From The Particle-Matter Hierarchy

to The Anthropic Fine Tuning

Kunitake Ito (Kyoto University)

Story 1 Cosmological Anthropic Principle

2 Fine Tuning

3 Various Interpretations of Fine Tuning

4 Our Universe--Typical or Atypical?

5 The Pyramid of Complexity

6 Doubts about the Principle of Complexity

7 Downward Causation

8 Strong Self-selection Thesis

9 Migration of the Soul?

Reference

1 Cosmological Anthropic Principle

• The Anthropic Principle = There is a certain important

connection between the nature of our universe and the

existence of life, particularly human existence.

“Anthropic” = “Human”

• Reason: The Cosmological Fine Tuning

• Theses: (1) There is an ensemble of universe, i.e.,

Multiverse. Our universe is one of the ensemble.

• These: (2) Human existence in this universe has the

“Observational Selection Effect” on the universe itself.

1 Cosmological Anthropic Principle

2 Fine Tuning • Our universe is marvelously fine tuned to the existence of life.

• Birth of universe

• Formation and development of universe

• Weak Anthropic Principle = The Cosmology cannot be incompatible with

the factual existence of life and human being. This is a heuristic principle.

• Strong Anthropic Principle = Fine Tuning suggests an essential connection

between the nature of our intelligence and that of the universe.

Theoretically constructing our universe as a member of Multiverse means

that we are observationally selecting this universe as our universe. The

selection makes our universe as a self-reflectively chosen universe.

2 Fine Tuning

2 Fine Tuning

3 Various Interpretations of Fine Tuning

• Theological: The cosmological coincidence reflects the

benevolent intension of the supreme being. The Argument from

the “Intelligent Des” Newton, Butler

• Philosophical: The role of consciousness in collapsing the

quantum mechanical wave function?

• Scientific: Some of the physical constants are contingent of

accidental features of symmetry-breaking and initial conditions

of the universe. The plausible explanation for the coincidence is

the hypothesis of Multiverse.

• The plausibility of Multiverse: Bayesian or not?

• Abduction < Induction < Deduction

3 Various Interpretations of Fine Tuning

3 Various Interpretations of Fine Tuning

4 Our Universe—Typical or Atypical?

• It might be typical: The properties of the universe is

the result of “cosmological natural selection”. There

is no need to suppose any irregularity in the selection.

• It may be atypical: The existence of stars and

galaxies shows that the disequibilium resulted from

very fast expansion of the universe could prevent the

loss of variety in the structure of the universe. Our

universe is atypical in Multiverse in this disequibilium.

5 The Pyramid of Complexity • Lower levels: stable and difficult to destroy

Higher levels: fragile and easy to destroy

• Ascention of levels: each structure must be maintained by exchanging

energy with its environment. It must extract information from the outer

world, and it is possible only when there exists a source of entropy which

has not released by previous processes.

• Information = delayed release of entropy

• Life and information: The world of life is that of competetion. The

requirement of the different modes of preception and motor activity leads

to the development of developed system of information, the storer and

extracter of information, i. e., central nervous system.

• Intelligence is the most developed system of information processing which

has most survival efficiency.

5 The Pyramid of Complexity

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quarks

nucleons

atoms

simple molecules

biomolecules

cells

organisms

??? time

6 Doubts about the Principle of Complexity

• The identification of life and information exchange is doubtful.

• The sense of information related to the assention of the

pyramid of complexity is the matter of energy and entropy.

• The sense of information related to the central nervous system

is the systematic symbolic representation and inference.

• These two senses of information cannot be easily mixed.

• The suspicion of teleology: Is the main purpose of intelligence to

increase the survival efficiency. It is not a physical explanation

but a teleological explanation.

7 Downward Causation • Downward causation = a converse of upward causation

• The whole is constrained by the parts, but it is also true that the

parts are constrained by the whole.

• Two way causation will be much better model for the intelligence-

environment interaction.

• This idea also suggests that physical laws determines a set of

“attractors”, which are regions in the space the system can enter

but not leave.

• This idea allows some room for the indeterminacy in physical

process and supplies some explanation for the formation of the

Pyramid of complexity.

• An example of downward causation: Crystals

7 Downward Causation

8 Strong Self-selection Thesis • Strong self-selection thesis is one step ahead of the downward

causation.

• We are observing this universe, constructing a physical model for

the formation of cosmos, and noticing cosmological coincidences,

and conjecturing the hypothesis of multiverse.

• Thus, we are pointing at our universe as “our universe in the

Multiverse”.

• This is indexical reference of our own place in the Multiverse.

• Indexical reference is a process of causally baptizing of an object.

• Therefore, we are selecting this universe as our own atypical

environment, by means of the performance of this baptism.

9 Migration of the Soul? • The point of this argument is that we call our universe as “our own”

universe in the Multiverse. This is the selection by means of our self-

identification as the “observers” of universe.

• Any creatures in any possible universe who can observe, construct

theoretical models of cosmos formation and think of Multiverse, like

ourselves, can be identified as the observers like “us”.

• We are all transcosmically identical “we”.

• Therefore we can think of modern version of the very old idea of the

tranmigration of the soul, or Metempsychosis.

• Multiverse would abolish old fashioned Theological Intelligent Designer,

but may reintroduce the dream/nightmare of metempsychosis.

Thank You.

9 Migration of the Soul?

9 Migration of the Soul?

Reference • Carter, Brandon. 1974 “Large Number Coincidence and the Anthropic

Cosmological Principle in Cosmology”, in J. Leslie, ed., Modern Cosmology

and Philosophy, Prometeus Books.

• Barrow, John and Tipler, Frank. eds. 1986 The Antropic Cosmological

Principle, Oxford Univ. Press.

• Bostrom, Nick. 2002 Anthropic Bias: Observational Selection Effect in

Science and Philosophy, Routledge.

• Carr, Bernard. ed. 2007 Universe or Multiverse?, Cambridge Univ. Press.

• Kunitake Ito. 2002 The Universe of Chance, Iwanamisyoten. (In Japanese)

• Toshihiko Miura. 2007 Multiverse and Metempsychosis, Seidosha. (In

Japanese)