Max Tegmark, Which Mathematical Structure is Isomorphic to Our Universe?
In 1994 Lee Smolin advocated an alternative but equally mind-boggling idea, namely that the parameters of the Universe are tuned, not to permit intelligent life, but to maximize black hole production! The mechanism he proposes for this is a kind of cosmic Darwinian evolution, based on the (unproven) theory that universes beget new baby universes via black holes. For details, see: • Lee Smolin, The Life of the Cosmos, Crown Press, 1997. • Lee Smolin, The Fate of Black Hole Singularities and the Parameters of the Standard Models of Particle Physics and Cosmology. More recently, the string theorist Leonard Susskind has argued that the “string theory vacuum” which describes the laws of physics we see must be chosen using the Anthropic Principle: • Edge: The Landscape–a talk with Leonard Susskind.
