Welcome to The Goldilocks Variations

We humans live in a universe that is remarkably well-suited to our existence. In fact, it's suspiciously well-suited to us. Consider the following:

* Life depends on specific environmental conditions on Earth, especially with regard to the prevalence and properties of water.

* The Earth is just the right distance from the Sun to make life possible.

* The Earth is the right size to permit the existence of life.

* A small change in any of the fundamental physical constants would make the Universe radically different.

* If, for example, the strong nuclear force were 2% stronger than it is, this would drastically alter the physics of stars, and presumably preclude the existence of life on Earth.

* If the ratio of the strength of electromagnetism to the strength of gravity for a pair of protons were significantly smaller, only a small and short-lived universe could exist.

* If the strength of the force binding nucleons into nuclei were slightly smaller, only hydrogen could exist, and complex chemistry would be impossible. If it were slightly larger, no hydrogen would exist.

* If gravity were too strong compared with dark energy and the initial metric expansion, the universe would have collapsed before life could have evolved. On the other side, if gravity were too weak, no stars would have formed.

* If the cosmological constant was not extremely small, stars and other astronomical structures would not be able to form.

* If the ratio of the gravitational energy required to pull a large galaxy apart to the energy equivalent of its mass were too small, no stars could form. If it were too large, no stars could survive.

* If the number of spatial dimensions were 2 or 4, life could not exist.

* If the third-lowest energy state of the carbon-12 nucleus, were slightly lower or slightly larger, insufficient carbon would exist to support life.

Such conditions are called "Goldilocks" conditions. The name comes from the fairy tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where Goldilocks's porridge was "just right" between the extremes of "too hot" and "too cold" and Goldilocks's bed was "just right" between the extremes of "too hard" and "too soft".  Similarly, in the universe, the conditions must be "just right" between two often-close extremes for human beings to exist.

There are various explanations for the Goldilocks conditions in the universe:

* This is all pure coincidence.

* There are multiple universes, each with different characteristics. We happen to live in the one that has all the right conditions.

* Somehow, the eventual existence of humans retroactively influences the features of the universe to make the existence of humans possible. This is called the strong anthropic principle.

* This is all backwards: life has evolved to survive under the conditions of the universe.

* It's all backwards another way: if we humans didn't exist at all, we would not observe that the conditions weren't such to make us possible.

* There is some process that causes random values to converge to the values they have.

* We are part of a complex and convincing simulation.

* The universe was designed and created by some being or beings.

Here are my observations on these possibilities:

* Pure coincidence: In other words, this isn't suspicious at all. Nothing to see here. Move along, citizen. Sorry, but it is precisely by considering such highly suspicious situations that science advances.

* Multiple universes: There is no evidence for this. I'm not sure how it's even possible to have evidence for this.

* Humans make the universe happen this way: This makes no sense to me.

* Life has evolved under the conditions of the universe: Of course, but the conditions would still have to be there.

* No humans, no issue: Well, we do exist, so ...

* The universe is a simulation: Fooled me.

* Some process causes the values to converge: I think this is possible for some of these "coincidences", but we have no idea of what this meta-process might be. Also, there are many to explain.

* Designed and created universe: This seems obvious to me: it looks designed and acts designed, so, hey, maybe it's designed.

This blog will be devoted to research and developments in this area.

The title is a pun on the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach, because I expect there to be a number of variations on the theme that the universe is a designed and created thing.