Frank Tipler - Must the Universe Spawn Life and Mind?

Why is our universe seemingly so conducive to life and mind? Some argue God. Some say a teleological principal drives the universe toward complexity and even consciousness. Some go further still and say consciousness itself underlies everything. That most cosmologists look to a multiverse highlights the depth of the problem.

Frank Jennings Tipler is a mathematical physicist and cosmologist, holding a joint appointment in the Departments of Mathematics and Physics at Tulane University. He holds a BS in Physics from MIT and a PhD from the University of Maryland.

Closer to Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[RG-siqz]

We may find that the conditions required for life are more common than we currently understand. The discovery of microbial life on other planets could support the idea that the universe is inclined to spawn life.

[bretnetherton]

Awareness is known by awareness alone.

[kallianpublico]

How does the weak anthropic principle inform the fine-tuning argument?

[leontich]

Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan. A brilliant mockery of the "reason we exist" thing.

[glenbroemer]

following wittgenstein here, a good example of importing words and forms of language from areas in which they are used sensibly, into areas where they are meaningless.

[Soli_Deo_Gloria_.]

Well we're here, but not necessary. Which means their is an ontological nessacary being "out there."

[peweegangloku]

"We are not a chanced accident. We could not, not be!" Facts, evidence, support this conclusion.

[Self-Duality]

By ontological necessity, the universe is “alive” in a sense much more general than are biological organisms; it is a “cosmological organism” with unique self-selective power.

[bobcabot]

ja since almost all Physicists be so prone to point out endlessly what we only know can be considered as possible lifeforms: is the Universe we know in fact very very hostile to life...

[chuckkiezulas]

The TV series Babylon 5 was based on the strong anthropic principle. The Mimbari accepted it as a religious belief.

[TimBitts]

The 3 stages:
First Stage, people are simple minded believe in miracles, life is a miracle, listen to stories of miracles.
Second Stage, people start to figure out some science, some of the causes of things, people start to look down on First Stage people.
Third Stage, the more you know, the more you start to intuit that complexity is infinite, which is the same instinct as belief in God. You believe in miracles again.
As Newton put it, "All my life I felt as though I were a young boy, playing on a beach. Now and then picking up and examining a curious or pretty shell. Meanwhile the vast unknown sea, sat before me."

[imaginaryuniverse]

There's much evidence that the appearance of life in the Universe occurs within the life in the Universe. Everything in the Universe appears as energy. The only thing in the Universe that can perceive energy is energy. I think most people think energy is the measure of the vibrations of things vibrating but there is not a single thing to vibrate. There is no physical substance whatsoever that would allow for there to actually be a thing like pressure because there is no actual things vibrating. It seems to me the most logical explanation for the appearance of pressure is the existence of a set of rules which must have an intelligence as their source. Even given an infinite number of possibilities for a Universe to randomly occur we would be infinitely likely to be waiting infinitely for one to actually occur.

[jamesruscheinski]

could there have been emergent properties after this cosmos started that are required for human life to observe it? emergent properties that are not necessarily or completely associated with start of this cosmos?

[mosaicmind]

Hmm, I kinda believe a little of both principles. How to reconcile?

[leontich]

RationalWiki characterizes Frank Tipler as "a good scientist turned crackpot".

[jamesruscheinski]

maybe one or more of the requirements for human life to observe cosmos existed prior to start of this cosmos?

[arthurwieczorek]

Is ever grammatically correct question meaningful?

[ManiBalajiC]

So we wanna believe that universe just wants to evolve life in a planet billions of years into its lifespan which it could have done much sooner, considering every necessary element needed for life existed before Earth comes into picture.

[hellofromdavid]

The Universe cannot exist without a sentient Being thinking about it. The very concept comes from the _mind_ of a human. In the absence of thought their is no independent reality. Sentient Beings _create_ *their own* 'reality'

[williamflaherty]

The two versions of AP are vastly different but both are equally nonsense, and add nothing to our knowledge. Example:
1- The state of me being inside of my house is compatible with the properties of my house ( a weak assertion that is always true).
2- The properties of my house are so meticulously designed that they inevitably led to my being inside of it ( a strong assertion that can never be proved wrong).