When a physicist says that a theory is fine-tuned, they mean that it must make a suspiciously precise assumption in order to explain a certain observation.
This is evidence that the theory is deficient or incomplete. One particular case of fine-tuning is particularly striking. The data in question are not the precise measurements of cosmology or particle physics, but a more general feature of our universe: it supports the existence of life. This chapter reviews this Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Life.
Luke A. Barnes
Comments: 15 pages, 1 figure. Invited contribution to the Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Physics, edited By Eleanor Knox, Alastair Wilson
Subjects: History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph); Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
Cite as: arXiv:2110.07783 [physics.hist-ph] (or arXiv:2110.07783v1 [physics.hist-ph] for this version)
Submission history
From: Luke Barnes
[v1] Fri, 15 Oct 2021 00:42:42 UTC (30 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.07783
Astrobiology
