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Beyond existence

Louis A. Girifalco

in The Universal Force: Gravity - Creator of Worlds

Gravity is responsible not only for the existence of stars and planets; it also creates the weirdest objects imaginable. A body with mass greater than 1.4 solar masses cannot remain a white dwarf and ... More

Gravity is responsible not only for the existence of stars and planets; it also creates the weirdest objects imaginable. A body with mass greater than 1.4 solar masses cannot remain a white dwarf and will collapse into a neutron star. But if the mass is greater than about two and a half solar masses, the collapse will continue until it becomes a black hole. This is the strangest object in the universe. Its gravity is so strong that even light cannot get out of it. Anything near it is sucked in, crushed to a point, and approaches infinite density. The laws of physics as now known do not apply at the centre of a black hole and the very meaning of its existence is in doubt.Less

Understanding Technological Progress

Joel Mokyr

in The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress

This chapter shows which factors on the aggregate level help determine the propensity of a member of a society to invent, and which factors make others want to adopt his or her inventions. It ... More

This chapter shows which factors on the aggregate level help determine the propensity of a member of a society to invent, and which factors make others want to adopt his or her inventions. It examines some factors that operated, consciously or otherwise, on the minds and actions of individuals in their lonely struggles with the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. The chapter notes that although the physical and social environment is important in determining the actions of individuals, it is not solely responsible for the outcome. It lays out a series of explanations ranging from life expectancy, nutrition, geographical environment, science, and technology, to religion from institutions, values, and mentalitiés.Less

Fine-Tuning Fine-Tuning

Yoaav Isaacs

John Hawthorne (ed.)

in Knowledge, Belief, and God: New Insights in Religious Epistemology

This chapter argues that the fine-tuning argument for the existence of God is a straightforwardly legitimate argument. The fine-tuning argument takes certain features of fundamental physics to ... More

This chapter argues that the fine-tuning argument for the existence of God is a straightforwardly legitimate argument. The fine-tuning argument takes certain features of fundamental physics to confirm the existence of God because these features of fundamental physics are more likely given the existence of God than they are given the non-existence of God. And any such argument is straightforwardly legitimate, as such arguments follow a canonically legitimate form of empirical argumentation. The chapter explores various objections to the fine-tuning argument: that it requires an ill-defined notion of small changes in the laws of physics, that it over-generalizes, that it requires implausible presuppositions about divine intentions, and that it is debunked by anthropic reasoning. In each case it finds either that the putatively objectionable feature of the fine-tuning argument is inessential to it or that the putatively objectionable feature of the fine-tuning argument is not actually objectionable.Less

Chance, Uncertainty, and Unknowability in the Universe and Beyond

John D. Barrow

in Abraham's Dice: Chance and Providence in the Monotheistic Traditions

Human attitudes toward divine action play a part in explaining why mathematical theories of chance—so important in modern science—did not develop in ancient times despite the universal prevalence of ... More

Human attitudes toward divine action play a part in explaining why mathematical theories of chance—so important in modern science—did not develop in ancient times despite the universal prevalence of games of chance. The traditional Platonic and Aristotelian perspectives focused on different aspects of reality—the unchanging symmetries and unseen “laws” of nature, and the haphazard asymmetrical outcomes of these laws, respectively. This leads to the two categories of design argument—one from laws, the other from outcomes—found in natural theology. Exploring their interplay—still relevant today—addresses the question: “Is the world simple or complicated?” Chance, uncertainty, and unknowability play significant roles in contemporary cosmology, arising in the investigation of the beginning of the universe, the life-supporting properties of the universe, the finiteness of our visual horizon, and the possibility that a complicated multiverse exists, described by a fundamental Theory of Everything.Less

From One to Astronomical

Karel Schrijver

in One of Ten Billion Earths: How we Learn about our Planet's Past and Future from Distant Exoplanets

Where centuries ago one could be burned at the stake for speculating about distant worlds, the modern scientific method has made us realize that there are planetary systems around most of the over a ... More

Where centuries ago one could be burned at the stake for speculating about distant worlds, the modern scientific method has made us realize that there are planetary systems around most of the over a hundred billion stars in the Galaxy. Learning that the Earth was not the center of the Solar System represented a true revolution in our thinking, but the recent insight that the Solar System is but one of an immense number of similar systems was smoothly adopted by our culture, which had already been exposed to many fictional worlds over the preceding dedades. This introductory chapter describes these changes, woven into the story of how astrophysics has grown from the work of a few isolated individuals into a globe-spanning, fast-publishing enterprise with state-of-the-art observatories, from master–pupil teaching to university-based education, and from learning from often ancient books to modern observation-based investigations. Less

SETI and the Christian Understanding of Creation

David Wilkinson

in Science, Religion, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

The possible success of SETI is considered in terms of its impact on the Christian understanding of creation. This consists of two main aspects—the first being a new view of God as creator, and then ... More

The possible success of SETI is considered in terms of its impact on the Christian understanding of creation. This consists of two main aspects—the first being a new view of God as creator, and then second, a new view of being human. The discovery of both intelligent and non-intelligent life is considered, and biblical doctrines are reviewed in this light. It is suggested that far from being a problem for Christian theology, Christian theology encourages SETI and indeed may favour the existence of other life in the Universe.Less

Optimization and Its Limits

Yakov Ben-Haim

in The Dilemmas of Wonderland: Decisions in the Age of Innovation

Innovation dilemmas often result from seeking optimal—that is, minimal or maximal—outcomes. However, uncertainty sometimes makes outcome optimization infeasible or unwise. Human progress originates ... More

Innovation dilemmas often result from seeking optimal—that is, minimal or maximal—outcomes. However, uncertainty sometimes makes outcome optimization infeasible or unwise. Human progress originates in our thirst for improvement. However, our ability to predict the outcome quality of the options is limited when our knowledge is severely curtailed. We simply can’t know which option will be optimal. Furthermore, seeking the best outcome sometimes becomes a moral imperative of its own, regardless of substantive needs. Optimization is then a goal in itself, leading to misuse of an otherwise worthy idea. We begin by discussing the modern paradigm of optimization—the laws of physics—and then discuss three ways in which seeking optimal solutions may go astray. After distinguishing between substantive and procedural optimization, we will see that outcome optimizers inadvertently minimize the robustness against uncertainty.Less

The neural origins of a sense of self with a brief note on free will

Ray Guillery

in The Brain as a Tool: A Neuroscientist's Account

This chapter is limited to a brief discussion of a sense of self, based on points that relate to the neural mechanisms discussed in previous chapters, in order to illustrate some important ... More

This chapter is limited to a brief discussion of a sense of self, based on points that relate to the neural mechanisms discussed in previous chapters, in order to illustrate some important differences between the standard view and the integrative sensorimotor view of the self. I will treat the sense of self as produced by a temporal sequence of related perceptions that lead to ‘unconscious conclusions’ about the self. I shall address two major questions: (1) does our ability to anticipate our own actions contribute to a sense of self? Providing a clear ‘yes’. (2) Is our sense of self limited to the boundaries of our own bodies, and to the neural signals we receive from them? Providing a clear ‘no’. I will briefly address our sense of the self as agent, recognizing that this extends significantly beyond the content of this book.Less

In Mill Hollow: Nature as the Great Machine

Daniel B. Botkin

in The Moon in the Nautilus Shell: Discordant Harmonies Reconsidered

This chapter examines the mechanical view of nature by focusing on Chase's Mill, a water-powered mill located on the outflow of Warren's Pond in East Alstead, New Hampshire. It first considers the ... More

This chapter examines the mechanical view of nature by focusing on Chase's Mill, a water-powered mill located on the outflow of Warren's Pond in East Alstead, New Hampshire. It first considers the emergence of the perspectives of the new mechanical age as an alternative to the organic view of nature during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It then traces the origins of the machine age perspective on nature and how it was reinforced by discoveries and observations about Earth's surface and the life on that surface. It also discusses three consequences of the rise of the mechanical worldview: recognition of the power of the new laws of physics; the rise of machines such as the steam engine, the steam train, the paddlewheel boat, and the sewing machine; the mechanistic view offered a new kind of theological perspective.Less