26
Anthropic Principle
We know that the laws of physics have been determined by the meticulous
work of many scientific geniuses down through the centuries. They have
determined the nature of forces and matter in great detail. A philosophical
question that one can ask is: do the observers play a role in determining the
laws of nature, including all their features, such as the strength of forces, how
matter reacts to forces, or they are all determined in a completely objective
manner with the observer having nothing to do with it? This discussion led to
the enunciation of a principle called the “anthropic principle” in physics. This
phrase was coined by Brandon Carter in 1974 [28], although the basic idea goes
back to Herman Weyl [103]. This was elaborated in a book by John Barrow
and Frank Tipler [19]. There were also several discussions of this idea before
1974. For example, “Dirac’s large number hypothesis” in 1937 and Arthur
Eddington’s “large number coincidences” were also examples of the anthropic
principle in different names. Also, in 1954, Fred Hoyle observed that there
must exist a state of the carbon-12 nucleus if the universe as we know it could
exist at all, a state which was discovered in the next 4 years (see later for a
discussion of this).
26.1 Why Go Anthropic?
The basic idea behind the anthropic principle can be stated as follows: the
laws of physics and some of the parameters of physics are the way they are
because humankind can exist to study them today. In other words, the universe
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. N. Mohapatra, The Neutrino Story: One Tiny Particle’s Grand Role in the Cosmos,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51846-2_26
197
Anthropic Principle
We know that the laws of physics have been determined by the meticulous
work of many scientific geniuses down through the centuries. They have
determined the nature of forces and matter in great detail. A philosophical
question that one can ask is: do the observers play a role in determining the
laws of nature, including all their features, such as the strength of forces, how
matter reacts to forces, or they are all determined in a completely objective
manner with the observer having nothing to do with it? This discussion led to
the enunciation of a principle called the “anthropic principle” in physics. This
phrase was coined by Brandon Carter in 1974 [28], although the basic idea goes
back to Herman Weyl [103]. This was elaborated in a book by John Barrow
and Frank Tipler [19]. There were also several discussions of this idea before
1974. For example, “Dirac’s large number hypothesis” in 1937 and Arthur
Eddington’s “large number coincidences” were also examples of the anthropic
principle in different names. Also, in 1954, Fred Hoyle observed that there
must exist a state of the carbon-12 nucleus if the universe as we know it could
exist at all, a state which was discovered in the next 4 years (see later for a
discussion of this).
26.1 Why Go Anthropic?
The basic idea behind the anthropic principle can be stated as follows: the
laws of physics and some of the parameters of physics are the way they are
because humankind can exist to study them today. In other words, the universe
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. N. Mohapatra, The Neutrino Story: One Tiny Particle’s Grand Role in the Cosmos,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51846-2_26
197