Cosmological Natural Selection

This document is the Special Issue of the First International Conference on the Evolution and Development of the Universe (EDU 2008). Please refer to the preface and introduction for more details on the contributions. Keywords: acceleration, artificial cosmogenesis, artificial life, Big Bang, Big History, biological evolution, biological universe, biology, causality, classical vacuum energy, complex systems, complexity, computational universe, conscious evolution, cosmological artificial selection, cosmological natural selection, cosmology, critique, cultural evolution, dark energy, dark matter, development of the universe, development, emergence, evolution of the universe evolution, exobiology, extinction, fine-tuning, fractal space-time, fractal, information, initial conditions, intentional evolution, linear expansion of the universe, log-periodic laws, macroevolution, materialism, meduso-anthropic principle, multiple worlds, natural sciences, Nature, ontology, order, origin of th...

In this fascinating journey to the edge of science, Vidal takes on big philosophical questions: Does our universe have a beginning and an end or is it cyclic? Are we alone in the universe? What is the role of intelligent life, if any, in cosmic evolution? Grounded in science and committed to philosophical rigor, this book presents an evolutionary worldview where the rise of intelligent life is not an accident, but may well be the key to unlocking the universe's deepest mysteries. Vidal shows how the fine-tuning controversy can be advanced with computer simulations. He also explores whether natural or artificial selection could hold on a cosmic scale. In perhaps his boldest hypothesis, he argues that signs of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are already present in our astrophysical data. His conclusions invite us to see the meaning of life, evolution and intelligence from a novel cosmological framework that should stir debate for years to come.

""Latest version: http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.1648

Where does it all come from? Where are we going? Are we alone in the universe? What is good and what is evil? The scientific narrative of cosmic evolution demands that we tackle such big questions with a cosmological perspective. I tackle the first question in Chapters 4, 5 and 6; the second in Chapters 7 and 8; the third in Chapter 9 and the fourth in Chapter 10. However, where do we start to answer such questions wisely? Doing so requires a methodological discipline mixing philosophical and scientific approaches.
In Chapter 1, I elaborate the concept of worldview, which is defined by our answers to the big questions. I argue that we should aim at constructing comprehensive and coherent worldviews. In Chapter 2, I develop criteria and tests to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of different worldviews. In Chapter 3, I apply those methodological insights to religious, scientific and philosophical worldviews.
In Chapter 4, I identify seven fundamental challenges to any ultimate explanation of the origin of the universe: epistemological, metaphysical, thermodynamical, causal, infinity, free parameters and fine-tuning. I then analyze the question of the origin of the universe upside down and ask: what are the origins of our cognitive need to find an explanation of this origin? I conclude that our explanations tend to fall in two cognitive attractors, the point and the cycle. In Chapter 5, I focus on the free parameters issue, namely that there are free parameters in the standard model of particle physics and in cosmological models, which in principle can be filled in with any number. I analyze the issue within physical, mathematical, computational and biological frameworks.
Chapter 6 is an in depth analysis of the fine-tuning issue, the claim that those free parameters are further fine-tuned for the emergence of complexity. I debunk common and uncommon physical, probabilistic and logical fallacies associated with this issue. I distinguish it from the closely related issues of free parameters, parameter sensitivity, metaphysical issues, anthropic principles, observational selection effects, teleology and God's existence. I conclude that fine-tuning is a conjecture, and that we need to study how common our universe is compared to other possible universes. This study opens a research endeavor that I call artificial cosmogenesis. Inspired by Drake's equation in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, I extend this equation to the Cosmic Evolution Equation, in order to study the robustness of the emergence of complexity in our universe, and whether or to what extent it is fine-tuned. I then review eight classical explanations of fine-tuning (skepticism, necessity, fecundity, god-of-the-gaps, chance-of-the-gaps, weak-anthropic-principle-of-the-gaps, multiverse and design) and show their shortcomings.
In Chapter 7, I show the importance of artificial cosmogenesis from extrapolating the future of scientific simulations. I analyze two other evolutionary explanations of fine-tuning in Chapter 8. More precisely, I show the limitations of Cosmological Natural Selection to motivate the broader scenario of Cosmological Artificial Selection.
In Chapter 9, I set up a new research field to search for advanced extraterrestrials, high energy astrobiology. After developing criteria to distinguish natural from artificial systems, I show that the nature of some peculiar binary star systems needs to be reassessed because of thermodynamical, energetic and civilizational development arguments which converge towards them being advanced extraterrestrials. Since those putative beings feed on stars, I call them starivores. The question of their artificiality remains open, but I propose concrete research projects and a prize to further continue and motivate the scientific assessment of this hypothesis.
In Chapter 10, I explore foundations to build a cosmological ethics. I build on insights from thermodynamics, evolution, and developmental theories. Finally, I examine the idea of immortality with a cosmological perspective and conclude that the ultimate good is the infinite continuation of the evolutionary process. Appendix I is a summary of my position, and Appendix II provides argumentative maps of the entire thesis.

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This document is the Special Issue of the First International Conference on the Evolution and Development of the Universe (EDU 2008). Please refer to the preface and introduction for more details on the contributions. Keywords: acceleration, artificial cosmogenesis, artificial life, Big Bang, Big History, biological evolution, biological universe, biology, causality, classical vacuum energy, complex systems, complexity, computational universe, conscious evolution, cosmological artificial selection, cosmological natural selection, cosmology, critique, cultural evolution, dark energy, dark matter, development of the universe, development, emergence, evolution of the universe evolution, exobiology, extinction, fine-tuning, fractal space-time, fractal, information, initial conditions, intentional evolution, linear expansion of the universe, log-periodic laws, macroevolution, materialism, meduso-anthropic principle, multiple worlds, natural sciences, Nature, ontology, order, origin of th...

Contents Preface 5 List of contributors 7 Introduction 9 Acknowledgements 14 Part I-Physics and Cosmology Scale Relativity and Fractal Space-Time: Theory and Applications Laurent Nottale 15 Scale Relativity: an Extended Paradigm for Physics and Biology? Commentary by Charles Auffray and Denis Noble 80 Multiscale Integration in Scale Relativity Theory Response by Laurent Nottale 83 The Self-organization of Time and Causality: steps towards understanding the ultimate origin Francis Heylighen 87 Symmetries and Symmetry-breakings: the fabric of physical ...

In this philosophical paper, we explore computational and biological analogies to address the fine-tuning problem in cosmology. We first clarify what it means for physical constants or initial conditions to be fine-tuned. We review important distinctions such as the dimensionless and dimensional physical constants, and the classification of constants proposed by Levy-Leblond. Then we explore how two great analogies, computational and biological, can give new insights into our problem. This paper includes a preliminary study to examine the two analogies. Importantly, analogies are both useful and fundamental cognitive tools, but can also be misused or misinterpreted. The idea that our universe might be modelled as a computational entity is analysed, and we discuss the distinction between physical laws and initial conditions using algorithmic information theory. Smolin introduced the theory of "Cosmological Natural Selection" with a biological analogy in mind. We examine an extension of this analogy involving intelligent life. We discuss if and how this extension could be legitimated.

Keywords: origin of the universe, fine-tuning, physical constants, initial conditions, computational universe, biological universe, role of intelligent life, cosmological natural selection, cosmological artificial selection, artificial cosmogenesis.

Please refer to the preface and introduction for more details on the contributions.

Keywords: acceleration, artificial cosmogenesis, artificial life, Big Bang, Big History, biological evolution, biological universe, biology, causality, classical vacuum energy, complex systems, complexity, computational universe, conscious evolution, cosmological artificial selection, cosmological natural selection, cosmology, critique, cultural evolution, dark energy, dark matter, development of the universe, development, emergence, evolution of the universe evolution, exobiology, extinction, fine-tuning, fractal space-time, fractal, information, initial conditions, intentional evolution, linear expansion of the universe, log-periodic laws, macroevolution, materialism, meduso-anthropic principle, multiple worlds, natural sciences, Nature, ontology, order, origin of the universe, particle hierarchy, philosophy, physical constants, quantum darwinism, reduction, role of intelligent life, scale relativity, scientific evolution, self-organization, speciation, specification hierarchy, thermodynamics, time, universe, vagueness.

Contents Preface 5 List of contributors 7 Introduction 9 Acknowledgements 14 Part I-Physics and Cosmology Scale Relativity and Fractal Space-Time: Theory and Applications Laurent Nottale 15 Scale Relativity: an Extended Paradigm for Physics and Biology? Commentary by Charles Auffray and Denis Noble 80 Multiscale Integration in Scale Relativity Theory Response by Laurent Nottale 83 The Self-organization of Time and Causality: steps towards understanding the ultimate origin Francis Heylighen 87 Symmetries and Symmetry-breakings: the fabric of physical ...

In this paper, an evolutionary multiverse argument against naturalism (EMAAN) is presented: E1. In an evolutionary multiverse, phenomena have variable evolutionary ages. E2. After some time T, the development of the empirical sciences will be evolutionarily conserved. E3. The phenomena with an evolutionary age above T are methodologically supernatural. Entities are classified according to whether they are (1) physical and spatiotemporal, (2) causally efficacious, and (3) either observed by or explanatorily necessary for the empirical sciences. While the conjunction of (1) and (2) is taken to be sufficient for existence in reality, the negation of (3) defines methodological supernaturalness. EMAAN uses a generalization of evolutionary theory, namely cosmological natural selection, to argue that phenomena evolve that fulfill conditions (1) and (2), but not (3). This shows that methodologically supernatural phenomena have a clear epistemology according to a theory that is grounded in the commitments of naturalism. Supernatural phenomena are not observed by the empirical sciences because the empirical sciences themselves are supernaturally guided and predestined to develop according to an evolutionarily conserved plan. In spite of this scientific plan, there is room for afterlives and supernaturality in the everyday experience.

Contents Preface 5 List of contributors 7 Introduction 9 Acknowledgements 14 Part I-Physics and Cosmology Scale Relativity and Fractal Space-Time: Theory and Applications Laurent Nottale 15 Scale Relativity: an Extended Paradigm for Physics and Biology? Commentary by Charles Auffray and Denis Noble 80 Multiscale Integration in Scale Relativity Theory Response by Laurent Nottale 83 The Self-organization of Time and Causality: steps towards understanding the ultimate origin Francis Heylighen 87 Symmetries and Symmetry-breakings: the fabric of physical ...