{"id":627,"date":"2016-06-24T14:01:31","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T14:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/?p=627"},"modified":"2017-10-31T15:39:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T15:39:16","slug":"appendix-z42-the-goldilocks-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/?p=627","title":{"rendered":"APPENDIX Z42: The Goldilocks Dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
APPENDIX Z42:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Goldilocks Dilemma<\/div>\n
***<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cAs we were leaving, a stranger came up to me,
\n gentle\n <\/div>\n
and unassuming, and said, \u2018I\u2019ve just written a book
\n that\n <\/div>\n
I think you might \ue0c4nd interesting. If I may<\/span>, I\u2019ll send it to\n <\/div>\n
you.\u2019 I thanked him and some days later the book
\n arrived.\n <\/div>\n
It was called Just Six Numbers [\u00a9 2001<\/span><\/span><\/span>],
\n and with a\n <\/div>\n
shock of recognition I r<\/span>ealized
\n who the stranger was: Sir\n <\/div>\n
Martin, now Lord, Rees, Astr<\/span>onomer Royal, Master of\n <\/div>\n
T<\/span>rinity College, Cambridge
\n and President of the Royal\n <\/div>\n
Society<\/span>, the world\u2019<\/span>s oldest and most famous scienti\ue0c4c\n <\/div>\n
association. Sir Martin was, in other words,
\n Britain\u2019<\/span>s most\n <\/div>\n
distinguished scientist.<\/div>\n
The thesis of the book was that there ar<\/span>e six\n <\/div>\n
mathematical constants that determine the physical\n <\/div>\n
shape of the universe. Had any one of them been
\n even\n <\/div>\n
slightly differ<\/span>ent, the
\n universe as we know it would not\n <\/div>\n
exist. Nor would life. It was my \ue0c4rst glimpse into
\n the new\n <\/div>\n
cosmology and the string of recent discoveries of
\n how\n <\/div>\n
improbable our existence actually is. James Le
\n Fanu,\n <\/div>\n
in his 2009 book Why Us?<\/span>,
\n adds to this a slew of new\n <\/div>\n
\ue0c4ndings in neuroscience and genetics to suggest that
\n we\n <\/div>\n
are on the brink of a paradigm shift that will
\n overturn the\n <\/div>\n
scienti\ue0c4c materialism of the past two centuries.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
The new paradigm must also lead to a renewed<\/div>\n
interest in and sympathy for r<\/span>eligion in its broadcast\n <\/div>\n
sense, as a means of expressing wonder at the<\/div>\n
\u2018mysterium tremendum et fascinans\u2019 of the natural <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
world. It is not the least of the ironies of the
\n New\n <\/div>\n
Genetics and the Decade of the Brain that they
\n have\n <\/div>\n
vindicated the two main impetuses to religious
\n belief\n <\/div>\n
\u2013 the non-material reality of the human soul and\n <\/div>\n
the beauty and diversity of the living world \u2013
\n while\n <\/div>\n
confounding the principle tenets of materialism:
\n that\n <\/div>\n
Darwin\u2019<\/span>s \u2018r<\/span>eason for everything\u2019 explains the natural\n <\/div>\n
world and our origins, and that life can be
\n \u2018reduced\u2019\n <\/div>\n
to the chemical genes, the mind to the physical
\n brain.\n <\/div>\n
(James Le Fanu, Why Us?<\/span>,
\n p.258)\n <\/div>\n
There may be, in other wor<\/span>ds,
\n a new synthesis in\n <\/div>\n
the making. It will be very unlike the Greek
\n thought-\n <\/div>\n
world of the medieval scholastics with its emphasis
\n on\n <\/div>\n
changelessness and harmony<\/span>.
\n Instead it will speak about\n <\/div>\n
the emergence of order<\/span>,
\n the distribution of intelligence\n <\/div>\n
and information processing, the natur<\/span>e of self-organizing\n <\/div>\n
complexity<\/span>, the way
\n individuals display a collective\n <\/div>\n
intelligence that is a property of gr<\/span>oups, not just the\n <\/div>\n
individuals that comprise them, the dynamic of
\n evolving\n <\/div>\n
systems and what leads some to equilibrium, others
\n to\n <\/div>\n
chaos. Out of this will emerge new metaphors of
\n nature\n <\/div>\n
and humanity<\/span>, \ue0c5ourishing
\n and completeness.\u201d*\n <\/div>\n
*** Jonathan <\/span>Sacks, The <\/span>Great <\/span>Partnership, New <\/span>Y<\/span>ork: Random <\/span>House, Inc. <\/span>2011, pp.75-76<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
from the author \u2013<\/div>\n
As noted in the 2001 Sir Martin Rees book Just Six <\/span><\/div>\n
Numbers, there ar<\/span>e at least 6 cosmological constants, <\/span><\/div>\n
(and, actually maybe a dozen+) which, if adjusted by
\n even\n <\/div>\n
1 decimal point would preclude the cosmos having
\n life,\n <\/div>\n
among other things, as we know it.<\/div>\n
Thus, \u201clife\u201d \u2013 and existence \u2013 exists at the
\n \u201cknife-edge\u201d of\n <\/div>\n
the precision of these constants.<\/div>\n
By-and-large the scienti\ue0c4c community and the
\n theological\n <\/div>\n
community is<\/div>\n
not-quite-sure exactly how to understand this<\/div>\n
\u201csynchronicity<\/span>.\u201d<\/div>\n
However<\/span>, from Summa\u2019<\/span>s perspective the resolution is\n <\/div>\n
clear<\/span>. Obvious. The cosmic
\n order orients itself \u2013 and its\n <\/div>\n
crucial\/integral cosmological constants \u2013 to
\n advance\n <\/div>\n
inter<\/span>-related goals of
\n life, potential and extraor<\/span>dinariation.\n <\/div>\n
161 <\/span>APPENDIX<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

APPENDIX Z42: The Goldilocks Dilemma *** \u201cAs we were leaving, a stranger came up to me, gentle and unassuming, and said, \u2018I\u2019ve just written a book that I think you might \ue0c4nd interesting. If I may, I\u2019ll send it to you.\u2019 I thanked him and some days later the book arrived. It was called Just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":628,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions\/628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}