Ok lets end this anthropic principle crap now

http://www.samonsoftware.com/?p=134

by samh • 17 years ago

11 25 17 years ago

albertsun• 17 years ago

It sounds like what he's talking about is the weak anthropic principle, that if the universe were any other way we wouldn't be here and able to observe it, and so it must be that way.

The pebble analogy doesn't really hold true for that.

viraptor• 17 years ago

> The pebble analogy doesn't really hold true for that.

I'm actually interested in why you think that analogy doesn't hold true. (apart from the last bit about fireball - it makes the same mistake as the one he complains about)

I would generalise the behaviour to: Pick object X and its property Y after you confirmed that property. Be amazed because of Y. claim that Z must exist based on only that one sample.

X ∈ (earth, pebble), Y ∈ (sustains life, specific dimension), Z = power that caused X to have Y

Am I missing something here?

IsaacSchlueter2• 17 years ago

Agreed.

It's not clear if the OP knows what "anthropomorphic" means. It's not the same as "anthropic".

samh4• 17 years ago

I meant anthropic, and have changed the post and link title.

IsaacSchlueter2• 17 years ago

Agreed.

It's not clear of the OP knows what "anthropomorphic" means. It's not the same as "anthropic".

The anthropic principle is actually an explanation for the irrational amazement he's complaining about.

gort4• 17 years ago

Yes, the weak anthropic principle as originally formulated by Carter is just this:

"We must be prepared to take account of the fact that our location in the universe is necessarily privileged to the extent of being compatible with our existence as observers."

This is obviously true - we don't inhabit a random location in the universe, which is mostly empty space. We inhabit a rather unusual location, planet Earth. There's nothing particularly mysterious about this.

What I take from the WAP is that it's possible there are vast swathes of reality that we can't possibly observe, because observers can't exist there.

gort4• 17 years ago

"He then thinks, Wow the chances of me picking up a pebble at random that has this weight and this diameter are tiny"

Meh. The difference between anthropic thinking and the pebble example is that, without the universe being the way it is, I wouldn't even be here to see it. This is a relevant difference.

ETA: Another relevant difference is this: the amazing thing is not that the universe has precisely the physical constants that it has. The amazing thing is that it has any physical constants suitable for conscious observers.

mquander• 17 years ago

Not if you rephrase the argument. Regarding the pebble, one might say that no matter which pebble he chose, its measurements would be unique and equally "unlikely." Similarly, no matter which universe we could ever observe ourselves in, it would have equally "unlikely" parameters enabling us to live in it.

samh4• 17 years ago

Yep That's the crux of it.

gort4• 17 years ago

"no matter which universe we could ever observe ourselves in"

But you can't just assume that our existence is necessary. We might not have existed at all.

nopassrecover5• 17 years ago

No, the difference is not relevant.

Just because it affects you doesn't make it more scientifically valid.

This is akin to saying that life had to produce intelligent primates because I am an intelligent primate.

gort4• 17 years ago

I disagree. What I believe is that, if some conceivable universes could support conscious observers, and some couldn't, this is an interesting fact which warrants further discussion. I see 5 possibilities:

1. It was an unlikely fluke. The universe had to have some properties, and it happened to have these ones.

2. It was a likely fluke. Many of the conceivable universes actually would support conscious observers of some sort.

3. There's some deep physical reason why the universe had to have the properties it has.

4. God did it.

5. Multiple universes exist, drastically raising the odds that conscious observers exist somewhere.

amalcon• 17 years ago

You would not, but it's entirely possible that something else could be.

The analogy is not man:pebble::you:universe. The analogy is man:pebble::universe:you. If the man had, by happenstance, picked up a different pebble, the current pebble would not be there (in the man's hand). If the universe had, by happenstance, slightly different constants, you would not be there (in the universe). Something else might be, but then, it might not: we really can't figure that out.

The weak anthropic principle is basically survivor bias on an enormous scale.

teilo• 17 years ago

What this says to me is that the argument is fruitless, whether you are an IDer, or a "new athiest". So let's stop using it.

nopassrecover5• 17 years ago

Except that the argument is used as part of science not just religious discussions.

samh4• 17 years ago

I modified the title to Anthropic on the post and here.

boredguy8• 17 years ago

I thought this was going to be a post about people who over-use "Information wants to be free/anthropomporphized." That would have been worth reading, perhaps.

Clearly NHN

nopassrecover5• 17 years ago

This has been a personal bugbear of mine for a while. The anthropic principle is science's equivalent of the "God did it" card and is invoked anytime people test the limits of existing models.

Take for example this extract from the wiki article(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle)

Roger Penrose explained the weak form as follows:

    "The argument can be used to explain why the conditions happen to be just right for the existence of (intelligent) life on the earth at the present time.
    For if they were not just right, then we should not have found ourselves to be here now, but somewhere else, at some other appropriate time. 
    This principle was used very effectively by Brandon Carter and Robert Dicke to resolve an issue that had puzzled physicists for a good many years. 
    The issue concerned various striking numerical relations that are observed to hold between the physical constants (the gravitational constant, the mass of the proton, the age of the universe, etc.). 
    A puzzling aspect of this was that some of the relations hold only at the present epoch in the earth's history, so we appear, coincidentally, to be living at a very special time (give or take a few million years!). 
    This was later explained, by Carter and Dicke, by the fact that this epoch coincided with the lifetime of what are called main-sequence stars, such as the sun. 
    At any other epoch, so the argument ran, there would be no intelligent life around in order to measure the physical constants in question-so the coincidence had to hold, simply because there would be intelligent life around only at the particular time that the coincidence did hold!"
    The Emperor's New Mind, Chapter 10

Rather than create a model of how this coincidence occurs, it is simply ignored as "well it had to occur or we couldn't talk about it". For example, this coincidence may occur because we somehow derive our relational understandings and measurements from universal constants in the first place.

You can certainly derive something from the fact that we (life) exist but when you explain away observations with a simple "well we couldnt be here to talk about it otherwise" you are implying one of the following:

1. There is a design to the universe

2. The universe as it is is inevitable

3. Every possible combination of variables has existed or does exist and we are simply the result of the law of large numbers.

Either way there is some burden of proof.

praptak• 17 years ago

The king went through a village and was amazed to see shooting targets painted everywhere - fences, walls, trees. Exactly in the middle of each target was an arrow.

"Wow, the greatest archer in the whole kingdom must live here" thought the King to himself. Soon he spotted a man carrying a bow and some arrows. Pointing to the targets and arrows the King asked the man "Have you shot all of them?". "Yes" replied the man. "How did you manage to do that?" "Simple" replied the man "It's not that hard if you shoot before painting the target."

hc• 17 years ago

i'd say you nailed it here

Ok lets end this anthropic principle crap now

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