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(The following was posted on the SciAm community site on 16 May 2008.)
One of the basic refrains of the Intelligent Design (ID) people is that the characteristics of the Universe were deliberately set, by some sort of intelligent “force,” so that life could originate. The ID argument is that relatively small changes in the specifications would make life impossible. This viewpoint is echoed in a book by Paul Davies, “Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe is Just Right for Life.” The explanation for the subtitle is that the biological ingredients have the optimum values needed to construct DNA molecules, and so forth.
For example: The four most important organic elements are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (CHON). They come together in a semi-infinite number of ways to form the ensemble of living creatures. But look more closely at any of these CHON atoms: at the center is a positively-charged nucleus, surrounded by negatively-charged electrons. We know how much the nucleus and electrons weigh; we know how strong the pull between positive and negative charges happens to be. But we don’t know why they have this weight, or why the charges yield a certain force value.
Because Davies thinks of himself as a scientist, he doesn’t really believe the ID stuff. On pp 195-198 we have a section titled “Intelligent Design in Biology Is Magic, Not Science.” But on p 268 he writes “Yet I do believe that life and mind are etched deeply into the fabric of the cosmos, perhaps through a shadowy, half-glimpsed life principle, and if I am to be honest I have to concede that this starting point is something I feel more in my heart than in my head. So maybe that is a religious conviction of sorts.”
The purpose of my essay is to put Davies out of his misery, so to speak, via a conjecture that explains the “just right for life” mantra without invoking an intelligent deity. It is, simply, that the natural “constants” are not constant, that they change with time.
The most representative natural “constant” is the speed of light, which is now 300 million meters/second (or 186,000 miles/second). I cite two important physicists whose thesis is that the velocity of light is not constant:
1) Allen Rothwarf, in “An Aether Model of the Universe,” Physics Essays, September 1998. (The “aether” is the medium that carries electromagnetic waves.)
2) Joao Magueijo, “Faster Than the Speed of Light: The Story of a Scientific Speculation,” Penguin Books, 2003.
The speed of light is determined by the “permeability” and “permittivity” of the aether. We have precise measurements of their present-day values, but we have not the slightest notion as to why they have these values. My conjecture is that these values, along with the characteristics of CHON atoms, keep changing slowly with time. There is no empirical data that support a change in the speed of light with time but, if it is true that the Universe is expanding, there is every reason to believe that the aether density decreases, and this changes the speed of light.
It is almost obvious, therefore, that the Universe has gone through various phases:
Phase 1: Extending from the Big Bang to time (t) = 6 billion years, life as we know it could not exist. Cosmologists in general agree that the Universe is 13.7 billion years old. My figure of 6 billion years, for the termination of Phase 1, is a wild guess. In this early phase of the Universe, the structures of CHON atoms were such that it was impossible for these atoms to stick together, in proper sequence, to form anything like a DNA (or RNA) molecule. Other complex molecules could form, but none of them were viable.
At t = 6 billion years, the velocity of light was 453 million m/s (based on equations derived in Rothwarf’s paper.)
Phase 2: Extending from t = 6 to 11.2 billion years, during which the Earth formed at 9.15 billion years, it was easy and natural for CHON atoms to stick to each other. Eventually, given the millions of places where a proper “soup” formed, and millions of years for molecules to grow as their atoms stuck together, the simplest of DNA (or RNA) molecules formed. Without any predators, the first living cell multiplied until all of the available chemical “food” or energy was consumed. Then the slow process of mutation, and survival of the fittest, began.
At t = 11.2 billion years, the velocity of light was 332 million m/s.
Phase 3: Extending from t = 11.2 to 20 billion years (the latter figure is another wild guess). This is the phase in which we now find ourselves. Mutations and survival of the fittest have, after some 4 billion years, given birth to homo sapiens. There creatures are very intelligent, and they know a great deal about DNA molecules, but they cannot synthesize the most primitive of viable cells. The reason is that the CHON atoms are different from what they were in Phase 2; they don’t stick together in a manner to form the simplest of living cells. There’s not much that can be done about it, because one cannot take a bottle filled with Phase 3 aether particles, and compress them to duplicate Phase 2 conditions. We cannot originate life, but we can propagate existing life.
At t = 20 billion years, the velocity of light will be 248 million m/s.
Phase 4: Extending from t = 20 billion years to infinity, the natural “constants” will change to the point where life becomes impossible. A living cell, in Phase 4, will not be able to function. Gradually, as the Earth goes from Phase 3 to Phase 4, the population of complex biological forms will decrease. Finally, even the simplest of cells will fail to reproduce. Life will end because CHON atoms will not be capable of forming viable combinations. Again, complex molecules can form, but none of them will be viable. Since the Sun is expected to explode at around t = 20 billion years, no “people” will be around to “enjoy” the spectacle.
Actually, if the natural “constants” change with time, it messes up all of the time values so that the Universe is not 13.7 billions old. The 4 phases remain, but with different intervals of time. Hopefully, the Intelligent Design notion, that some kind of intelligent force molded the Universe, is a nonsensical proposal that, also, will no longer be viable.