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Cosmology and the Origin of Life
Fine Tuning the Cosmos: Identifying its essential Ingredients
600 BC
Greeks start to dissect the world into component pieces:
ORIGINAL IDEA ALERT:
Next step is to have a contest to see which of the four elements is really the most important (in modern cosmology we call this contest - Grand Unified Theory):
An Alternative to the idea that something is most important:
500 BC:
Democritus: The Universe consists of atoms and the Void;
all else is opinion and illusion
Collisions between atoms formed the Universe
The Universe runs by Itself
Quantum Mechanics has just been expressed. That is, the universe can exist without anyone in it
Now comes geometry and the concepts of perfection. Culturally this seems like a natural harmonious meld with the Cosmos:
Pythagoras
Geometry!
Aristotle introduces the Two Sphere Universe. This is a FINITE Universe that you can now draw the Universe on a piece of paper!
We have come a long way from the world view that everything had a common origin (e.g. the Cosmic Womb in the Mythic Universe):
Now the Universe has a hierarchy and their are RULERS. Some elements are more important than others. Some things have dominion over other things.
To top it off: The Earth lies at the
Center of the Two Sphere Universe and everything revolves around it
Clearly, imagination has now vanished. We have a deterministic
model of the Universe (e.g. two spheres) and we think that
all is figured out!
Huge Cultural Bias.
Now all is in harmony, the earth is at the center of the universe and the cosmos revolves around us in perfect contentment
Elements of the Universe at this time (Aristotle):
Problems:
Back to the Original Idea Alert:
Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (15th Century) through a lot about
cosmology and came up with the following;
The above two means there can be no UNIQUE place in the Universe
Copernicus embraces the non-uniqueness idea and then asks why should the earth be at the center - lets put the SUN there
Evolving Models of the Solar System and The Scientific Method:
Kepler's laws are only empirical they have
no dynamical basis. Therefore, they would appear to be magic as they
have no physical explanation (yet). (see page 16 in the book).