Andrey Cherepanov - The Universe Green Door: Metaphysical Journey into the deepest Mysteries of the Universe

There are three riddles associated with the peculiar meaningfulness of the universe.

1. Structured Nature of the Universe

The parameters of our universe (the strength of electromagnetic and strong nuclear interactions, the gravitational constant, the cosmological constant, the mass of the proton, and a number of others) are tuned in the finest way possible, enabling the existence of galaxies, stars, planets, and living organisms. This unique setting of parameters is conventionally explained through the anthropic principle. According to this principle, there are many lifeless alternative universes whose physical parameters lead to desolate worlds, in which there is nothing but radiation. We, according to the anthropic principle, were lucky to be in one of the worlds conducive to life. But, our existence is not the outcome of Divine Providence. To put it simply, in the context of the infinite number of lifeless worlds, sooner or later, one of them should have been fortunate with the physical parameters that make life possible.

2. The Phenomenon of Evolution

Darwin's theory of evolution is another instance of science's appeal to extraordinary luck. According to this theory, the emergence of the most complex living forms is due to the will of chance a result of random, successful mutations of the genetic code. However, a simple assertion of combinatorics put an end to Darwinism, namely, its statement about the allegedly creative role of random mutations. In most cases, mutations are either useless or lead to degradation: genetic defects, cancer, and so on. At the same time, the creation of new, useful functionality in the body requires the programming of kilobytes of genetic code, which is unattainable through blind sampling. It is stated that evolution accidentally stumbles upon "successful" chains of code, which, in principle, are present in large amounts, and some of them, sooner or later, end up being discovered. However, the entire problem in this regard is that the number of useless chains is immeasurably greater!

Let's consider an example of acquisition by living creatures of the ability of active flight. The active flight was evolutionarily preceded by passive flight the so-called "gliding". The gliders, beings with the ability of passive flight, had to discover a genetic chain that would grant them the ability of active flight (in practice, the changes affect not one but a lot of genes; but, the mathematical complexity, and therefore the probability assessment, is not affected by this).

The difference between passive and active flight is immense. The latter requires appropriate changes in the skeleton and, most importantly, the brain. For an active, guided flight, the ability to coordinate the movement of the wings is required, which, in turn, requires a reconstruction of the nervous system. Moreover, in the process of evolution from passive to active flight, there are no beneficial intermediate steps! For gliders, the action of waving their limbs is of no use this only worsens their gliding, and they will not be able to fly actively anyway.

Suppose that the genetic chain providing the ability to active flight consists of only 1000 nucleotides (this is more than a conservative estimate). Thus, the evolution has to find one of the sets of genetic chains, 1000 elements in length, which transform the skeletons and brains of the gliders to meet the requirements of active flight.