Theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser raises the issue that the multiverse hypothesis suffers from the unscientific property of non-falsifiability. Embedded in his article is a solid acknowledgement of the fine-tuning of physical parameters for life to exist in our universe.
Tag: Marcelo Gleiser
At Mind Matters News: A purpose must underlie the universe if intelligent beings exist
His reasons would suggest that human intelligence cannot simply be a product of evolution, whether he realizes that or not.
At Mind Matters News: A physicist defends imperfection in our universe: It’s essential
Great physicist Paul Dirac discovered antimatter by assuming symmetry (a quality of perfection). But in the details, the wheels came off.
Isaac Newton’s whole career, we are told, was a pursuit of the divine
Remember this when someone tells you that science and religion don’t mix.
At Mind Matters News: Physicist: Why extraterrestrials couldn’t look much like us
Marcelo Gleiser explains, there is a “staggering diversity of worlds” out there and that diversity would shape life forms in many different ways.
Mixing science with politics is like mixing mustard and ice cream
So far so good, Marcelo Gleiser, until we got to the part about “often giving equal weight to the opinion of the vast majority of scientists and to the opinion of a small contrarian group,” … There’s actually nothing unusual about the “small contrarian group” being right.
At Mind Matters News: Physicist: Science, by nature, can’t have a theory of everything
As Marcelo Gleiser puts it, “The very process of discovery leads to more unknowns.” And they may be smaller or larger than our current knowns.
At Mind Matters News: Can quantum physics, neuroscience merge as quantum consciousness?
The problem is, if we assume that “the mind is nothing more than the brain,” there may be nothing we can discover about how it works. Gleiser wishes we could prove that that’s wrong but he can’t.
At Mind Matters News: Does science disprove free will? A physicist says no
Apart from simple laws governing neurons, we have no clue what laws the mind follows, though it does show complex nonlinear dynamics.
At Mind Matters News: Astronomer: We can’t just assume countless Earths out there
Marcelo Gleiser notes that the starting point of the Mediocrity Principle assumes countless Earths. That’s not a conclusion from evidence. It’s bad logic.
Physicist Marcelo Gleiser: Beauty in the universe is an “illusory consequence of our human mathematics”
So what, exactly, is this “false and illusory” view of our universe? Is this short essay another veiled “correct” assault on the fact of the fine-tuning of the universe for life? There seems to be a lot of that out there these days. Orthodox science is now in a deadly conflict with facts… There can only be one outcome.
Theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser: The “Copernican Principle” isn’t science…
We’ve only begun to point huge telescopes at exoplanets. There are too many unknowns to be sure of our status, he thinks.
At Big Think: What happened before the Big Bang?
What happened before anything happened? It’s a meaningless question within itself unless one posits a First Cause or God. Science, like an afghan, tends to fray at the edges.
Templeton winner Marcelo Gleiser endorses the Rare Earth principle
Gleiser: So when people talk about Copernicus and Copernicanism—the ‘principle of mediocrity’ that states we should expect to be average and typical, I say, “You know what? It’s time to get beyond that.”
Apparent non-crackpot physicist wins Templeton Prize
Marcelo Gleiser sounds as though he thinks that the great mysteries of physics are about this universe, not space aliens, computer sim universes, cyborgs, and so forth (on that score, see 2011 Templeton winner Sir Martin Rees).