[extropy-chat] intelligent design homework

[Robin Hanson]

At 04:13 AM 8/9/2005, scerir at libero.it wrote:
>Robert M. Wald [1][2], in his recent paper "The Arrow
>of Time and the Initial Conditions of the Universe" [3],
>reminds us that the state of the very early universe
>was one of very low entropy. At the end of the paper
>he suggests that he lacks an answer, exactly like Boltzmann
>many and many decades ago, as to why this is the case.
>But he is also suggesting not to look at dynamics
>(i.e. inflation) and philosophy (i.e. anthropic principles)
>for a solution of this Boltzmann's 'paradox' (early universe
>full of randomness ... at global low entropy state). ...
>[1] Wald, R. M., 'General Relativity',
>University of Chicago Press, 1984.
>[2] Wald, R. M., 'Space, Time, and Gravity: The Theory
>of the Big Bang and Black Holes', University of Chicago
>Press, 1977.
>[3] http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc/0507094

I prefer these thoughtful commentaries on the subject:
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0210527
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-th/0405270



Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323