The
final anthropic principle (FAP) is defined by physicists
John D. BarrowJohn David Barrow FRS is an English cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician. He is currently Research Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge...
and
Frank J. TiplerFrank Jennings Tipler III is a mathematical physicist and cosmologist, holding a joint appointment in the Departments of Mathematics and Physics at Tulane University.-Life:...
's 1986 book
The Anthropic Cosmological Principle as a generalization of the
anthropic principleIn physics and cosmology, the anthropic principle is the collective name for several ways of asserting that physical and chemical theories, especially astrophysics and cosmology, need to take into account that there is life on Earth, and that one form of that life, Homo sapiens, has attained...
as follows:
- Intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the Universe, and, once it comes into existence, will never die out.
Barrow and Tipler state that, although the FAP is a purely physical statement, the "validity of the FAP is the physical precondition for
moralMorality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or belief concerning matters of what is moral or immoral...
values to arise and so to continue to exist in the universe: no moral values of any sort can exist in a lifeless cosmology." Furthermore, the FAP seems to imply a
melioristicMeliorism is an idea in metaphysical thinking holding that progress is a real concept leading to an improvement of the world. It holds that humans can, through their interference with processes that would otherwise be natural, produce an outcome which is an improvement over the aforementioned...
cosmos (a tendency throughout nature toward improvement).
The FAP does not imply
stability of the protonIn particle physics, proton decay is a hypothetical form of radioactive decay in which the proton decays into lighter subatomic particles, usually a neutral pion and a positron. Proton decay has not been observed. There is currently no evidence that proton decay occurs.In the Standard Model,...
: it is possible to process information using the
quantum numberQuantum numbers describe values of conserved quantities in the dynamics of the quantum system. Perhaps the most peculiar aspect of quantum mechanics is the quantization of observable quantities. This is distinguished from classical mechanics where the values can range continuously...
and spin state of
positroniumPositronium is a system consisting of an electron and its anti-particle, a positron, bound together into an "exotic atom". The orbit of the two particles and the set of energy levels is similar to that of the hydrogen atom...
atoms (although the positronium
half-lifeHalf-life is the period of time, for a substance undergoing decay, to decrease by half. The name originally was used to describe a characteristic of unstable atoms , but may apply to any quantity which follows a set-rate decay....
of 100 nanoseconds would require other, more stable, particles to also exist).
Barrow and Tipler make a "very tentative prediction" that the FAP appears to imply that the Universe is either flat or closed (and not open; see topology of the universe).
Critics of the Final Anthropic Principle claim that its arguments violate the
Copernican PrincipleIn physical cosmology, the Copernican principle, named after Nicolaus Copernicus, states the Earth is not in a central, specially favoured position. More recently, the principle is generalised to the relativistic concept that humans are not privileged observers of the universe...
, that it incorrectly applies the laws of
probabilityProbability is a way of expressing knowledge or belief that an event will occur or has occurred. In mathematics the concept has been given an exact meaning in probability theory, that is used extensively in such areas of study as mathematics, statistics, finance, gambling, science, and philosophy...
, and that it is really a theology or metaphysics principle made to sound plausible to laypeople by using the esoteric language of physics.
The
final anthropic principle (FAP) is defined by physicists
John D. BarrowJohn David Barrow FRS is an English cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician. He is currently Research Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge...
and
Frank J. TiplerFrank Jennings Tipler III is a mathematical physicist and cosmologist, holding a joint appointment in the Departments of Mathematics and Physics at Tulane University.-Life:...
's 1986 book
The Anthropic Cosmological Principle as a generalization of the
anthropic principleIn physics and cosmology, the anthropic principle is the collective name for several ways of asserting that physical and chemical theories, especially astrophysics and cosmology, need to take into account that there is life on Earth, and that one form of that life, Homo sapiens, has attained...
as follows:
- Intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the Universe, and, once it comes into existence, will never die out.
Barrow and Tipler state that, although the FAP is a purely physical statement, the "validity of the FAP is the physical precondition for
moralMorality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or belief concerning matters of what is moral or immoral...
values to arise and so to continue to exist in the universe: no moral values of any sort can exist in a lifeless cosmology." Furthermore, the FAP seems to imply a
melioristicMeliorism is an idea in metaphysical thinking holding that progress is a real concept leading to an improvement of the world. It holds that humans can, through their interference with processes that would otherwise be natural, produce an outcome which is an improvement over the aforementioned...
cosmos (a tendency throughout nature toward improvement).
The FAP does not imply
stability of the protonIn particle physics, proton decay is a hypothetical form of radioactive decay in which the proton decays into lighter subatomic particles, usually a neutral pion and a positron. Proton decay has not been observed. There is currently no evidence that proton decay occurs.In the Standard Model,...
: it is possible to process information using the
quantum numberQuantum numbers describe values of conserved quantities in the dynamics of the quantum system. Perhaps the most peculiar aspect of quantum mechanics is the quantization of observable quantities. This is distinguished from classical mechanics where the values can range continuously...
and spin state of
positroniumPositronium is a system consisting of an electron and its anti-particle, a positron, bound together into an "exotic atom". The orbit of the two particles and the set of energy levels is similar to that of the hydrogen atom...
atoms (although the positronium
half-lifeHalf-life is the period of time, for a substance undergoing decay, to decrease by half. The name originally was used to describe a characteristic of unstable atoms , but may apply to any quantity which follows a set-rate decay....
of 100 nanoseconds would require other, more stable, particles to also exist).
Barrow and Tipler make a "very tentative prediction" that the FAP appears to imply that the Universe is either flat or closed (and not open; see topology of the universe).
Critics of the Final Anthropic Principle claim that its arguments violate the
Copernican PrincipleIn physical cosmology, the Copernican principle, named after Nicolaus Copernicus, states the Earth is not in a central, specially favoured position. More recently, the principle is generalised to the relativistic concept that humans are not privileged observers of the universe...
, that it incorrectly applies the laws of
probabilityProbability is a way of expressing knowledge or belief that an event will occur or has occurred. In mathematics the concept has been given an exact meaning in probability theory, that is used extensively in such areas of study as mathematics, statistics, finance, gambling, science, and philosophy...
, and that it is really a theology or metaphysics principle made to sound plausible to laypeople by using the esoteric language of physics.
Martin GardnerMartin Gardner is an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, pseudoscience, literature , philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion...
dubbed FAP the "completely ridiculous anthropic principle" (CRAP).