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In this case the Copernican principle is at odds with the anthropic principle. If there were only one place in the universe with intelligent life, then necessar
by DennisP 2y ago
In this case the Copernican principle is at odds with the anthropic principle. If there were only one place in the universe with intelligent life, then necessarily that's where we would be.
GP may be thinking of this paper, which uses a reasonable probability distribution for each parameter in the Drake equation, and finds a decent chance that there is no other technological civilization in the observable universe:
https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.02404 https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.02404
- jovial_cavalier 2y agoInvocations of the anthropic principle come with more baggage than may be realized. And I suppose, by extension, the Copernican principle too. https://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec17.html https://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec17.html
- DennisP 2y agoSome people take it way too far, but I think my invocation was just trivially true. We can't come to any conclusion about the prevalence of life elsewhere in the universe, just based on the fact that we exist.