4 ms·

Carl Sagan once said: "If you want an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe". As I understand it from this article, it is saying: "Once yo

• Nevermark 11y ago
  "Once you invent the universe, then an apple pie will exist... given enough time." An interesting conjecture but not exactly provable! I assert that a universe is a necessary but not sufficient condition for apple pies.
  • Yen 11y ago
    The article is a bit hard to parse, here's my take on it Given a universe, in which the exact arrangement of particles that make up an apple pie is not physically impossible, it is physically possible for an apple pie to arise through the evolution of the universe, without requiring 'outside input'. (i.e., design or influence by some entity outside the universe). Furthermore, while it would be stupendously unlikely for an apple pie to arise completely by chance (imagine the odds of all the right atoms just happening to collide in the right way at the right time), it's not nearly as unlikely that some kind of self-replicator should arise, and this self-replicator could eventually generate an apple pie, or something of similar complexity.