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I’m in the process of reading a book by Paul Davies called The Origin of Life, and in it, it seems apparent that life began quite suddenly after the Earth was created. 3.5 billion years ago or maybe even earlier. This to me seems to indicate a couple of extraordinary things about life. First is that not only doesn’t a planet need hospitable conditions for life to originate, but also alongside the evolving universe, life comes into existence shortly after the big bang. We could however, say that due to the enormous numbers of stars and potential planets existing in the universe there’s bound to be many planets harboring life, or people could just say that life is a highly improbable outcome.
But the view that life is a highly improbable outcome seems almost ridiculous, and if we still adopt the view that it is a rare event, we’re faced with the realization that it was a rare event that happened relatively shortly after the beginning of the universe.
If on the other hand we find that life is a crucial part of the universe, does this say anything about the universe itself being fine-tuned for life? And if so what role does life play in the universe?
Freeman Dyson (Dyson, 1988): “there are good scientific reasons for taking seriously the possibility, that life and intelligence can succeed in molding the universe … to their own purposes…It appears to me, that the tendency of mind to infiltrate and control matter is a law of nature.”
But the view that life is a highly improbable outcome seems almost ridiculous, and if we still adopt the view that it is a rare event, we’re faced with the realization that it was a rare event that happened relatively shortly after the beginning of the universe.
If on the other hand we find that life is a crucial part of the universe, does this say anything about the universe itself being fine-tuned for life? And if so what role does life play in the universe?
Freeman Dyson (Dyson, 1988): “there are good scientific reasons for taking seriously the possibility, that life and intelligence can succeed in molding the universe … to their own purposes…It appears to me, that the tendency of mind to infiltrate and control matter is a law of nature.”