[ExI] Another very unusual number 1/137

[Jason Resch]

On Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 3:34 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> *From:* extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> *On Behalf
> Of *Jason Resch via extropy-chat
> *Subject:* Re: [ExI] Another very unusual number 1/137
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> Strangely almost every dimensionless constant, particle mass, even the
> dimensionality of space time, happens to falls in a narrow of range, beyond
> which life as we know it would have no chance in this universe. I write
> about all of these known coincidences here:
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> https://alwaysasking.com/is-the-universe-fine-tuned/
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> Jason
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> On Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 2:58 PM BillK via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
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> Life as we know it would not exist without this highly unusual number
> By Paul Sutter      published 24 March 2022
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> <https://www.space.com/fine-structure-constant-universe-mystery>
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> Quotes:
> …---------
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> Also see: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant>
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> BillK
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> Cool article Jason, thanks.  Very well written.
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Thanks!

As soon as we are backed into the corner of “…incredible luck, divine
> intervention, or otherwise…” we can be confident the answer is otherwise.
>
Yes, as Martin Rees describes the trilemma:

Coincidence, Providence, or Multiverse

Multiverse fitting in for "otherwise".

I do some Bayesian analysis at the end to try to get closer to an answer.


The constants you mention must be somehow locked to each other for
> instance, or there is some fundamental not-understood reason why they must
> be the value they are.  There are still scientific mysteries we don’t
> understand, and there are still mathematical mysteries.
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> Thru all this, we keep getting back to that notion that our existence, our
> perception, our everything is a simulation of some kind.  Of course that
> doesn’t answer the obvious questions: who wrote it, running on what, etc.
> But it would kinda explain why there are still these kinds of mysteries,
> such as why the fine structure constant and the way gravity works seem to
> be in perfect harmony.
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> That we got this far down here into history and still don’t know these
> things really pisses me off.
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I'm not sure that we can know, as I'm not sure there is necessarily even
one answer, for example, if reality is "big enough" then we are both within
and not within a computer simulation, as some of our (infinite)
incarnations would be in primitive physical universes, while other
incarnations would exist in silico (or equivalent computational substrate),
not to mention those that may exist in primitive platonic/mathematical
computations.

By Church-Turing Thesis, no computation/program can ever be certain of
(know) what its underlying hardware is. This is the property that makes
virtual machines and emulators possible (if you've ever played with such
things).

Jason

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