richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion

146 r H v (., o )> i' i i. r s!
recent evidence is starting to steer us away from the big crunch
model. It now looks as though our own universe is destined to
expand for ever.
Another theoretical physicist, Lee Smolin, has developed a
tantalizingly Darwinian variant on the multiverse theory, including
both serial and parallel elements. Smolin's idea, expounded in The
Life of the Cosmos, hinges on the theory that daughter universes
are born of parent universes, not in a fully fledged big crunch but
more locally in black holes. Smolin adds a form of heredity: the
fundamental constants of a daughter universe are slightly 'mutated'
versions of the constants of its parent. Heredity is the essential
ingredient of Darwinian natural selection, and the rest of Smolin's
theory follows naturally. Those universes that have what it takes to
'survive' and 'reproduce' come to predominate in the multiverse.
'What it takes' includes lasting long enough to 'reproduce'. Because
the act of reproduction takes place in black holes, successful
universes must have what it takes to make black holes. This ability
entails various other properties. For example, the tendency for
matter to condense into clouds and then stars is a prerequisite to
making black holes. Stars also, as we have seen, are the precursors
to the development of interesting chemistry, and hence life. So,
Smolin suggests, there has been a Darwinian natural selection of
universes in the multiverse, directly favouring the evolution of
black hole fecundity and indirectly favouring the production of life.
Not all physicists are enthusiastic about Smolin's idea, although the
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann is quoted as saying:
'Smolin? Is he that young guy with those crazy ideas? He may
not be wrong.' 70 A mischievous biologist might wonder whether
some other physicists are in need of Darwinian consciousnessraising.
It is tempting to think (and many have succumbed) that to
postulate a plethora of universes is a profligate luxury which should
not be allowed. If we are going to permit the extravagance of a
multiverse, so the argument runs, we might as well be hung for
a sheep as a lamb and allow a God. Aren't they both equally unparsimonious
ad hoc hypotheses, and equally unsatisfactory?
People who think that have not had their consciousness raised by
natural selection. The key difference between the genuinely