On Constants....

When we seek to explain the values of constants, we pick constants which are just plain numbers, because the ones tied to units (like the speed of light, a distance over time) are inherently intractable in their stubborn relationship with the units in which they are defined. Examples of unit-less constants would be the ratio of the masses of the muon and the electron, and the fine structure constant. But why are these constants constant, and why are they what they are?

One uneasy possibility is that physical reality contains domains with all sorts of different values for these constants, but that nobody is around to ask about them except in the rarefied subset of domains where they are just right to allow complex life to exist.

This is known as 'anthropic' reasoning (somewhat of a misnomer) , or more specifically in this case, as the “weak anthropic principle”, combined with a corollary assumption of the existence of other possible universes.

It is a postulate to which I subscribe, perhaps as much for my own entertainment as for any really good reason, but within which I find remarkable avenues of exploration and even occasional glimpses into the inner workings of the observable universe.

Of the many possibilities that this hints at, one of the most interesting is that we may not in fact be observers of a single universe, but rather of a narrow spectrum of possible universes that support our “continuity of consciousness”.

Continuity of consciousness is a concept I find useful to differentiate between three distinct types of possible universes:

1: Those in which we cannot exist at all

2: Universal states in we might be able to exist in a certain time or place, but which might not have supported our coming into existence in the first place, or support our existence from inception up to an arbitrarily short termination point, or support conditions favorable for existence only in an alternate frame of reference in space time, perhaps arbitrarily constrained.

3. Universes or universal states which support our existence end to end.

One interesting ramification of this is that at different moments or places (locations in space-time) we may be able to observe a slightly different spectra of universes, momentarily including those which specifically support our existence only momentarily.

I find it interesting to note the vague yet tangible connection between this idea and many of the less intuitive elements of quantum physics, such as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, the interference pattern of single photons with themselves, “spooky action”, and many other small hints.

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle illustrates, among many other more important things, the fact that for an arbitrarily short period of time (directly related to the mass of the elephant in question) we can not be entirely sure that we are not sharing the room with an elephant, and that we can even detect the presence of this virtual elephant in the pressure that is exerted outside of two objects spaced closely enough together to exclude the elephants wave-function.

What is perhaps even slightly more troubling is that even when we can see, touch, and smell said elephant, we cannot be so sure of his exact position in any given instant so as to completely exclude the possibility that he is, at least in part, on the far side of Io, in orbit around Neptune.

This is very tantalizing fodder for thinking in terms of a spectra of universal states, and as good an excuse as any for not going into work in the morning. After all, no one can really prove that you are not actually at work, at least in any given instant....

But I digress....

There are other possible ramifications of this that can be imagined... such as the possibility of (ever so slightly) influencing the spectra of observable universes by our physical state, our actions, or maybe even our thoughts......And what about all that dark matter and dark energy.... Could it be that things beyond our space-time event horizon can be observed in an expanded spectra, due to their inability to influence our existence? If the observable spectrum of universes becomes more permissive as it becomes distant in space or time, wouldn't that have energy, and therefore mass?

There are countless philosophical, cosmological, and even potentially theological implications for this idea, which can also be expanded into alternate “interpretations” of universal states, but that gets so far into philosophy that it almost becomes pointless to discuss except to push back the limits of dark knowledge, that which we do not yet know that we do not know.

Hmmmmm.