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For centuries scientists and especially physicists have believed that we would be able to show
why our universe is as it is as a necessary consequence of certain fundamental principles
and laws. Like finding -- having a crossword puzzle with only one solution, the given certain
very fundamental principles like the law of conservation of energy that there would be
only one self-consistent universe allowed. And that has been sort of the holy grail of
physics and we have been pretty successful in showing such things as why snowflakes have
six-sided symmetry, why raindrops are round, why the sky is blue as necessary consequences
of a small number of physical principles.
What has happened in the last ten years or so -- or 15 years is we now believe -- when
I say we I mean most theoretical physicists -- now believe that our universe is just one
of a vast number of universes all with very different physical properties. And all of
these different universes originate from the same fundamental principles. So there's not
one solution to the crossword puzzle. There are many solutions to the crossword puzzles.
In that case there's no possibility of explaining why our universe is a necessary consequence
of the fundamental principles. There are many, many different possibilities. Some of these
other universes might have 17 dimensions. Some of them might have planets and stars
like ours. Others may have just an amorphous field of energy with no planets and stars.
Some of them might allow life like our universe. Some of them may not allow life. And our universe
is just one lucky draw from the hat.
In which case we are accidental. We are an accidental universe. And so the historic mission
of science, and especially physics, to show that we are -- our universe is the unique
result of a certain set of fundamental principles -- that historic mission is no longer feasible.
It's no longer possible. This conclusion makes theoretical physicists extremely unhappy because
it means that a lot of our mission is an illusion. But that may be the way nature is.