Anthropic principle: scope

This rather difficult for understanding principle was formulated, first of all, as an argument for explaining some complex relationships between phenomena occurring in the world, including for explaining the very fact of its origin and development. The initial hypothesis for its explanation is the assertion that the world is represented to us precisely as we see it, because we have emerged in it and are present as an observer. From the point of view of natural science, the anthropic principle is called upon to explain what the relations between the fundamental physical and chemical parameters must be to promote the emergence of intelligent life.

The term "anthropic principle" was first used in 1973 by the British physicist B. Carter. However, after its publication, many scientists noted that a similar idea in several other interpretations was formulated earlier. In particular, it was first announced as an anthropic principle in cosmology back in 1955 in the USSR at a scientific conference on extragalactic astronomy. Among the scientists who proposed this idea were Soviet scientists G. M. Idlis, A. L. Zelmanov, an American R. Dicke.

But it was Carter's work that became the subject of general attention and initiated the detailed scientific understanding of this principle and its role in cognition. At the same time, the scientific community did not find a single point of view on the possibility of applying the idea in practical science. Only in 1988 there was a conference in Venice, where for the first time the main subject of consideration was the anthropic principle, and which attracted the attention of a very wide range of interested people - from physicists to religious philosophers. After that, this topic was the subject of discussion at numerous scientific forums, and one way or another, even at conferences on narrow scientific issues, the discussion touched on the question of what the anthropic principle affirms. Today its application is extended to a very wide range of problems - from theology to extrapolar cosmology.

B. Carter in his famous article singled out two options for manifesting the principle - strong and weak. A weak variant suggests that in the universe there are certain constant values that a person can observe only because he is present there. And the opposite: there are different values of world constants that are different from the usual ones, where there is no observer (person) at the moment. The intuitive-everyday perception of this principle is expressed in something by a common saying: "it is good there where we are not."

From the understanding of a strong version of the manifestation of the principle, it was necessary to derive the conclusion that the universe potentially has parameters that allow the mind to develop.

The anthropic principle in strong manifestation was well formulated by J. Wheeler, arguing that "observers are necessary for the acquisition of the Universe of Being".

The difference between strong and weak options is that the strong characterizes the world at all stages of its existence, and weak only on those where the mind can only be conceived hypothetically.

The practical expression of the anthropic principle consists in the assumption that the reality observed by us and its laws are not unique, and therefore there is a probability of the existence of realities with other laws. At one time, the principle of anthropism in this interpretation was manifested when the non-Euclidean geometry was discovered, where the classical laws do not work. The manifestation of anthropism can also be assumed in situations described by Einstein: the dependence of the flow of time on velocity.

Physicists who studied variants of hypothetical existence in time and space of other Universes, came to such conclusions:

- in the course of constant changes that take place in the universe, its parameters are also constantly changing, and therefore there can be a combination of these parameters in which the appearance of intelligent life becomes inevitable;

- the same can happen in the framework of one universe, in those places where its properties will add up in a favorable ratio;

- One can not deny the hypothesis of the existence of a "multiverse" on the grounds that we do not observe it.

Thus, an attempt is made, by using the principle of anthropology, to expand the field of scientific knowledge, taking it beyond the bounds of the established laws of nature and the usual methodologies for their explanation.