Book contents
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Physical cosmology: A brief introduction
- Part II Discovery of the CMB and current cosmological orthodoxy
- Part III What constitutes an unorthodoxy? An epistemological framework of cosmology
- Part IV Moderate unorthodoxies: The CMB with the Big Bang
- Part V Radical unorthodoxies: The CMB without the Big Bang
- Part VI Formation of the orthodoxy and the alternatives: Epistemological lessons
- Part VII Other philosophically relevant aspects of the CMB
- 28 CMB and Copernicanism
- 29 The “problem of other observers” and anthropic reasoning
- 30 The nature of boundary conditions in cosmology, the CMB, and the “laws of nature”
- 31 The CMB and the multiverse
- Book part
- Notes
- References
- Index
29 - The “problem of other observers” and anthropic reasoning
from Part VII - Other philosophically relevant aspects of the CMB
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 July 2024
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- The Cosmic Microwave Background
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Physical cosmology: A brief introduction
- Part II Discovery of the CMB and current cosmological orthodoxy
- Part III What constitutes an unorthodoxy? An epistemological framework of cosmology
- Part IV Moderate unorthodoxies: The CMB with the Big Bang
- Part V Radical unorthodoxies: The CMB without the Big Bang
- Part VI Formation of the orthodoxy and the alternatives: Epistemological lessons
- Part VII Other philosophically relevant aspects of the CMB
- 28 CMB and Copernicanism
- 29 The “problem of other observers” and anthropic reasoning
- 30 The nature of boundary conditions in cosmology, the CMB, and the “laws of nature”
- 31 The CMB and the multiverse
- Book part
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
The chapter starts with a discussion of the minimal definition of anthropic reasoning that avoids the usual confusions – the biases due to us being evolved intelligent observers. Anthropic reasoning led to mundane important conclusions about some key parameters of the universe in the work of Hoyle and other pioneers. The chapter discusses a deep connection with the justifications of the violation of the cosmological principle. It also discusses Aguirre’s study of habitable regions in the parameter space of cold Big Bangs in the early 2000s. Finally, it briefly addresses some CMB problems that stem from anthropic reasoning and typicality of the observer.
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- The Cosmic Microwave BackgroundHistorical and Philosophical Lessons, pp. 157 - 160Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024