This rather difficult to understand principle wasit was formulated, first of all, as an argument for explaining some of the complex relations between the phenomena occurring in the world, including the explanation of the very fact of its origin and development. The initial hypothesis for its explanation is the statement that the world seems to us exactly as we see it, because in it we arose and are present as an observer. From the point of view of the natural sciences, the anthropic principle is intended to explain what must be the relationship between the fundamental physical and chemical parameters in order to promote the emergence of intelligent life.
The term "anthropic principle" was firstused in 1973 by the British physicist B. Carter. However, after its publication, many scholars noted that a similar idea had been formulated in other ways even earlier. In particular, it was first voiced as an anthropic principle in cosmology as early as 1955 in the USSR at a scientific conference on extragalactic astronomy. Among the scientists who proposed this idea were Soviet scientists G. M. Idlis, A. L. Zelmanov, American R. Dicke.
But it was Carter’s work that became the subject of a generalattention and marked the beginning of a detailed scientific understanding of this principle and its role in cognition. At the same time, the scientific community did not find a single point of view on the possibility of applying the idea in practical science. Only in 1988 a conference was held in Venice, at which for the first time the anthropic principle was the main subject of consideration, and which attracted the attention of a very wide range of people interested - from physicists to religious philosophers. After that, this topic was the subject of discussion in numerous scientific forums, and one way or another, even at conferences on narrow scientific issues, the discussion raised the question of what the anthropic principle asserts. Today, its application is extended to a very wide range of problems - from theology to extrapolar cosmology.
B.In his famous article, Carter highlighted two variants of the manifestation of the principle - strong and weak. The weak variant assumes that there are some constant values in the Universe that a person can observe only because he is there. And the opposite: there are different from the usual to us, the values of world constants where there is no observer (person) at the moment. Intuitive-everyday perception of this principle is expressed in something by the common saying: “well, where we are not”.
From the understanding of a strong variant of the manifestation of the principle it is necessary to draw a conclusion - the universe potentially has parameters that allow the mind to develop.
The anthropic principle in strong manifestation is well formulated by J. Wheeler, arguing that "observers are necessary for finding the universe of being."
The difference between the strong and weak variants is that the strong characterizes the world at all stages of its existence, and the weak only at those where the mind can originate only hypothetically.
Practical expression of the anthropic principleconsists in the assumption that the reality we observe and its laws are not unique, and therefore there is a probability of the existence of realities with other laws. At one time, the principle of anthropic in this interpretation was manifested at the discovery of non-Euclidean geometry, where the laws of the classical do not apply. The manifestation of anthropicism can be assumed in situations described by Einstein: the dependence of the passage of time on speed.
Physicists who studied the variants of the hypothetical existence in time and space of other universes, came to the following conclusions:
- during the constant changes that occurin the Universe, its parameters are also constantly changing, and therefore there may be such a combination of these parameters in which the appearance of intelligent life becomes inevitable;
- the same can happen in the framework of a single universe, in those places where its properties will develop into a favorable ratio;
- it is impossible to deny the hypothesis of the existence of a certain "multiverse" on the grounds that we do not observe it.
Thus, an attempt is made by using the principle of anthropicity to expand the field of scientific knowledge, bringing it beyond the limits of the prevailing laws of nature and the usual methodologies of their explanation.
