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Ch. 7 - The Apparent Miracle

Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:40 pm
by Chris OConnor
Ch. 7 - The Apparent Miracle

Please use this thread for discussing Ch. 7 - The Apparent Miracle.

Re: Ch. 7 - The Apparent Miracle

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 5:20 pm
by Dexter
I may be jumping ahead too quickly, but I had to post this quote from p. 164:

"That multiverse idea is not a notion invented to account for the miracle of fine-tuning. It is a consequence of the no-boundary condition as well as many other theories of modern cosmology."

From what I've read already, it seems that some informed critics would say it was in fact invented for that very reason. Of course he leaves the reasoning vague here. And where are the references? I know this is a layman's book and I probably wouldn't understand them anyway, but come on, put something in the end notes.

Re: Ch. 7 - The Apparent Miracle

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 3:09 pm
by Jim Watters
I think he means to say that due to there being no boundary conditions on the Universe, i.e. there are no set "ends" or "edges", that the initial conditions allow multiple solutions, and in this case, multiple universes, according to the mathematics of General Relativity (and quantum mechanics?).

But this would be a good question for Leonard or Stephen when we submit our questions for them to answer.

Re: Ch. 7 - The Apparent Miracle

Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 8:40 pm
by Dexter
I came across this very critical review
So there you have it. Hawking has explained literally everything, with only the minor assumptions that there exist 10^500 universes that are unobservable even in principle, that the supersymmetric model of particle physics is correct despite the fact that there's never been the slightest experimental evidence for it, the correctness of string theory/M-theory for which evidence is arguably not even possible, and a set of metaphysical assumptions which would strike Timothy Leary himself as ludicrously dippy.

You can grant those assumptions if you want, but don't kid yourself that you're doing science.
http://scienceblogs.com/builtonfacts/20 ... n+Facts%29