Q&A: How Can One Determine That a Law-System That Allows Life Is Rare?
How Can One Determine That a Law-System That Allows Life Is Rare?
Question
The claim that life is “rare” or “impossible” in most systems of laws is limited to our knowledge of life as we know it, or to models of physics that we are able to calculate.
True, if the strength of the strong force were a bit different, protons would not be stable or would not be formed at all, and then there would be no atoms either, and it is hard to imagine life without atoms—but that is true only according to our current model of physics and chemistry. Maybe other forms of life would simply develop? Life not based on carbon, molecules, or even linear time?
Answer
I have explained this more than once. Complexity is a completely objective matter, not a matter of impression. Entropy is one such objective measure. Scientists know how to estimate the entropy of a living creature, and it is much lower than that of inanimate matter. A system of laws that spontaneously produces such creatures is, by definition, very special—that is the very essence of entropy. The claim that complexities will always appear in every system of laws is incorrect, although many raise it. It is simply a misunderstanding. I discussed this question at length in The First Foundational Principle.