated. Why are We here, thinking about the Universe, if there is no design built into the equation already from the beginning? There is apparently a gap to fill here. Something urges for an explanation.
Same thing with the Origin of the Universe. It is just to perfect to be explained with a bang. How was the bang initiated and what happened before the bang? Who initiated the bang and why?
The simple explanation is that there is a divine creator that gave rise to everything we can see around us. The creator has always been around and he has infinite powers and hence there is no need for an explanation of where or when or how the creator fits into the equation.
Another thing that seemingly points at intelligent design is the anthropic principle. The description of the universe as finely tuned suggests that the occurrence of life in the Universe is very sensitive to the values of very specific fundamental physical constants and that the observed values are, for some reason, improbable.
In other words, the Universe must be exactly as it is because we exist and if you change these seemingly fine tuned parameters just a little bit we wouldn’t be here.
The Truman Show is a movie from 1998. Truman Burbank is the unaware star in a reality television program filmed 24/7 through hidden cameras and broadcast to a worldwide audience. Truman’s hometown of Seahaven Island is built within a huge dome, populated by crew members and actors.
Christof, the show’s creator and executive producer, can control every aspect of Truman’s life, even the weather inside the Dome. In the movie it takes 30 years before Truman starts to realize that he does not live in the real world, that his whole life is fake and ultimately controlled by an “eye in the sky”.
So, what should one make of all these apparent miracles and wonders of nature? Science is not all about hard core facts or evidence. It is equally much about estimates, inquiry, approximations, inference and logical reasoning. Let us reason!
In the middle of the 19th century we still believed that the Milky Way was the whole Universe and we didn’t even know that atoms existed. Our inability to detect beyond a certain point doesn’t mean that there is nothing to detect.
The James Webb Telescope is one of the new “miracle machines” that is expected to change our view of the Universe. It will come into operation in just a few months. Imagine what we may discover within the next few years. And then try to imagine what we will know about the universe in a hundred years from now. There is no need for a cosmic order to explain what we cannot yet explain.
The origin of life as well as the origin of the universe is yet to be explained. But we fully understand how very complex beings (such as ourselves) can evolve from very simple building blocks. The evidence for evolution is as strong as it possibly can get and stretches from anatomy, molecular biology, and biogeography to fossils and direct observation.
The principles for the evolution of the universe is basically the same. The Big Bang theory in combination with inflation theory explains how the universe has evolved into what we can see today. Just because a more or less perfect explanation doesn’t explain everything, one can’t just complete the puzzle by adding intelligent design or a divine creator in place of the missing pieces.
As for the fine tuned parameters there is a general misconception that the Universe must be exactly as it is because we exist the way we do. The anthropic principle simply says that we, observers, exist in this Universe, and therefore the Universe exists in a way that it allows observers to come into existence.
If the laws of physics are arranged in a way that the existence of observers is impossible, this arrangement obviously doesn’t describe our Universe. The evidence for our existence means that the Universe allows our existence, but it doesn’t mean that the Universe must have unfolded exactly this way.
It doesn’t mean that our existence is mandatory. And it doesn’t mean that the Universe must have given rise to us exactly as we are. In other words, you cannot say “the Universe must be the way it is because we’re here.” That’s a logical fallacy. Hence the creation of Earth and humanity wasn’t a predestined, necessary outcome from the Big Bang.
The Truman Show remains the more realistic scenario after all. It resembles the “simulated reality” — the hypothesis that reality could be simulated to a degree indistinguishable from “true” reality. It could contain conscious minds that may or may not know that they live inside a simulation. Just like Truman although he lived inside a physical dome. Who could really tell the difference?
David Attenborough elaborates on what we can possibly know about our existence during an interview with Laurie Taylor. David uses the analogy of taking off the top of a termite hill and watching the termites go about their busy lives: looking after the queen, building walls, clearing the nest, caring for the pupae.
They haven’t the faintest idea that he is there watching them because they do not have the ability to see him. Therefore he feels as if he may be similarly lacking the sense organs to appreciate some sort of greater influence in our lives. I think this analogy is simply brilliant, albeit that he doesn’t talk about domes or simulated realities. Enjoy!
