Why is the universe so exquisitely balanced such that life can exist?
Based on the odds, we really shouldn’t be here. Galaxies, stars, planets and people are only possible in a universe that expanded at just the right speed during its early days. This expansion was governed by the outward push of dark energy warring with the inward gravitational pull of the universe’s mass, which is dominated by the invisible kind called dark matter. If these quantities were different—if dark energy had been just a tad stronger after the universe’s birth, for example, space would have expanded too fast for galaxies and stars to form. But a smidge less dark energy would have caused the universe to collapse in on itself. So why, asks Erik Ramberg of Fermilab in Batavia, Ill., are they so perfectly balanced to enable the universe we live in? “We don’t know of a fundamental reason why that balance should exist,” Ramberg says. “There’s no doubt that the amount of dark energy in the universe is the most exquisitely fine tuned number in the history of physics.”
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Whoever is doing the fine tuning is doing a lousy job because nearly ever inch of the universe that we've observed so far will kill carbon-based life. At the moment I don't know enough about dark matter to counter Mr. Ramberg's claim, but this guy seems to have a differing opinion on the topic. I don't understand half the stuff he says, so if you have questions about it you'll have to find the answers yourself. 1
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The universe is balanced for life of matter (solid object) however there might be life that is noncarporial (Pure energy), also given what we understand about multiverses and if that theroy holds true there might indeed be universes that have no matter, a universe where dark energy won the comic tug or war. What does it mean for the physical conditions of the universe to be 'exquisitely balanced'? Doesn't a verb such as 'balanced' imply that the properties of the universe could have been balanced in another way? But who says that the balance of dark matter and dark energy could have been different? No one. There's no proof that any other balance is possible. The 'why' in this question becomes meaningless because there's no reason to think that there's anything extraordinary about this balance. This balance might be the only possible one. Sure we can apply whatever human emotion we like to it, but to propose that we are somehow 'lucky' is based on no intelligible claim. |
