Intelligent life in cosmology

Abstract

I shall present three arguments for the proposition that intelligent life is very rare in the universe. First, I shall summarize the consensus opinion of the founders of the modern synthesis (Simpson, Dobzhanski and Mayr) that the evolution of intelligent life is exceedingly improbable. Secondly, I shall develop the Fermi paradox: if they existed, they would be here. Thirdly, I shall show that if intelligent life were too common, it would use up all available resources and die out. But I shall show that the quantum mechanical principle of unitarity (actually a form of teleology!) requires intelligent life to survive to the end of time. Finally, I shall argue that, if the universe is indeed accelerating, then survival to the end of time requires that intelligent life, though rare, to have evolved several times in the visible universe. I shall argue that the acceleration is a consequence of the excess of matter over antimatter in the universe. I shall suggest experiments to test these claims.