cosmologist Lee Smolin and his theory of an evolutionary process involving many, many Universes in a multi-verse

[Multicolored Lemur]

Do Black Holes Create New Universes? Q&A With Physicist Lee Smolin

By arguing that time is real and not an illusion, physicist Lee Smolin suggests that new universes are born inside of black holes with natural laws that evolve in time. How it works…

www.space.com

Smolin: The idea is that the universe evolved in a way which is very analogous to natural selection in a population, say, of bacteria. To do this the universe needs to reproduce itself, and I took over an older idea by John Wheeler and Bryce DeWitt, who were pioneers of quantum gravity. Their idea was that black holes become the seeds of the birth of new universes. [5 Reasons We May Live in a Multiverse]

John Wheeler had already speculated that when this happens, the laws of nature are reborn again, in the new baby universe; he called it reprocessing the universe. What I had to add to this to make it work like a model of natural selection, was that the changes passed form parent to child universe are very slight so there can be an accumulation of fitness. This hypothesis leads to the conclusion that assuming our universe is a typical member of this population of universes as it develops after many, many generations, that the universe is going to be finely tuned to produce many black holes.

And since parent universes which are good at producing black holes will have many more daughter universes,

the baseline odds . . .

is that the universe we see and live in will be excellent at producing black holes!

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

and elsewhere I’ve read

that the existence of stars which produce elements heavier than hydrogen and helium and thus the possibility of life

. . . are mere byproducts.

========

interesting!

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Smolin: The idea is that the universe evolved in a way which is very analogous to natural selection in a population, say, of bacteria. To do this the universe needs to reproduce itself, and I took over an older idea by John Wheeler and Bryce DeWitt, who were pioneers of quantum gravity. Their idea was that black holes become the seeds of the birth of new universes. [5 Reasons We May Live in a Multiverse]

John Wheeler had already speculated that when this happens, the laws of nature are reborn again, in the new baby universe; he called it reprocessing the universe. What I had to add to this to make it work like a model of natural selection, was that the changes passed form parent to child universe are very slight so there can be an accumulation of fitness. This hypothesis leads to the conclusion that assuming our universe is a typical member of this population of universes as it develops after many, many generations, that the universe is going to be finely tuned to produce many black holes.

Interesting theory by Smolin. I've always resisted the idea that natural selection had anything to do with the Universe. I thought that some were elevating the theory of evolution so much that they would apply it beyond its scope (to areas of morality and beyond). As Smolin points out, there are some comparisons to be made, but of course that's far different than saying that natural selection or evolution is the mechanism involved.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

but of course that's far different than saying that natural selection or evolution is the mechanism involved.

well, he says . . .

the changes passed form parent to child universe are very slight

And to me, that’s the gist of evolution.

That we have reproduction which is largely accurate, but not exactly [+ huge time, + an environment that if you adapt to, you’ll leave more offspring]