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Topic: Anthropic bias

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	anthropic principle - Article and Reference from OnPedia.com
		The anthropic principle in its most basic form states a truism: that any valid theory of the universe must be consistent with our existence as carbon-based human beings at this particular time and place in the universe.
		The term "anthropic principle" was first proposed in 1973 by Brandon Carter during the symposium "Confrontation of Cosmological Theories with Observational Data" in Krakw celebrating Copernicus’ 500th birthday, as if to proclaim that humanity does hold a special place in the universe after all.
		Papers have been written arguing that the anthropic principle would explain the physical constants such as the fine structure constant, the number of dimensions in the universe, and the cosmological constant.
	www.onpedia.com /encyclopedia/Anthropic-principle (1391 words)

	Anthropic bias - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Anthropic bias, coined by the philosopher Nick Bostrom, is the bias arising when "your evidence is biased by observation selection effects".
		This is, basically an extreme generalisation of the confirmation bias and the cognitive bias, involving not only mind-set, memory and methodology, but the whole way in which one sees oneself as an entity investigating an environment.
		He noted that being a human on one planet was not a bias that could be easily overcome, and noted the necessity of considering the point of view of other, less "anthropic", species.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Anthropic_bias (615 words)

	Why Are We Here? Theoreticians Debate the Fundamentals
		The idea known as the anthropic principle states that human existence is possible only if fundamental constants such as the speed of light or the strength of gravity are not higher or lower than what is observed.
		Scientists who support anthropic reasoning suggest they can understand fundamental properties of the universe by determining what conditions intelligent beings such as humans need to exist.
		Anthropic reasoning calculates the cosmological constant by first assuming that humanity needs a galaxy to exist.
	www.space.com /aol/061204_mm_anthropic_debate.html (625 words)

	Nick Bostrom - Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy - Reviewed by Neil Manson, ...
		In Chapter 3, Bostrom surveys the history of âthe anthropic principleâ â“ a term coined by Brandon Carter in 1974 to identify a principle to be used for reasoning in light of observational selection effects in the cosmological case.
		This means that a rational anthropic reasoner is free to reject a choice of reference class that leads to a paradoxical result of the sort discussed in Chapter 9.
		Anthropic Bias is a synthesis of some of the most interesting and important ideas to emerge from discussion of cosmic fine-tuning, the anthropic principle, and the Doomsday Argument.
	ndpr.nd.edu /review.cfm?id=1183 (1964 words)

	Anthropic Principle and the Theory of Everything - Anthropic Principle - Theory of Everything - Thermodynamics - ...
		That justifies the selection effect, in this case, because anthropic bias is supposed to be an innate characteristic of the universe.
		A valid natural design hypothesis can be derived from the anthropic bias of Entropic Favoritism toward intelligent life, where it is observationally proven that order increases with the potential for grand-scale entropic efficiency.
		This includes humans in all their glory, and the weak entropic anthropic argument would support this via the fact that it is observationally proven that the human is comparitively one of nature's more preferred methods for satisfying the second law of thermodynamics...
	www.geocities.com /naturescience/AnthropicBias.html (891 words)

	Post-Agnostic Science: How Physics Is Reviving The Argument From Design
		If, for example, we were able to deduce all of the anthropic values of the fundamental constants from some very simple, all-encompassing Grand Theory of Everything, we would still be faced with a new form of anthropic coincidence: explaining why the actual laws of nature force all of the constants to take anthropic values.
		One day, the Stranger discovers the anthropic coincidences, and assuming that they must have a causal explanation, finds that he is forced to introduce a new kind of explanation into his science, one in which a state can be caused, in part, by the tendency of that state to cause some further effect.
		Anthropic universes presumably fall into a range: in some cases the range of permitted values around the actual value is extremely narrow, and in other cases the local range is much wider (relatively speaking).
	www.leaderu.com /offices/koons/docs/svsu.html (9541 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-10)
		Carter defined the "anthropic principle" as the axiom that "what we can expect to observe must be restricted by the conditions necessary for our presence as observers." Carter's insight has been the source of intrigue and controversy since its publication.
		Perhaps anthropic bias in global warming science could be gleaned, by analogy, by looking at Bostrom's example of the selection effect bias of the investor.
		Under such an analysis, the assertion that anthropogenic factors are necessary for the existence of global warming is equivalent to the anthropic principle cosmologist's claim that anthropic observation is necessary for the existence of the universe.
	myweb.lmu.edu /tshanahan/GabrielPaper.doc (1904 words)

	Robert C. Koons: Phl 356 Lecture #11
		The existence of "anthropic coincidences" was first discovered in the early 1970's by cosmologist Branden Carter.
		An anthropic coincidence consists of some feature of the laws of nature, the fundamental constituents of matter, or the initial condition of the universe that had to take a value within some interval in order for life (and hence, for human observers) to exist at all.
		These coincidences can be grouped into several categories: (i) features of the fundamental laws of nature, including the relative strengths of fundamental forces and other physical constants, (ii) characteristics of the fundamental particles of matter, (iii) the size, degree of flatness and smoothness, and rate of expansion of matter emerging from the big bang.
	www.leaderu.com /offices/koons/docs/lec11.html (3805 words)

	Cosmologists expose flaws in anthropic reasoning
		The three lines represent the anthropically predicted probability density distribution as a function of R, the ratio of the cosmological constant in another part of the multiverse to that in our Universe in Starkman and Trotta’s MANO scheme.
		Finally, the result which this anthropic reasoning gives: Starkman and Trotta measure that the probability of the anthropically predicted lambda being greater than or equal to the currently observed value (about 0.7) is one in 100,000.
		Secondly, as the scientists write, anthropic reasoning depends heavily “on poorly understood microphysical processes involved in the evolution of life, especially of conscious beings interested in making observations of the fundamental constants.” Even expert biologists can hardly be sure of the various intelligence levels of animals on this planet.
	www.physorg.com /news83924839.html (2433 words)

	Anthropic principle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		In physics and cosmology, the anthropic principle is an umbrella term for various dissimilar attempts to explain the structure of the universe by way of coincidentally balanced features that are necessary and relevant to the existence on Earth of biochemistry, carbon-based life, and eventually human beings to observe such a universe.
		Proponents of the anthropic principle submit that the universe appears "fine-tuned" so as to permit life as we know it to exist, because were the universe not fine tuned in this fashion, human beings would not exist and hence could not observe the universe.
		Some forms of the anthropic principle have been criticized as an argument by lack of imagination for assuming that the only possible chemistry of life is one based on carbon compounds and liquid water (sometimes called "carbon chauvinism", see also alternative biochemistry).
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Anthropic (3821 words)

	Anthropic Principle.ORG - Anthropic Cosmological Principle and the Theory of Everything - Anthropic Principle - Theory ...
		Contrary to popular misconception by both sides, the anthropic principle represents an honest attempt by scientists to explain the structure of our universe from first principles, which is a lot more than one can say about the "uncertainly-rationalized" method of modern science.
		If the most accurate cosmological principle is anthropic in nature, then it is highly probable that the connection between the forces of the universe and humans also extends to the evolutionary process of humans and the universe to higher-orders of the same basic structure.
		Dirac noted that the number of baryons, (protons plus neutrons), in the universe is equal to the square of the gravitational constant, as well as the square of the age of the universe, (both expressed as dimensionless numbers).
	www.geocities.com /naturescience/index.html (5001 words)

	The anthropic principle: science, philosophy or guesswork? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-10)
		With this paragraph, the «weak anthropic principle» was born.
		In spite of the usual name, the anthropic principle obviously is not a «principle» in the usual scientific sense, as the principle of conservation of energy or the principle of minimal action are.
		The principal prediction attributed to anthropic reasoning is the existence of a long-lived excited state of the nucleus of carbon 12, the effect of which is to delay the conversion of carbon 12 into oxigen 16 (by combination with helium 4 nuclei), thus providing enough carbon in the cosmic mix to support carbon-based life.
	www.unav.es /cryf/veneciama.html (13493 words)

	Professor Stephen Hawking
		I shall adopt the no boundary proposal, and shall argue that the Anthropic Principle is essentia l, if one is to pick out a solution to represent our universe, from the whole zoo of solutions allowed by M theory.
		And I shall argue that the anthropic principle, is an essential third element.
		If one is going to have to appeal to the anthropic principle, one may as well use it also for the other fine tuning problems of the hot big bang.
	www.hawking.org.uk /lectures/quantum.html (4524 words)

	Anthropic principle - EvoWiki (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-10)
		The Anthropic principle in its most simple form simply states that, because humans exist, the universe must have the properties that humans can exist.
		Leibniz, Fred Hoyle) the first use of term "anthropic principle" was by Brandon Carter in 1973.
		Although creationists sometimes try to base their arguments on anthropic principles, the weak anthropic principle, anthropic bias and an infinite universe (or many-world theories) in fact can be used to refute creationists arguments.
	wiki.cotch.net /index.php/Anthropic_principle (215 words)

	The Anthropic Cosmological Principle. (Barrow and Tipler).
		Whenever the Anthropic Principle is used to explain away fine tuning, one can expect theists to object (4).
		On the other hand it is good to notice that Barrow and Tipler, considering their interest in designed features of the universe, do not think for a moment that the origin of life and the origin of humans needed (divine) intervention.
		Anthropic Reasoning and the Contemporary Design Argument in Astrophysics: A Reply to Robert Klee by Mark A. Walker and Milan M. Ćirković.
	home.wxs.nl /~gkorthof/kortho17.htm (2042 words)

	Relational Structures (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-10)
		The confirmation bias is the intuitive decision making process that sorts though a body of data and selects those that most confirm to what is already believed, and ignores or rationalizes away those that do not.
		However, there is no selection bias if S is a random sample of U and S is of sufficient size to insure that it is similar to U with respect to the property P (the sampling density S/U to achieve this is unspecified).
		The key difference between selection and observation bias is whether the theory of observation selection effects is necessary to model the bias.
	cs.wwc.edu /~aabyan/Theories/Structures.html (2125 words)

	11 Things that Fill Me with Awe
		From the strengths of gravity and the strong nuclear force, to the values for carbon resonance and the proton-neutron mass difference, to the existence of supernovae and water, most other universes we can imagine would be devoid of life.
		Some would accuse me of falling prey to an anthropic bias, correctly observing that if our universe wasn't able to support life that I wouldn't be here to observe that this was the case.
		I agree with John Leslie's response to this objection: if you suddenly woke up and found that you were in front of a firing squad which had fired at you and all missed, you would consider it remarkable, and deserving of an explanation, that you were alive.
	www.howtolive.org /awe.html (2481 words)

	Professor Stephen Hawking
		I shall adopt the no boundary proposal, and shall argue that the Anthropic Principle is essential, if one is to pick out a solution to represent our universe, from the whole zoo of solutions allowed by M theory.
		If there were several discrete solutions, or a continuous family of them, the strong dependence of the Euclidean action on the size of the instanton, would bias the probability to the lowest omega and fluctuation amplitude possible.
		Thus omega matter and omega lambda, could be somewhere in the anthropically allowed region, though it would be below the omega matter plus omega lambda =1 line, if the universe is one of these open analytical continuations.
	www.hawking.org.uk /text/physics/quantum.html (4500 words)

	B.I.P.E.D. :: Articles :: Darwin Part Two (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-10)
		The anthropic principle is based on a biological argument: the minimum time required for the evolution of "intelligent observers." In this scheme, a billion years is required for the evolution of intelligence; therefore, a star must have been stable for at least that long.
		The problem with this view, the anthropic principle, is we assume a closed system, based upon the Darwinian paradigm of the local evolution of consciousness on Earth as an independent and accidental event.
		The anthropic principle assumes the evolution of intelligence from non-organic matter, and extrapolates the time required for the evolution of "conscious observers" based on the presumed localized, one-of-a-kind, anomaly of Earth-based human evolution.
	www.biped.info /articles/darwin2.html (4758 words)

	The Physical Constants as Biosignature
		For instance, the "weak anthropic principle" is merely a tautological statement that since we happen to inhabit this particular cosmos it must perforce by life-friendly or else we would not be here to observe it.
		All anthropic cosmological interpretations share a common theme: a recognition that key constants of physics (as well as other physical aspects of our cosmos such as its dimensionality) appear to exhibit a mysterious fine-tuning that optimizes their collective bio-friendliness.
		In particular, it is often argued that the existence of an excited state of the carbon nucleus is a manifestation of fine-tuning of the constants of nature that allowed for the appearance of carbon-based life.
	www.kurzweilai.net /articles/art0647.html?m=1 (10515 words)

	Psybertron Asks » CRAP
		From a read of the first five on-line chapters of his book “Anthropic Bias” I’m still left with the impression that it’s still pretty obviously a tautology, even in its strongest forms.
		Often WAP is accused of the former and SAP of the latter.
		The weak version notes that human survival and evolution are entropically favored and enabled by the environment… the energy that we CAN expend in the direction of survival is “practically” expendable, always within the current limits of our technological capabilities, per the second law.
	www.psybertron.org /?p=1132 (1548 words)

	Not Even Wrong » Blog Archive » Wilczek Goes Anthropic
		So the anthropic people have found the code that is life in the universe, and in particular the kind of life that exists here on Earth.
		The anthropic principle fell from only one of these weirdly balanced coincidences, the vast number of these life-permitting “ecobalanced” conditions that have been discovered since that time serve to compound the significance exponentially by orders of magnitude with each additional coincidence that is discovered.
		This includes humans in all their glory, and the weak entropic anthropic argument would support this via the fact that it is observationally proven that the human is comparitively one of nature’s more preferred methods for efficiently dissipating energy at a regulated but increasing rate.
	www.math.columbia.edu /~woit/wordpress/?p=310 (16122 words)

	Anthropic Principle
		The Weak Anthropic Principle (WAP) tries to tie a precise statement to the notion that any cosmological observations made by astronomers are biased by an all-embracing selection effect: our own existence.
		In my opinion, the strong anthropic principle has a somewhat dubious character, and it tends to be invoked by theorists whenever they do not have a good enough theory to explain the observed facts (i.e.
		The weak anthropic principle, on the other hand, seems to me to be unexceptionable, provided that one is very careful about how it is used.
	www.dhushara.com /book/quantcos/anth/anth.htm (3721 words)

	[No title]
		Timing and processes of data collection and FSM formulation results in unknown levels of interdependency which is here named "Anthropic Bias (AB) ".
		The upshot of AB is that it produces a set of meaningful-to-humans artifacts which, while not part of the FSM, must be held as a proper subject of science as understood in a non-formalized intuitive way rather than modeled mathematically.
		The Anthropic Principle (AP) says that E (Mc2 (PDM +(FSM - AB) = HSM; read "the visible processes of an AC Mode energy-matter relation, real-time generates in human cognizance an emergent holistic science model of the universe that has three component parts that can never be precisely space-time correlated.
	www.angelfire.com /wi/HolisticScience/APEPCME.DOC (438 words)

	Proposed Anthropic Principle FAQ
		However, it should be noted that a sufficiently powerful supernatural principle or entity (deity) could sustain life in a universe with laws that are not "life-friendly," simply by virtue of that entity's will and power.
		The thrust of practically all "Intelligent Design" and Creationist arguments (excepting the anthropic argument and perhaps a few others) is to show ~F, since it is evident, we think, that if ~F then we cannot have both life and a naturalistic universe.
		But the error is that the anthropic argument does not undermine N, it supports N. They can have one of the prongs of their argument, but they can't have both.
	quasar.as.utexas.edu /anthropic.html (10055 words)

	The Reference Frame: The entropic principle
		The probability that the cosmological evolution will end up as a Universe with a particular shape of the hidden dimensions (and particular values of the fluxes) is determined by the (exponentiated) entropy of a corresponding fl hole whose geometry flows via the attractor mechanism to the given shape of the Universe near the horizon.
		Note that this contrasts sharply with the "anthropic principle" - which itself is not a principle, rather a lack of principles.
		In the anthropic principle, the corresponding probabilistic weight is determined by the ability of the Universe to support intelligent life.
	motls.blogspot.com /2005/02/entropic-principle.html (7459 words)

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