Does Life Need a Multiverse to Exist?

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Life exists in our universe. There we go - one hopefully uncontroversial statement. Therefore our universe is capable of producing and supporting life. How am I going? Two for two? Let’s try for three: therefore there are countless universes. Hmmm. Did I break my streak?

Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt O'Dowd
Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer & Adriano Leal
Directed by: Andrew Kornhaber
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber

Our universe seems to operate according to a set of fundamental rules that we try to understand and model with the equations of our laws of physics. Those equations always include one or more fundamental constants - simple numbers that set the scale for the equation. We can’t determine the values of these constants from pure theory - we have to measure them in the real universe. These are things like the speed of light, the Planck constant, the masses of the elementary particles, and the constants defining the relative strengths of the fundamental forces - the so-called coupling constants.

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[grd]

can we all just give a shoutout to the Graphics team as the level of detail and quality of the animations and graphics adds so much to the episodes and greatly enhances Matt's fantastic presentations. god, I love this channel so much <3

[beretperson]

"don't be depressed!" He said, seconds before ending the episode with "we're totally screwing it all up."

[PaulSmooth]

Last week: "We may be alone in the universe." This week: "We may be alone in the multiverse."

[Elec-DIY]

"The chances of you existing are mind-boggingly low, we are extremely lucky"
Me: *Opens up second can of pringles*

[CosmicNewbie]

All the values of this universe were precisely set so that my beautiful coffee table can exist. My coffee table was the end-game of this universe and humans were merely an instrument in that process (I call it the "coffee table principle")

[pneumonoultramicroscopicsi]

The fact that existence exists fascinates me, and understanding everything about it is very likely to be impossible, which makes me sad because I know that one day I'll die without wrapping my head around the full story of how did I come to live in the first place.

[francescoghizzo]

Our universe seems to be fine tuned for life AS WE KNOW IT.
Different values for the fundamental constants of nature could indeed prevent the formation of stars and planets, but they could also be at the foundation of different types of physics (and therefore, chemistry) we couldn't even dream of and lead nonetheless to the emergence of complexity and self replication, i.e., what we call "life", even if in forms totally different from our own

[domokato]

There's also the possibility that different universes have different numbers of constants altogether, different types of fundamental particles, or perhaps not even having particle physics.

[huntersorce]

2:05 Another option is that while our universe seems to be very fine tuned to support life, it could be that this is simply the most stable state of settings for a universe, similar to how while there are multiple types of quarks, they all quickly decay into their most stable states of up or down quark. That life developed from those stable states isn't luck, as stated in the anthropic principle, some form of life (an observer), would eventually develop. Whether or not there are multiple universes can't be known from this.

[ExistenceUniversity]

"Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact, it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!” This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be all right, because this World was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for." -Douglas Adams

[Richardincancale]

2:34 You forgot case 0: These dial settings are interlinked in such a way that these are the only possible settings. I.e. a Uni-verse and not a Multi-verse.

[amira]

Meanwhile marvel scrolling through youtube:
Yes this one, use this idea

[nomas]

I would like to thank pbs and their supporters.
Thank you guys.

[Gerd_Hellriegel]

The universe was fine-tuned to produce the moon. Life is just fallout.

[KLiNoTweet]

Physics is like reverse engineering the universe.

[Nathouuuutheone]

Or, option 4: "Fine-tuning" might be biased phrasing. Maybe those numbers are the result of something constant about the Universe and hypothetical Multiverse, something that doesn't seem nearly as arbitrary as our current formulas and constants.

[TheExoplanetsChannel]

Ingredients for life to _survive:_ air, water and *PBS Space Time* videos

[ioresult]

We actually get a cliffhanger! Paraphrasing, "We'll test the multiverse prediction of the strong anthropic principle in an upcoming episode". I can't wait!

[bophadesnutz]

The anthropic principle, or in laymans terms, "we live in a universe"

[SuperOnionBread]

The study 'Experimental test of local observer independence" was recently published that suggests reality may be subjective. To my knowledge, this is the first time Wigner’s Thought Experiment has been tested in a laboratory setting. Space Time should do a video breaking this down. This is mind bending stuff.